Hugo (2011) is totally different from any films that Martin Scorsese has ever made, and yet possibly closest to Scorsese’s heart, the passionate towards film history and preservation of old films for the future generations. The film Hugo is not just telling the story of an orphan who lives behind the walls of the Paris train station, but also telling a story of a filmmaker’s life, George Melies. The film started with a boy named Hugo Cabret, who searched so hard to find a secret message from his father and how that message lit his way to George Melies. The aspect of the film is like a movie within a movie. Instead of making a documentary film for George Melies, Scorsese create this movie based on the book- The Invention of Hugo Cabret, letting Hugo take the lead to Melies, make Melies accept and remember his past as a talented filmmaker. This also shows the intention of Scorsese, bringing young generations to the history of early film. According to Chris Tookey, an award-winning English film critic, he said: “Unlike most 3D movies, Hugo was shot using 3D not as a money-making gimmick but as a storytelling device, to add height, depth, humor and intensity.” (Tookey, 2011)
The mise-en-scene of the film constructs and enhances the narration by applying the right elements- setting, props, costume and make up, lighting and performance, to the film.
The first element of the mise-en-scene is setting, where the background of the film is set at Paris and the Parisian train station covered most of the scenes in the film, where Hugo lives a secret life like the Phantom of the Opera, and it is also where he meets people like George Melies and Isabelle.
Secondly, props that are used in the film. The story begins with the automaton that Hugo’s father brought home. After Hugo’s father died, Hugo tries so hard to fix the automaton, hoping to know the secret message from his father. Because of that automaton, it leads Hugo to Melies and also brings him a home in the end. At the end of the film, it ends with the automaton sitting on a desk. Besides that, props that are used for George Melies films, enhances the storytelling about Melies. For example, Melies’s camera that created from the extra parts from the automaton.
Thirdly, the costume and make up in the film. For the costume, other than white, brown and black color which are common during that era, they use autochrome colors (red-orange, green and blue) on the characters’ clothes, which the idea comes from the colored films of George Melies’s that were painted with autochrome colors. For example, the blue and red-orange stripes on Hugo’s clothes. Other than the colors on the character’s clothes, the stripes on the Hugo and Isabelle’s clothes are like the prisoner’s clothes, showing how much freedom they have. Hugo has the fewer stripes than Isabelle, although he lives is like rat in the train station but he has more exciting experience than Isabelle who likes adventures but never once participated, until she met Hugo.
The fourth one is the lighting that is used in the film. Hard lighting is used to produce an appearance of clarity and sharpness of the characters and sets. To present better storytelling about George Melies and to get inspiration of translating the book’s images into color and put them into the 3D film, the Oscar-winning cinematographer Bob Richardsont who took part in the production of Hugo, studied the films of George Melies and his contemporaries of both in cinema and still photography to get the best color correction for the film. In the end, cold colors like blue or blue-violet are mostly used in the film.
The last element of mise-en-scene is the performance. 3D actually enhances the performance, as it brings the audience closer to the characters and it also influences the audience’s emotion and the direction of the performance.
As for the cinematography part, it includes editing, sound, and camera movement and shots. Editing is not just to create continuity, but also convey meaning of the scenes. For example, at the beginning of the film, mechanical parts of a clock are shown and it then the scene slowly dissolves to the center of Paris. This is to ask the audience to imagine the whole world is like a big machine, perhaps a big clock, built with important parts to make it keep ticking and as time goes by, things will change. Other than that, shallow effect is used for most of the scenes in the train station, as the place always crowded with passengers. For example, the scene when Isabelle is chasing for Hugo, she is in the middle of the crowd, and the crowd is blurred out. As for the sound of the film, instrumental music is used, as during that time, only opera songs and instrumental music are available. Exciting instrumental music is played as the background sound, when there is a scene which the train running towards Hugo. Other than music, the language spoken in the film is mixed with a little bit of French like “Monsieur”, “Madame” and so on. And the usage of words is very much abstruse, which are often found in Isabelle’s talk. For the camera shots, one of the scenes, medium shot is used to show the action and emotion of anger and disappointment of Hugo when he thought the Automaton break down. Close up shot on Melies, when his eyes look unbelievable when Hugo able to fix the toy mouse.
The overall film shows a fascinating history of early cinema, which is joyful and infectious. The performance, props and setting are used effectively to tell the story of the filmmaker, George Melies. The editing part, camera movements and angles are also done perfectly as the scenes are linked nicely, giving the continuity of the storytelling. Lastly, there are some scenes that Scorsese paid tributes to the work of the Lumiere brothers and George Melies. For example the train scene in Hugo, able to link to the first film of Lumiere brothers which people were amazed when the train running towards the screen.
Reference:
Lenos,M., & Ryan,M. (2012) An Introduction to Film Analysis. New York: The Continuum International Publishing Group Inc.
Dargis, M. (2011). Inventing a World, Just Like Clockwork. Retrieved July 16, 2014 from source: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/23/movies/martin-scorseses-hugo-with-ben-kingsley-and-sacha-baron-cohen-review.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
Denby, D. (2011). Fantastic Voyages. Retrieved July 16, 2014 from source: http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/cinema/2011/11/28/111128crci_cinema_denby?currentPage=all
Seymoure, M.(2011). Hugo: a study of modern inventive visual effects. Retrieved July 16, 2014 from source: http://www.fxguide.com/featured/hugo-a-study-of-modern-inventive-visual-effects/
Tookey, C. (2011). Scorsese’s First Family Movie is pure 3D Magic. Retrieved July 16, 2014 from source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/reviews/article-2067415/Hugo-film-review-Martin-Scorseses-family-movie-pure-3D-magic.html
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