The kids will love it too
Hugo is a technical marvel. Martin Scorsese, the godfather of American crime films, tries his hand at a family film with a fantastical element this time, and makes it a visual extravaganza unlike any other. The first shot of the film shows the inner workings of a clock, and before you realise it, the Paris landscape appears right before your eyes. From there on, you remain transfixed by the imagery, a lot of which leaves you open-mouthed.
Based on Brian Selznick’s historical fiction novel, The Invention Of Hugo Cabret, the film is about 12-year-old Hugo, living at a train station, stealing food and staying away from the prying eyes of the station master who would give Hugo away to an orphanage if he ever caught him. Hugo befriends the god-daughter of the toy shop owner at the station, and lets her in on a secret: he has kept hidden away an automaton — a mechanical man — given to him by his now-deceased father, who was a clockmaker. Hugo, blessed with the talent of his father, works towards repairing the now-defunct automaton with single-minded dedication; he feels his loneliness will vanish once the doll comes to life. What the two kids discover in the process, though, is far greater.
Like The Artist, Hugo pays tribute to cinema — the film’s main inspiration being the life of illusionist and visionary French filmmaker George Melies, who created the automaton, and many of whose films have been lost in oblivion. Scorsese, apart from being one of the most influential filmmaking voices over the last half-century, has devoted the larger part of his life to restoring forgotten classics. In that sense, Scorsese has given to cinema more than what he’s taken, his love for the movies apparent in his passion to save many gems. Hugo, then, would have been his pet project, and one that few filmmakers other than Scorsese could have done justice to.
The film is the most nominated one at the 2012 Oscars — it has 11 nominations in all — and it deserves to win many of the technical ones, especially art direction and cinematography. Even though Hugo will likely be upstaged by The Artist in the Best Picture and Best Director categories, the film is a fitting addition to Scorsese’s prolific filmography.
Hugo is a technical marvel. Martin Scorsese, the godfather of American crime films, tries his hand at a family film with a fantastical element this time, and makes it a visual extravaganza unlike any other. The first shot of the film shows the inner workings of a clock, and before you realise it, the Paris landscape appears right before your eyes. From there on, you remain transfixed by the imagery, a lot of which leaves you open-mouthed.
Based on Brian Selznick’s historical fiction novel, The Invention Of Hugo Cabret, the film is about 12-year-old Hugo, living at a train station, stealing food and staying away from the prying eyes of the station master who would give Hugo away to an orphanage if he ever caught him. Hugo befriends the god-daughter of the toy shop owner at the station, and lets her in on a secret: he has kept hidden away an automaton — a mechanical man — given to him by his now-deceased father, who was a clockmaker. Hugo, blessed with the talent of his father, works towards repairing the now-defunct automaton with single-minded dedication; he feels his loneliness will vanish once the doll comes to life. What the two kids discover in the process, though, is far greater.
Like The Artist, Hugo pays tribute to cinema — the film’s main inspiration being the life of illusionist and visionary French filmmaker George Melies, who created the automaton, and many of whose films have been lost in oblivion. Scorsese, apart from being one of the most influential filmmaking voices over the last half-century, has devoted the larger part of his life to restoring forgotten classics. In that sense, Scorsese has given to cinema more than what he’s taken, his love for the movies apparent in his passion to save many gems. Hugo, then, would have been his pet project, and one that few filmmakers other than Scorsese could have done justice to.
The film is the most nominated one at the 2012 Oscars — it has 11 nominations in all — and it deserves to win many of the technical ones, especially art direction and cinematography. Even though Hugo will likely be upstaged by The Artist in the Best Picture and Best Director categories, the film is a fitting addition to Scorsese’s prolific filmography.
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