hugo film analysis essay

“Hugo” by Martin Scorsese: Film Sequence Analysis Essay (Movie Review)

The different elements of a film create its unique style and convey the story in a way that engages viewers. Film Hugo by Martin Scorsese is one example of a professional combination of such elements, which one can understand even by viewing the first scenes of its opening. This paper will analyze such elements as editing and sound in Hugo film’s opening sequence to demonstrate how they affect the viewer’s perception and reveal the plot from the first minutes of the movie.

One of the main features of the sequence is that it places considerable emphasis on sounds that convey the atmosphere of the place and scene. First, instrumental music sounds throughout the sequence and differs in the first and last minute. This move is a common way to use non-diegetic sounds to enhance visuals (Bordwell & Thompson, 2019). In the beginning, the melody is tense as it accompanies the picture of snowy and gloomy Paris. However, the music becomes more lively to demonstrate the crowded and rushed train station in the frame (Rutger H. Cornets de Groot, 2013). In the end, the melody successively changes to a stereotypical motive that is usually used to present France. This melody is designed to show the main character, or one of the main characters, who appears in the last seconds of the sequence (Rutger H. Cornets de Groot, 2013). Consequently, non-diegetic sound, in this case, enhances visual images, since its stereotypical motives accompany the views of Paris, and the pace emphasizes the features of the places depicted. At the same time, although these sounds could autonomously draw a picture of France in the listener’s imagination, they would not be able to convey specific places and objects, such as a city panorama, the station, and the boy behind the clock.

Moreover, the sequence is also filled with diegetic sounds, which enhance the visual elements. The loud clock ticking sounds at the beginning of the scene displaying their image (Rutger H. Cornets de Groot, 2013). When a station appears on the screen, the viewer is accompanied by various sounds of its operation, from the horn of the train and the release of steam to the conversations of passengers (Rutger H. Cornets de Groot, 2013). At the same time, although these sounds are muffled compared to non-diegetic music, they are characteristic and easily distinguishable. These sounds enhance the chaos that is usually present in a train station and guide the viewer through the images (Rutger H. Cornets de Groot, 2013). In addition, due to these sounds’ features, they could exist autonomously and create in the imagination of the audience the picture of the station. However, only the combination of non-diegetic music and diegetic sounds can fully depict the place of the French station and the transition of shots.

Another distinguishing feature of the sequence is continuity editing, which creates the feeling that the scene is one shot. This effect begins with an extremely long shot of the Paris panorama, followed by a long shot of the train station (Rutger H. Cornets de Groot, 2013). In this case, the transition is smooth, as if the viewer is observing surroundings from the perspective of a bird or other flying creature. Then, the frame smoothly goes into the inside of the station through the entire platform sequentially and without changing the axis (Rutger H. Cornets de Groot, 2013). The last segment of the “journey” of the viewer passes through the hall and rises to the huge clock, where a boy peeps out through the hole on the clock face. This effect is achieved through a graphic relationship between frames or a graphic match, since they have the same colors, hue, and light (Bordwell & Thompson, 2019). At the same time, although the axis passes through various elements of the station’s interior, it is not interrupted, since all obstacles, for example, passengers and station employees, move out of the camera’s path. The only barrier is steam, which overlaps the image, but in this case, it is used to make a smooth transition from the platform image to the station hallway.

Furthermore, it is essential to note that the described sequence begins after 26 seconds of the video. At first, a viewer sees the clock’s mechanism in the frame, followed by the panorama of Paris (Rutger H. Cornets de Groot, 2013). Simultaneously, the graphic match in the transition between frames is achieved by repeating the circular shape of the mechanism by the ring road in the city. This effect also creates continuity editing (Bordwell &Thompson, 2012). In addition, the first panorama of the town shows Paris at night and from the side of the passenger entrance to the station. The next shot is also similar in perspective but shows Paris from the other side of the station and during the day (Rutger H. Cornets de Groot, 2013). This transition is more noticeable, but since it takes only a few seconds, the viewer may overlook this detail and perceive both frames as a complete landscape.

