Tweet Hugo Cabret

Though it's a talkie, the film features Georges Melies as a major character. Here are photographs taken during production of the film:

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011 ... magazine#1

Here is Deadline's comments on screenings over the weekend for the film:

http://www.deadline.com/2011/11/hammond ... pretender/

I just caught a quick teaser ad for the film. Two things bother me:

They've taken an intimate story and blown it up into a piece of spectacle.

There isn't the slightest effort to make the characters sound French- it's distressing to hear a british accent come out of Melies, even if he's played by Ben Kingsley.

For me the book had some magic, but I think "Hugo" is just going to be a nice picture and no more.

FrankFay wrote:

For me the book had some magic, but I think "Hugo" is just going to be a nice picture and no more.

Really? You're worried what Marty Scorsese will do if he gets hold of a movie camera?

FrankFay wrote:

For me the book had some magic, but I think "Hugo" is just going to be a nice picture and no more.

Really? You're worried what Marty Scorsese will do if he gets hold of a movie camera?

I'm not saying it can't be a good movie, but will it capture the tone of the book? I'm not so sure of that.

Scorcese has a fine track record, but a children's fantasy is going pretty far out of his accustomed zone.

All I know is, it's 2011, and two of the major Oscar front runners are a silent film and a loving tribute to Georges Melies and "A Trip to the Moon." Who would have ever, ever thought it possible in a million billion years?

I would only think more good news is to come in the future for silent films
and the non-dialog format of film. Chris Marker's work is a nod in that direction.
And I don't mean becoming more "avant-garde" but art that is accessible to many
people's understandings.

NPR ran a story this afternoon interviewing Martin Scorsese, in which George Melies and his accomplishments were really given their due:
http://www.npr.org/2011/11/18/142508464/cabret

All I know is, it's 2011, and two of the major Oscar front runners are a silent film and a loving tribute to Georges Melies and "A Trip to the Moon." Who would have ever, ever thought it possible in a million billion years?

I agree, sometimes I think we all need to be a little more patient with people for whom silent films aren't "it". I'm thrilled that a children's holiday release film features silent film and Melies at the center of it's plot, that's just wonderful. I mean as it says in the quote - "in a million billion years"!

I am a little skeptical that The Artist will pull in as many newbies to silent film as we would all hope, ditto, the Chaplin 3D project (which I have no problem with - anything to open a mind and start a process); on both counts I hope I'm utterly wrong. I'm just afraid that The Artist will be too much of an "art house" film to pull in people who think "black and white, no talking - pleeezze!" or won't have a wide enough distribution, and that the Chaplin project won't really rope people in more than once, but I really don't care, and I hope I'm compeltely wrong, for me the bigger deal is that people who don't think, care, or even know about silents other than a Youtube parody might actually watch them and come away saying - hey, that wasn't too bad - and who knows... and cudos to all the people thinking outside of the box to make silent film come alive for the techno-generation members.

But a film and a book that have the potential to interest children - well that gives me a lot more hope. My interest in silent film began with Saturday night viewings on our local PBS station and the Disney Channel in the early 1980's. It was a brand of entertainment that beguiled me as a child and my parents didn't mind me staying up past 8 p.m. to watch them - the results didn't bare fruit for many years but eventually the seed germinated. http://kittanningsilents.blogspot.com/

So, I hope that many children will see Hugo, or better yet, read the book, and be interested and inspired to look for and enjoy silent film. Give us a child until he is 6 and we will have him for life - if it worked for the Jesuits, I say, let's hope it works for silent film.

What silents did the Disney Channel show? The oldest stuff I remember seeing on there were Disney shorts and Shirley Temple.

What silents did the Disney Channel show? The oldest stuff I remember seeing on there were Disney shorts and Shirley Temple.

They did a complete film retrospective of Charlie Chaplin, these were on Saturday evenings, I was 9 or 10 years old so about 1985/86, and they showed them with little introductions or quasi documentaries and then complete, I remember watching Shoulder Arms, The Kid, many shorts, etc. Unless I've dreamed it up...but that's what I remember, it was a revelation for me, and began my love of silent film.

[silentfilm]

Time's Richard Corliss is going to give Hugo a rave review in this week's issue.

http://www.awardsdaily.com/2011/11/times-richard-corliss-on-hugo-a-masterpiece/

Here's a story from today's LA Times about Scorsese and the film. The author ses the film as a love letter to the creation of the film medium as well as bringing to life Scorsese's interestes in film preservation and history.

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/ne ... 0639.story

Roger Ebert's review

It was reviewed on NPR this morning:
http://www.npr.org/2011/11/22/142641758 ... big-screen

The reviewer says that some parts are magic but not everything works, primarily the comic elements which have been added to the story.


I'll see it sometime but the british accents are still throwing me off. It's supposed to be Paris- right?

It was reviewed on NPR this morning:
http://www.npr.org/2011/11/22/142641758 ... big-screen" target="_blank" target="_blank

The reviewer says that some parts are magic but not everything works, primarily the comic elements which have been added to the story.


I'll see it sometime but the british accents are still throwing me off. It's supposed to be Paris- right?

Dunno. I'd rather not hear them speaking in zee phonee Frrrrrrench accent.

It was reviewed on NPR this morning:
http://www.npr.org/2011/11/22/142641758 ... big-screen" target="_blank" target="_blank" target="_blank

The reviewer says that some parts are magic but not everything works, primarily the comic elements which have been added to the story.


