Dreaming at 24 Frames Per Second

Movies: Hugo

Hugo is Martin Scorsese's love letter to film, and what a joyous, beautiful film it is. Based on Brian Selznick's book, the film follows the titular Hugo Cabret (played by adorable and talented newcomer, Asa Butterfield), an orphan in early 1930's Paris who, after his father dies and alcoholic uncle abandons him, keeps the clocks running in a train station and steals food from the shops at the station. He also steals knick knacks and small pieces of machinery that he uses to repair an automaton (a small robot) that his father found in a museum. The automaton (which is able to write out messages when wound up) is Hugo's last connection to his father and therefore very important and dear to him.



In his attempts to steal small parts to fix the robot, Hugo is caught by an old man (Ben Kingsley) who runs a toy shop in the train station. He takes Hugo's notebook, filled with drawings of the automaton, and makes Hugo clean and repair broken toys for him to earn the notebook back. Hugo makes friends with the man's goddaughter, Isabelle (Chloe Grace Moretz, aka Hit Girl from Kick Ass), who is also an orphan. The two work together to find out why "Papa George"--Isabelle's godfather--is so obsessed with Hugo's notebook.

Potential spoiler: It turns out that Papa George is actually George Melies, one of the earliest filmmakers and pioneer of the art of filmmaking. Melies, a prolific director in the early 1900's, lived to see his life's work and dreams destroyed during the Great War--a time so lean, that Melies was forced to sell his film reels to factories that melted the film down in order to make shoes.

Hugo and Isabelle dredge up a painful past that Melies has long kept buried (the automaton turns out to be an early invention Melies worked on before giving it to a museum). Of course, once the children convince Papa George that his work is still loved and valued, the old man realizes that he cannot and should not avoid his past, despite the painful memories. At the end of the film, Melies has adopted Hugo and hosts a film festival of his restored classics.

Despite the PG rating and neat and tidy happy ending, Hugo is not just a movie for kids. In fact, the gravity, leisurely pace, and tangents into film history make it more appropriate for cinephile teens and adults. As someone who fell in love with movies at a tender age (I remember watching City Lights and Annie Hall in middle school and never looking back), Hugo really meant something to me. There is a scene where Hugo and Isabelle visit a library and read a book called "The Invention of Dreams" about the early history of cinema. As they flip through the pages, the strains of "Danse Macabre" play to images of Chaplin, Keaton, Lloyd, the Lumiere brothers--all the greats of early 20th century cinema. It's a breathtaking and deeply emotional scene that pays tribute to film as an art form and part of history.

In Hugo, Melies says at the end, "Come dream with me". I suspect that if you read this blog, you are also a movie lover. Hugo will remind you why you fell in love with seeing your dreams come true on the big screen.

4.5 out of 5 stars