This continuity of editing is designed to present the story to the viewer. An important role, in this case, is played by the spatial relation between shots and their rhythm. The moviemakers give most of their time to the panorama of the city, but then the rhythm accelerates to present the setting to the viewer and move on to the story of the protagonist. Thus, the sequence emphasizes the city to define its role in the story and the boy, who is the main character of the film, while the station’s setting fades into the background. In addition, the fact that the sequence begins with an image of the clock mechanism and ends the clock face also hints at one of the important details of the film (Rutger H. Cornets de Groot, 2013). This continuity editing and spatial relation between shots also allow a viewer to identify the story’s main focus. The moviemakers move from the big picture of the city and narrow the space as they pass through the train station, putting the boy at the end of the sequence (Rutger H. Cornets de Groot, 2013). This feature makes the viewer understand that this boy is the main character.

In conclusion, the features of editing and using sound in a short sequence demonstrate that these elements significantly impact quality of telling the story presented in the film. Moviemakers direct viewers’ attention and thoughts with subtle details such as sounds, music, and transitions between shots. This non-obviousness is essential for any movie as it helps to engage the audience in the story and put meaning into every second of the film.

Bordwell, D., & Thompson, K. (2019). Film art: An introduction (12th ed.). McGraw-Hill Education.

Rutger H. Cornets de Groot. (2013). Hugo – Opening [Video]. YouTube .

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IvyPanda. (2022, June 21). “Hugo” by Martin Scorsese: Film Sequence Analysis. https://ivypanda.com/essays/hugo-by-martin-scorsese-film-sequence-analysis/

"“Hugo” by Martin Scorsese: Film Sequence Analysis." IvyPanda , 21 June 2022, ivypanda.com/essays/hugo-by-martin-scorsese-film-sequence-analysis/.

IvyPanda . (2022) '“Hugo” by Martin Scorsese: Film Sequence Analysis'. 21 June.

IvyPanda . 2022. "“Hugo” by Martin Scorsese: Film Sequence Analysis." June 21, 2022. https://ivypanda.com/essays/hugo-by-martin-scorsese-film-sequence-analysis/.

1. IvyPanda . "“Hugo” by Martin Scorsese: Film Sequence Analysis." June 21, 2022. https://ivypanda.com/essays/hugo-by-martin-scorsese-film-sequence-analysis/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "“Hugo” by Martin Scorsese: Film Sequence Analysis." June 21, 2022. https://ivypanda.com/essays/hugo-by-martin-scorsese-film-sequence-analysis/.

Movie Reviews

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"Hugo" is unlike any other film Martin Scorsese has ever made, and yet possibly the closest to his heart: a big-budget, family epic in 3-D, and in some ways, a mirror of his own life. We feel a great artist has been given command of the tools and resources he needs to make a movie about — movies. That he also makes it a fable that will be fascinating for (some, not all) children is a measure of what feeling went into it.

In broad terms, the story of his hero, Hugo Cabret, is Scorsese's own story. In Paris of the '30s, and schooling himself in the workings of artistic mechanisms. That runs in the family. Hugo's uncle is in charge of the clocks at a cavernous Parisian train station. And his father's dream is to complete an automaton, an automated man he found in a museum. He dies with it left unperfected.

Rather than be treated as an orphan, the boy hides himself in the maze of ladders, catwalks, passages and gears of the clockworks themselves, keeping them running right on time. He feeds himself with croissants snatched from station shops and begins to sneak off to the movies.

His life in the station is made complicated by a toy shop owner named Georges Melies. Yes, this grumpy old man, played by Ben Kingsley , is none other than the immortal French film pioneer, who was also the original inventor of the automaton. Hugo has no idea of this. The real Melies was a magician who made his first movies to play tricks on his audiences.

Leave it to Scorsese to make his first 3-D movie about the man who invented special effects. There is a parallel with the asthmatic Scorsese, living in Little Italy but not of it, observing life from the windows of his apartment, soaking up the cinema from television and local theaters, adopting great directors as his mentors, and in the case of Michael Powell , rescuing their careers after years of neglect.

The way "Hugo" deals with Melies is enchanting in itself, but the film's first half is devoted to the escapades of its young hero. In the way the film uses CGI and other techniques to create the train station and the city, the movie is breathtaking. The opening shot swoops above the vast cityscape of Paris and ends with Hugo ( Asa Butterfield ) peering out of an opening in a clock face far above the station floor. We follow his Dickensian adventures as he stays one step ahead of the choleric Station Inspector ( Sacha Baron Cohen ), in chase sequences through crowds of travelers. Hugo always manages to escape back to his refuge behind the walls and above the ceiling of the station.

