Hugo

"3.5 stars out of 4"

Well, this is embarrassing...to have seen Hugo well after it has been released…even after seeing the likes of Raging Bull and King of Comedy! At least, I could’ve justified seeing those with the fact that I wasn’t even born when they were released…but this…there is just no excuses!

This film is beautifully made…just like a poem. What caught my eye while watching it was its editing, which I believe is the work of Thelma Schoonmaker, who Marty have trusted since the making of Raging Bull (of course their first collaboration goes back to the making of Who's That Knocking at My Door), for which she has the Oscar for outstanding editing…let me check just to make sure...yup, she's the one! I was watching one of the interviews on Scorsese, where they interviewed the people who have collaborated with him and she was saying how the credit for she winning the Oscar for Raging Bull should go to Marty, as he was present in the editing room every step of the way (and even sleeping there at nights, as far as I can remember!). The reason why he has given the responsibility of the editing of his films to her probably lies in she being able to envision his vision (in his head) into the screen. Of course, he's admitted to the fact that he never watches his own films once they're done, but he doesn't need to as everyone else praises his work and he can rest assured that he has done what he had needed to.

Sacha Barron Cohen has turned into one of the delightful additions to different movies…the salt of every movie if you may, the way Sharifinia was in Iranian movies! Of course, he (Sharifinia) has turned into a despicable figure in Iran with his political stance and views. I am one of the critics of combining the personality of celebrities with their work...what I mean is, I believe that the work of an artist should be considered independent of his/her personality. But at the same time, I believe celebrities should feel responsible towards their power in manipulating the minds of the public, especially that of the youth. Also, there is no harm in respecting the request of the majority of people. So, I am obliged to blame him as well in acting the way he has.

What I find interesting in the movies coming out of Hollywood where the story is taking place in a foreign land, is how they use British accents as opposed to American, like British English is a whole other language. This goes back as far as the Sound of Music (of the ones that I can recall right now). But at the same time I think I understand how the person who first came up with this idea is thinking. Take me for example. Sometimes when I want to speak English, I would use Persian words subconsciously and vice versa! Just because both are foreign to me.
Of course, this way (using British accents) is at least better than the ones with the accent country, where the movie is based, speaking French for example!

There is no point in me writing an actual review on the movie as everyone knows by now how good it was and how it was a tribute to Mieles. This movie is as much a tribute to Scorsese, as it is to Mieles, for he is the one respecting the history as much as believing in building its future, to have involved himself in restoration. Time hasn’t been kind to old movies but he has. We are forever in debt for his contributions to this wondrous industry.

No other film maker has respected the history of movies and kept them holy as Scorsese. Film is his passion. In the same interview they talk about how he remembers the details of the movies, especially the name of the director, for he is the "god" in a movie (as Hitchcock had once said).

He has played small roles in his own movies (probably taken that after Hitchcock!), but in this one he played the part of the photographer in the theater as if he wanted to be a part of Mieles’s life.
Catch the complete interview here.

The movie began for me mid-way, when delightfully Scorsese began to go over the first movies ever made…a rush of joy and warmth ran through my body. No other scene could’ve made me feel like that, seeing where the journey began…where things close to my heart came from. The amount of emotion that it builds up…is unimaginable. This is how you make a MOVIE. “It’s like having dreams in the middle of the day”.
I had recently written about Under the Tuscan sun and said how probably the director had gone to Italy and wanted to write about her adventure there (and what a disaster it had turned out to be!). But only a visionary like Scorsese could pick up a movie history book and direct “poetry”. It was...it was a live action-animation!

I first read about melies in a TOEFL reading, back when I was preparing myself for the exam, but it wasn’t until Hugo that I was able to appreciate his work. It also at least answered one of my childhood questions, that how without visual effects they were able to move magically from one scene to another!