FILM REVIEW: HUGO

Hugo Cabret (Asa Butterfield) in Hugo.

Train in vein

By Don Simpson

Hugo, director Martin Scorsese’s virginal foray into 3D cinema, begins with one fantastic flaunting of the third dimension, utilizing a long tracking shot that squeezes through the narrow tunnels and crowded platforms of a 1930s Parisian train station. (Brian Selznick’s source novel The Invention of Hugo Cabret takes place in 1931 whereas Scorsese’s film is not dated.) Unfortunately, this is a cinematic sequence that could only possibly take place in the mostly artificial realm of CGI, and to my discerning eye it appears unbelievably fake. In theory, it is a worthwhile attempt as Scorsese proves that he truly understands how scenes need to be framed in order to take full advantage of the 3D medium. If only he could have confined the entirety of Hugo to crowded confines, and kept the scenes somewhat grounded in the reality of actual locations rather than a CGI stage.

For the most part, I was pretty annoyed and frustrated by the 3D lensing. Not only does the technology render the images darker and softer than 2D images, but it also makes everything appear so damn artificial (during certain scenes Hugo actually looks eerily similar to The Polar Express, which is not a compliment). ).

Now, on with the story… Is it just me, or does almost every children’s fantasy/adventure film feature orphan protagonists? The titular Hugo Cabret (Asa Butterfield) is no exception. The prepubescent Hugo is left to clandestinely tend to a complicated system of clocks at the aforementioned Parisian train station after his father (Jude Law) dies and his uncle (Ray Winstone) disappears. An ever-vigilant station inspector (Sacha Baron Cohen) has made it his life’s mission to roundup all of the orphans he can find and ship them to the orphanage; so Oliver, I mean Hugo, must remain one step ahead of him at all times.

In a feeble attempt to reconnect with his father, Hugo attempts to rebuild an automaton with spare toy and clock parts. Unfortunately, a nasty old curmudgeon (Ben Kingsley) who tends a toy shop in the station snatches Hugo’s notebook which contains his father’s notes on how to fix the automaton. Hugo desperately enlists the assistance of Isabelle (Chloe Grace Moretz), a precocious young bookworm with bright eyes and a glowing smile — and she is the goddaughter of the old man — to win his notebook back.

The conniving young duo are quickly distracted from their original mission as Hugo takes Isabelle to see her first film — Harold Lloyd’s Safety Last — and Isabelle brings Hugo to a library for his first time. Their two adventuresome interests fatefully collide when they come across a book entitled The Invention of Dreams: The Story of the First Movies Ever Made, and this book provides them with clues regarding the true identity of Georges Méliès. (This is around where Hugo suddenly makes a sharp left turn from a kids’ adventure story to a pseudo-bio-pic about Méliès.) Isabelle and Hugo join forces with the book’s author, René Tabard (Michael Stuhlbarg), to bring Méliès out from the shadows.

Unless you are a connoisseur of early silent films, you are probably wondering who the heck this Méliès character is… Well, in short, Méliès was the first to recognize the connection between the cinema and dreams. This is the man who is often credited with originating the science fiction, fantasy and horror genres of cinema. Méliès came from a family of shoemakers, but he sold his share of the shoe factory to begin a career as a magician. The invention of the movies in France by the Lumière brothers prompted Méliès to build his own film camera out of parts from an automaton. He directed 531 films between 1896 and 1914, ranging in length from one to 40 minutes. What Méliès films lacked in plot, they made up for in the cinematic magic of groundbreaking special effects (not unlike a lot of Hollywood blockbusters today, and not unlike Hugo).

Contrary to what Hugo will have us believe, Méliès was never presumed dead during World War I; he stopped making films in 1913 after being forced into bankruptcy by much larger French and American studios (Méliès’ production company was bought out of receivership by Pathé Frères). The celluloid of his films did not become the heels of women’s shoes, but the French Army did seize most of Méliès’ film stock to be melted down into boot heels during World War I. However, there are some truths about Méliès in Hugo such as he did become a toy salesman at a Parisian train station and did collect automata.

I certainly appreciate Scorsese’s hero worship of Méliès and Hugo may actually have a better chance of turning audiences on to silent films than The Artist. But is this the film everyone is expecting Hugo to be? Hugo is being marketed as a children’s adventure story, not a lesson on film history and a diatribe about the importance of film preservation. Even Scorsese the magician leads us to believe that Hugo is the former, until he unveils the latter, thus pulling a Méliès-esque trick by making so many seemingly important threads of the first half of the narrative disappear before our very eyes. Poof!

I was also very confused by Scorsese’s decision to have all of the French characters speak in British accents. I guess the language and dialect of Hugo is just another directorial magic trick.

FILM REVIEW: CAMERAMAN JACK CARDIFF

A scene from Cameraman: The Life and Work of Jack Cardiff.

Lighting the ways

By Don Simpson

Jack Cardiff’s work in cinema spanned nine decades, starting as an actor in My Son, My Son (1918) and ending his career as visual effects coordinator and art director on Silence Becomes You (2005). Cardiff began working as clapper boy and assistant camera in 1929. By 1935 Cardiff became a camera operator and by 1938 he was a full-fledged cinematographer. In 1948, Cardiff won his first Oscar for his Technicolor cinematography on Black Narcissus; 43 years later, Cardiff became the first cinematographer ever presented with an Honorary Oscar for “exceptional distinction in lifetime achievement; exceptional contributions to the state of motion picture arts and sciences; and for outstanding services to the Academy."

In his documentary, Cameraman: The Life and Work of Jack Cardiff, director Craig McCall allows Cardiff -- who died on April 22, 2009 -- to tell much of his own story. Cardiff explains how he helped elevate cinematography to an art form with his unique vision and technical wizardry in Black Narcissus, The Red Shoes, Scott of the Antarctic, The African Queen, The Vikings...and the list goes on. Cardiff’s biography finds itself fatefully intertwined with the history of Technicolor, particularly Technicolor Europe and Technicolor in the UK. While Hollywood mainly reserved the use of Technicolor film for musicals and large outdoor productions, British filmmakers -- especially Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger -- utilized Technicolor much differently, thanks in no small part to Cardiff’s keen kino eye.

But who gives a hoot about the art of cinematography? So, Cardiff also gives the audience what he suspects they really want, tales about what it was like to work with Cinema’s greatest icons: Marlene Dietrich, Marilyn Monroe, Audrey Hepburn, Humphrey Bogart, Kirk Douglas and Sophia Loren.

McCall calls upon Martin Scorsese to explain to the audience why Cardiff’s films are so important in the context of the history of cinema while illustrating how Cardiff’s oeuvre not only influenced his own vision, but his peers, like Brian DePalma, Francis Ford Coppola as well. McCall sporadically turns to Douglas and Charlton Heston for additional support.

As the saying goes, a picture speaks a thousand words; and the most moving sections of Cameraman: The Life and Work of Jack Cardiff occur when the pontificating stops and the stunning High Definition clips from Cardiff’s resume are able to speak, albeit visually, for themselves. If anything, Cameraman: The Life and Work of Jack Cardiff gave me the urge to seek out more of Cardiff’s work (especially his directorial efforts) and re-watch (on the largest screen if possible) the films that I have already seen from his resume, namely A Matter of Life & Death, Black Narcissus, The Red Shoes, The African Queen and War & Peace. However, I will gladly forgo another viewing of Rambo: First Blood Part II.