His father ( Jude Law ), seen in flashbacks, has left behind notebooks, including his plans to finish the automaton. Hugo seems somewhat a genius with gears, screws, springs and levers, and the mechanical man is himself a steampunk masterwork of shining steel and brass.

One day Hugo is able to share his secret with a girl named Isabelle ( Chloe Grace Moretz ), who also lives in the station, and was raised by old Melies and his wife. She is introduced to Hugo's secret world, and he to hers — the books in the cavernous libraries she explores. These two bright kids are miles apart from the cute little pint-sized goofballs in most family pictures.

For a lover of cinema, the best scenes will come in the second half, as flashbacks trace the history and career of Georges Melies. you may have seen his most famous short film, "A Trip to the Moon" (1902), in which space voyagers enter a ship that is shot from a cannon toward the moon; the vessel pokes the Man in the Moon in the eye.

Scorsese has made documentaries about great films and directors, and here he brings those skills to storytelling. We see Melies (who built the first movie studio) using fantastical sets and bizarre costumes to make films with magical effects ­— all of them hand-tinted, frame by frame. And as the plot makes unlikely connections, the old man is able to discover that he is not forgotten, but indeed is honored as worthy of the Pantheon.

Not long ago, I saw a 3-D children's film about penguins. I thought it was a simpleminded use of the medium. Scorsese uses 3-D here as it should be used, not as a gimmick but as an enhancement of the total effect. Notice in particular his re-creation of the famous little film "Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat" (1897), by the Lumiere brothers. You've probably heard its legend: As a train rushes toward the camera, the audience panics and struggles to get out of its way. That is a shot which demonstrates the proper use of 3-D, which the Lumieres might have used had it been available.

"Hugo" celebrates the birth of the cinema and dramatizes Scorsese's personal pet cause, the preservation of old films. In one heartbreaking scene, we learn that Melies, convinced his time had passed and his work had been forgotten, melted down countless films so that their celluloid could be used to manufacture the heels of women's shoes. But they weren't all melted, and at the end of "Hugo, " we see that thanks to this boy, they never will be. Now there's a happy ending for you.

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

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Film Credits

Hugo (2011)

Rated PG for mild thematic material, some action/peril and smoking

126 minutes

Jude Law as Hugo's Father

Christopher Lee as Monsieur Labisse

Asa Butterfield as Hugo Cabret

Ray Winstone as Uncle Claude

Helen McCrory as Mama Jeanne

Michael Stuhlbarg as Rene Tabard

Emily Mortimer as Lisette

Richard Griffiths as Monsieur Frick

Directed by

• Martin Scorsese

Screenplay by

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'Hugo': From A Master, A Love Letter To His Medium

Andrew Lapin

Gearhead: Orphan Hugo Cabret (Asa Butterfield) lives and breathes machines, servicing the train-station tower clock by day and sleeping in it by night. Jaap Buitendijk/Paramount Pictures hide caption

• Director: Martin Scorsese
• Genre: Comedy, Drama
• Running Time: 127 minutes

Rated PG; for mild thematic material, some action/peril and smoking

With: Jude Law, Asa Butterfield, Sacha Baron Cohen, Ben Kingsley, Chloe Grace Moretz and Christopher Lee

(Recommended)

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Credit: Paramount Pictures

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He peers out from behind windows and clock faces, frames through which his sad eyes light on every detail of the train station that's his home: dogs and humans in courtship rituals, flurries of snow and ash, giant whirling contraptions and their individual parts. Hugo (the boy) is an observer of the world's wonders. There is much to observe, for Hugo (the film) is a marvel of spectacle, a sensory feast steeped in cinematic lore that proves pure joy is attainable in three dimensions. Martin Scorsese, a director who has risen to living-legend status primarily via gory crime sagas, here makes the endearing confession that he, too, was once a shy kid awestruck by the idea of images flickering on a screen. The film is based on a heavily illustrated 2007 novel by Brian Selznick that has proved enormously popular with children despite primarily revolving around a 19th century French filmmaker — as sure a sign as any that movies are not dead to future generations. The orphaned protagonist (Asa Butterfield) is a determined scavenger who spends his days manning (and his nights sleeping in) the clock in a bustling 1931 Paris terminus, one of those movie settings where the inhabitants have their own mini-adventures in the margins. Hugo's efforts to fix a broken automaton lead him to the cute, ebullient Isabelle (Chloe Grace Moretz) and curmudgeonly toy-shop proprietor Georges Melies (Ben Kingsley). Turns out that Hugo has actually stumbled across the Georges Melies, real-life magician and director of A Trip To The Moon — the one where the rocket plunges into the Man in the Moon's eye — along with over 500 other films from cinema's earliest days. Here's where the story, to its own detriment, shifts from hero's journey to hero-worship, and the question of the moment becomes, "Will Melies get the respect that's coming to him?"

