Agenda Movie Club: Hugo

Hugo

Martin Scorsese

2011

Such a lame trailer for such a lovely movie.

It’s true that I almost skipped this one because of the trailer… I still had some hope, I couldn’t conceive of Martin Scorsese making a movie that was as cringe-inducing as that trailer made it look (the dog covering its eyes in embarrassment? That’s how I felt). BUT, it’s happened before that I’ve seen a movie that was done no favors by its trailer (Three Kings, most memorably), and then I found out what the movie was REALLY about.

And… now I kind of wish I hadn’t known what the movie was about going in. Because, for me, it took a while for the movie to get going because I knew what was coming. I feel like I was kind of just waiting around for the Méliès fetishizing.

But none of that is fair. How was the movie? Delightful. Such a joy, especially for someone who loves movies. During the short montage when the children were looking through the movie history book, I was excited and surprised to (film snob moment!) see how many of the movies I knew and had seen before (most of them!). The Lumières, Méliès, Griffith, Keaton… I wanted to watch them all again.

I’m glad the station inspector ended up being a sympathetic character, I was worried he would be a caricature. He was not. And that’s another thing– I was not expecting, though I really appreciated, the acknowledgement of the impact World War I had on all of Europe, and even on something like the film industry (it turns out it is true that much of the Méliès canon was melted down to extract the silver and to make boot heels).

I loved the nod to the photo of the train falling out of Gare Montparnasse.

Has anyone read the book this is based on? How much did Scorsese pump up the early film stuff? Was that still pretty much the focus it was in the movie? I guess it might have to be, but I know how crazy Scorsese is about film history.

Anyway, this movie was absolutely worth my time. I’m glad I went.

At what point does someone make a movie about Oscar Micheaux?