Unofficial Academy Awards Discussion Board

Mister Tee wrote:When the camera came to its final rest on the automaton, and I knew the fade-out of Hugo was to follow, I found myself inwardly screaming, No! Give me more beautiful pictures!

I just found this film breathtakingly beautiful. Extraordinary sets (I can't think of any design in recent decades to match it), amazing use of 3-D, and tracking shots till the cows came home. For me, much of this was cinematic bliss. and as vital a directorial achievement as Malick's in Tree of Life -- albeit with far slighter content.

I did have narrative problems with the film, as many here have talked about – though mine may have been different: for me, they emerged more in the latter portion. I was completely with the film up until the visit to the library, when suddenly the story stopped for a Brief History of Cinema, and I thought the film wobbled structurally from there to the end (though it had many moving moments along the way).

I thought these problems arose for two reasons: first, Scorsese/Logan fail to do what the makers of Moneyball did -- find the universal element that transcends what for some is an arcane subject. I’m sure the reason is largely that, for Scorsese. it's self-evident Melies is to be revered for his cinematic achievements. Many of us, though, might instead look at what’s put on the screen and say, Cool pictures, but way corny, and very last century. The fact that we KNOW film preservation is Scorsese’s life bugaboo only heightens the sense that he’s working out something private/parochial in this part of the film.

The second reason I found this narrative shift jarring was, I didn’t see how it completed the story Hugo had initiated. The lesson of Melies seems to be that we need to appreciate the efforts of our forebears, understand their contributions however retro they may seem to us now, not let them fade into forgetfulness. But Hugo wasn’t someone who needed that lesson; he’d been if anything over-zealous in wanting to keep in touch with his father and whatever legacy he’d left. I think there was a way to make these two stories cohere – themes seem to hover around the edges waiting to be blended in just the right way -- but Logan didn’t achieve it, and Scorsese didn’t push him to make it happen. (Structural strength has never been Scorsese’s forte. Way back in the beginning, I was at a Q&A after the Chicago Film Festival screening of Mean Streets, and someone asked him why a certain rather random moment was in the film. His answer was, It’s just part of the general craziness – which tells me he’s always been a from-the-gut creator. You can argue this reliance on instinct has made some of his films greater, and I might agree – but I’ll also contend that Raging Bull suffers from a meandering last half hour, GoodFellas (which had been as tight as any of his films as I’d ever seen) goes slack after the Lufthansa heist, and Age of Innocence has an epilogue that seems to take an eternity, so the approach has hurt his work, as well)

Anyway, back to first principles: whatever my difficulties with the storyline, they weren’t enough gto spoil my vast overall pleasure. I found this film such a marvel in visual terms that I’m very happy to have seen it, and will be grateful for any Oscar attention it receives.

Mister Tee wrote
The second reason I found this narrative shift jarring was, I didn’t see how it completed the story Hugo had initiated. The lesson of Melies seems to be that we need to appreciate the efforts of our forebears, understand their contributions however retro they may seem to us now, not let them fade into forgetfulness. But Hugo wasn’t someone who needed that lesson; he’d been if anything over-zealous in wanting to keep in touch with his father and whatever legacy he’d left. I think there was a way to make these two stories cohere – themes seem to hover around the edges waiting to be blended in just the right way -- but Logan didn’t achieve it, and Scorsese didn’t push him to make it happen.

Sabin wrote:I think the visual effects that 3D work would be heralded as astonishing no matter who did it though provided it looked this good.