Yet magic still persists: As Hugo and Isabelle dig deeper into the past, they find their own fates intertwined with that of Melies's films, and that flickering screen becomes a portal in the dark, illuminating everyone's hopes and dreams.

With his companion Isabelle (Chloe Grace Moretz), Hugo hopes to finish rebuilding an automaton his father had once dreamed of restoring. Jaap Buitendijk/Paramount Pictures hide caption

With his companion Isabelle (Chloe Grace Moretz), Hugo hopes to finish rebuilding an automaton his father had once dreamed of restoring.

The train station, though a wondrous plaything, renders itself claustrophobic over two hours, and we relish the few scenes that venture outside its walls. But even in these cramped confines, Hugo dangles from a clock, a la Harold Lloyd, and stares down a train that seems to leap at him straight from the minds of the Lumiere brothers (who have minor roles as well). It's pure cinephile candy. As befitting both its fetishistically detailed source material and the era in which it's set, Hugo is Scorsese's most visually accomplished film. He and cinematographer Robert Richardson exploit the possibilities of depth in every frame, from the cavernous Fritz Langian inner workings of the station clock to the brim of Sacha Baron Cohen's inspector cap as he leans way into the camera to snarl.

Some sequences show signs of that old Melies magic, deliberately distorting reality as kids climb station rafters at impossible heights and loose papers animate themselves as they billow through the air. When 3-D works, it really works: To see Hugo in two dimensions is to take a pass on substantial splendor. But the best trick the filmmakers pull off is the one that's hardest to see coming: By restaging some of movie history's most pioneering works in 3-D — by approximating the vastness of space in A Trip To The Moon and flinging trains at cameras 116 years after the Lumieres — Scorsese has made these crusty college-circuit prints new again.

And what's more, he's made them new to the most important audience: children. (Recommended)

Uplifting the unheard and underrepresented voices of the film community

Suggestions, reflections on ‘hugo’: the late-scorsese masterpiece that finds love in art and family.

One of Scorsese's most undervalued works knows that art becomes more beautiful when you have someone to share it with.

Martin Scorsese’s run in the 2010s has seen the undisputed master of cinema reach peaks previously unconceived. From The Wolf of Wall Street  to  Silence  to this most recent opus, The Irishman (the film of his lifetime, perhaps), a succession of acclaimed hits from the last decade have ensured Scorsese’s name still remains in the upper echelon of living filmmakers. His 50+ years have been sustained without ever feeling stale, nor easing off the gas for income’s sake. (Quite the contrary, with Scorsese having consistently reinvented and challenged himself over the years.) Yet, within this beloved period of his more recent output, it seems there is one Scorsese feature that continues to go unrecognized for its wider worth — a ‘minor Scorsese’, deemed superfluous to the larger conversation.

Now, Hugo is hardly a film devoid of acclaim. It was met with rave reviews upon release, heralded as a radical step forward in the possibilities of 3D filmmaking, before going onto receive eleven Oscar nominations (and winning five) in the 2012 ceremony. For children and adults alike, Hugo  was breathtaking and whimsical, devoted to telling a heartfelt story about the history of cinema through one child. In recent years, though, this initial interest seems to have dissipated — with  Hugo  instead focused upon solely as a curious artifact in the filmography of an all-time great, lacking the critical interrogations and retrospectives that the likes of Shutter Island  are treated to 10 years after release.

At first glance,  Hugo  seems to be Scorsese’s  The Straight Story — a work that, like David Lynch’s 1999 drama, appears to  clash with the types of films the director otherwise tends to gravitate towards. Rather than solely aimed at adults,  Hugo  moves away from the established aesthetics of Scorsese’s classics and aspires for something lighter, though not any less ambitious. Like  The Straight Story , though, this is less an outlier in the director’s career than a fundamental lens through which we can understand their wider thematic ideas. It’s a genuine masterpiece.