I'll see it sometime but the british accents are still throwing me off. It's supposed to be Paris- right?

Dunno. I'd rather not hear them speaking in zee phonee Frrrrrrench accent.

Aren't there French actors available? To me it sounds as if the movie was run through a Harry Potter translator.

[Mike Gebert]

Gee, that sounds terrible, box office wise...

It was reviewed on NPR this morning:
http://www.npr.org/2011/11/22/142641758 ... big-screen" target="_blank

The reviewer says that some parts are magic but not everything works, primarily the comic elements which have been added to the story.


I'll see it sometime but the british accents are still throwing me off. It's supposed to be Paris- right?

But French people in Paris don't speak to each other in English with French accents, they speak French. It's a movie, it's not real life. Would it bother you if they spoke with American accents instead?

Early reviews of talkies sometimes made a similar complaint, but it seems that they pretty quickly established the convention (as had always been done on stage) of just going with English for American or English productions. Would you rather have had everyone in Garbo's Camille putting on French accents? I think that would have been incredibly annoying.

Since he seems to have cast all British actors for whatever reason (ok, major reason--Ben Kingsley), i'd as soon they speak in their natural voices. And, actually, many Europeans speak English with an English accent.

greta

It's just a minor complaint, but I'm sticking with it.

Here's an interview in today's LA Times with Brian Selznick, author of The Invention of Hugo Cabret, which HUGO is based on. He describes how the visual storytelling of film influenced him in creating the work, as well as how Scorsese took off on that. There is also mention of his new book, which is also highly told through visuals, which includes deaf characters.
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/ne ... ?track=rss

I don't really know too much about the book or film and I've been mostly disappointed with Scorsese's output since "Casino". I saw a preview for the film today on TCM and it seems like material more traditionally in the Spielberg vein. However, it has received good reviews and, like "The Artist", might bring some interest from the general public in silent films. Some of the content apparently involves the films of George Melies and Harold Lloyd. Unfortunately, the uninitiated will be able to find DVD collections of Melies existing films, but little of the Lloyd canon now that the Harold Lloyd Collection is out of print. Perhaps blu ray releases are in the works - I hope so - but the timing is, as I said, unfortunate.

This is an excellent film. A good representation of Melies life and work, with the fictional element added to interest the modern audience.

I saw the 2D version. It's great.

Lots of clips of Melies' films of course, and there's Harold Lloyd on the clock, Buster Keaton on the General, and Louise Brooks in Pandora. Posters for Judex, Fantomas, and others.

It has one flaw... For all the silent films they reference, they never say that these films are available today on DVD. I would have liked to see a note just before the end credits... the audience will be full of people who don't know that.

I don't really know too much about the book or film and I've been mostly disappointed with Scorsese's output since "Casino". I saw a preview for the film today on TCM and it seems like material more traditionally in the Spielberg vein. However, it has received good reviews and, like "The Artist", might bring some interest from the general public in silent films. Some of the content apparently involves the films of George Melies and Harold Lloyd. Unfortunately, the uninitiated will be able to find DVD collections of Melies existing films, but little of the Lloyd canon now that the Harold Lloyd Collection is out of print. Perhaps blu ray releases are in the works - I hope so - but the timing is, as I said, unfortunate.

The Harold Lloyd Comedy Collection is still available new for less than MSRP at Amazon, shipment fulfilled by Amazon.

I saw the film this evening, and it really is a love letter to the movies in general, and silent film in particular. I was afraid that I might be in for an evening of Spielbergian techno-schlock, but I found the film absorbing, enchanting, and moving. Scorsese has filled the film with footage and allusions to silent film (the Lumieres, Edison, Lloyd, Keaton, Griffith, Chaplin, Louise Brooks, Harry Carey, among others) as well as to other classic cinema (Rear Window and Vertigo come to mind). I couldn't help but smile when Ben Kingsley places a Maltese Cross on the film projector he's building, and was it just me, or did the automaton somewhat resemble the robot in Metropolis, as well as the Buddha? I'm not sure how the film will play for general audiences, but I had a marvelous time.

I just saw HUGO at a 3/4-full mall screening. It was 3D (Sony 4K projector) and looked spectacular--really fun use of the format. Like everything Scorsese's done since GOODFELLAS (except SHUTTER ISLAND), it's too long. But it's thoroughly charming, with terrific performances by all involved.

It's not for very young children--the ones seated near me were fidgety--but I'd guess it's OK for ages 8 or so on up through adults, including old goats like myself.

I read and loved the book when it first came out and am very eager to see the film. It sounds like Scorsese got it right from everything I've read. If people find their way to more silents as a result it will be wonderful. As far as people speaking with an English accent vs. French, there's plenty of precedent from David Suchet to Peter Sellers to Maurice Chevalier.

I think David Suchet does a very decent French accent. He's one of those actors who seems to have spent his whole career assuming accents.

Just watched BEN-HUR, and I'll be damned if everyone wasn't speaking English. Completely took me right out of the story.

Just watched BEN-HUR, and I'll be damned if everyone wasn't speaking English. Completely took me right out of the story.

I'll see the film some time, I'm sure it's very nice. I have nothing to say against Scorsese- he's a good guy but I've never seen any of his pictures except in clips. They're just not the kind of pictures I watch, no matter who made them or who is in them. I know that some people will be left gasping in shock by this statement and I suppose I'll have to surrender my film fan card (Damn it, one more punch and I can get a free small popcorn)