4/23/2025

Springtime in Paris - Hugo

One day early again, here's my post for the Springtime in Paris event that Erin from Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs and Lisa from Boondock Ramblings have on their blogs this spring.
Today's movie is "Hugo" from 2011 which goes well with my silent movie of last week. You'll see why.


Hugo Cabret is a young orphan living behind the clocks in Gare Montparnasse, a big railway station in Paris.
His father died in a fire at the museum he worked at, so Hugo's alcoholic uncle has taken him in to train him how to maintain the station clocks. When the uncle disappears, Hugo works on the clocks alone trying to avoid the station inspector who is always on the lookout for orphans to send them to the orphanage.
All Hugo has left from his father is a broken automaton, a writing man that no one at the museum had wanted and that he and Hugo tried to fix, and his notebook with notes on the automaton.
Hugo takes toys from the little toy and candy shop in the station and uses the parts from them trying to fix the automaton by himself because he believes it will give him a message from his father. An important part missing is a heart shaped key to wind it up.

When Georges, the shopkeeper, catches Hugo, he takes the notebook from him. Hoping she will be able to help him getting it back, Hugo meets with Isabelle, Georges' goddaughter, who advises him to demand the notebook back. Georges agrees to give it back eventually if Hugo works for him to pay back for what he has taken from the shop.
Hugo and Isabelle become friends and he shows her the automaton when he notices the heart shaped key on her necklace. When they activate it, it doesn't write, but draws a picture of a space capsule hitting the eye of the man in the moon which is a scene from "A Trip to the Moon" by Georges Méliès - Isabelle's godfather!

To find out more, the children go to the Film Academy Library where they meet René Tabard, a film expert, who is delighted to hear that Méliès is still alive.
They invite him to Georges' apartment where they watch "A Trip to the Moon" with Georges' wife Jeanne who has acted in a lot of his films. When her husband comes into the room, he gets lost in memories and mentions the automaton he has built.
Hugo runs to the station to fetch the automaton. He's held up by the station inspector who has learned that Hugo's uncle is dead and wants to take him to the orphanage. Hugo escapes, but drops the automaton on the tracks. The inspector saves him when he jumps on the tracks to retrieve it.
Now Georges arrives and claims that Hugo belongs with him.
In the end, Georges becomes a professor at the Academy and they celebrate, then you see Isabelle starting to write down Hugo's story.

If you read last week's post about "A Trip to the Moon" and Méliès, you'll know how fascinating I think he was, and how sad it was that he ended up the way he did, in poverty.
You could feel this movie was made by a fan of this work and the history of film making. In the Making Of, you could also  tell that from the way Scorsese spoke about it.

But I didn't like it. My head could appreciate the technology going into it, the details of the pictures for example in the clock, the little Easter eggs in the film. My favorite was the automaton because I think automatons are absolutely wonderful in the truest sense, they are works of wonder to me, an utterly unmechanical person.
No matter, though, how many people - people I know, critics, award juries - tell me how magical this film is, that magic didn't work on me.
Deep breath - I found it boring and the acting rather stiff at times. Sorry, can't help it. I liked some of the components, but brought together it didn't do anything for me. I got more excited about the Méliès documentaries I have seen before or the videos I listed in the sources of the last post. I even found the Making Of more interesting than the film itself.
Also, there's only so much French accordion music I can listen to.
And yes, I was disappointed because I had absolutely expected to be enchanted.

Oh well, win some, lose some, right?

Has anyone read the book, by the way? If so, how did you like it?

10 comments:

  1. Oh no!! I am so sorry that you didn't like this one!!! :( But like you said, I guess you win some and lose some. Lol. I wasn't a fan of Chloe Moretz-Grace in this but I did like everyone else's performances. I do think that it showed a great love of Melies as well. I had never heard of him until this movie!

    Billy has read the book! He is a big fan of both the book and movie, and says that the book goes more in depth than the movie, as usual.

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    1. No worries! It's not the first movie fail in my life, I got worse 😉 Actually it was Moretz-Grace whom I liked least.

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    2. Yeah her performance was overly done, and reminded me of a high school play performance or something.

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  2. I haven't seen this movie but did enjoy your take on it - it's almost always more interesting to read about a movie/book/etc. that someone didn't like than one they did. "There's only so much French accordion music I can listen to" is not a statement I have tested for myself personally but I can definitely feel the truth of it. I am listening to the birds outside my window and thinking, "I'm really quite glad that isn't French accordion music." I am now looking forward to not listening to French accordion music on a daily basis :D

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    1. That really made me laugh, Sally! Maybe I should be looking forward to that myself!

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    2. This is one of the funniest comments I have ever read on a blog post.

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  3. I remember this book being used as a teaching tool for gifted students which was hilarious because all of my kids loved it! I haven't read the book nor seen the movie. I should probably do both! Thanks for your always honest reviews, Cat!

    https://marshainthemiddle.com/

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    1. I might well like the book because I could create my own images from it, but it's not one I need on my list.
      For a moment, I had contemplated using euphemisms, but why should I? Not liking a book or movie doesn't mean anyone else isn't allowed to like it, no matter how popular or not popular it is.
      I can also openly admit that I fell asleep watching my only Star Trek film "The Voyage Home" (actually the only movie I ever slept half through at the theater) 😂

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  4. I can definitely see your point of view. As I mentioned in my post today, something did feel off to me about the movie but I couldn't put my finger on it. In some ways it was over theatrical. Like Kingsley's performance seemed over dramatic to me but maybe that was the point since it was a kid's film? What really grated on me wasn't the French accordion music but the way Hugo always starred in the same way, no matter what, and looked like he was in pain no matter what he was doing. He just seemed to always be traumatized even in happy moments. lol

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    1. Maybe Scorsese got a bit lost in making it all look so beautiful which it definitely did. Like I said, I really liked the sets, the effects, the mechanics, but you could say I was missing the dream.
      So funny what you say about Hugo. I've seen that in others, for example Cully from Midsomer Murders. No matter what, she always looks worried, skeptical, and it drives me nuts!

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