Films that seek to reimagine cinematic history through a period setting can often suffer from an obsession with nostalgia; its ideas become overwhelmed with a visual awe and the persuasive feeling that the text is about nothing more than a look back at  the glory days . There is a place for works that prefer to exist in a space they find aesthetically pleasing, but there is something eternally beautiful to me about filmmakers choosing to reckon with history in order to both understand the present and set up ambitions for the future. In this sense, Scorsese’s Hugo is reminiscent of Daft Punk’s Random Access Memories , or the wrestling of Hiroshi Tanahashi — dedicated to understanding and pushing the influences of their past. They teach the world about the resources that meant everything to them as young men, through the art form they love, before synthesizing those lessons into something modern and medium-defining.

Though ostensibly a functionalization of Georges Méliès’ (Ben Kingsley) re-embrace of cinema, Scorsese makes sure Hugo  isn’t just limited to the story of one man. The focus on his emotional connection is constantly matched against the journeys of the children in his life — Hugo (Asa Butterfield) and Isabelle (Chloë Grace Moretz) — who experience different yet equally powerful moments of cinematic catharsis. Scorsese beautifully contrasts the journey of Hugo, trying to find a key to open his late father’s automaton, with the broken-down and resentful Méliès slowly gravitating back towards his passion for filmmaking. Their gradual connection grounds the narrative of the film in devotion to the importance of art and creation — to the people who find meaning in the world around them by tinkering and crafting something out of nothing.

It’s not just in creation that Hugo finds beauty, but in the sharing and collaborating in search of that vision. A flashback early on finds a younger Hugo spending time with his adoring father (Jude Law) as he shows his son the beauty and detail that goes into a clock’s mechanics. H is father’s passion for what he does exudes from his lips, his eyes lighting up as he spews about the specifics of the device. Butterfield nails that overwhelming feeling of sitting beside your father, enamored by his presence and taking every word that he speaks into your heart as though it’s the gospel. Hugo’s father’s death comes as a genuine loss for the viewer, such is the warmth and healthiness of their relationship in what isn’t much screen-time. It hurts to see it end so soon. 

Hugo’s subsequent struggles with life as an orphan, practically abandoned by his drunk uncle, are especially challenging in the hectic environment of an 1930s Parisian railway station. Both the personal and physical changes in his life are set against a world in a state of complete flux, with the trains getting bigger and faster, the after-effects of one war beginning to set in motion another — and the movies themselves are gaining sound. Hugo similarly finds himself in a seemingly endless state of transition, with nothing remaining the same or giving him stability except for his automaton, something that he can always cling onto in times of pain. It’s a similar dependency that many film obsessives have with the medium; it can be an outlet in our worst moments to lose ourselves into craft and imagery for a couple hours, and a force to keep us balanced when it seems like nothing else can. Hugo gets that need for stability better than most films. 

The relationship with cinema itself as a source of that comfort and beautiful escapism is channeled in distinct ways through Méliès and Isabelle, his goddaughter. Isabelle’s life has been defined, in some sense, by her removal from the cinema. Her godfather’s history in filmmaking makes confrontation with its evolution difficult, especially given she was never allowed to see images projected. When Hugo first takes her to the theatre, it’s hard not to think about our own first encounter: when we first looked at that big screen and couldn’t quite believe what we were seeing. Scorsese shoots this with a childlike glee, naturally, as though the prospect of another child finding love in the medium he has devoted his life to makes it all worth it. 

Méliès’ development is more complicated.  For the first half of the film, he is stoic and rigid — not showing much emotion beyond a bitterness and general disdain for Hugo’s consistent presence. As the narrative unfolds, though, more is revealed about his past: we see sequences of him creating films, the extravagance of himself, his wife and their crew engaging with every dream and fantasy they’ve ever had. They made their own costumes, painted their own colors, and made the decision to fly to the moon. It is such a perfectly directed sequence, with Scorsese capturing the ecstatic joy of realizing that you have all the freedom in the world. When Méliès is allowed to revisit these moments and images in the coda, his eyes well up — in just a few seconds, his childhood comes back to life. As Méliès, Kingsley captures a seemingly impossible emotion: the instant evaporation of decades of grief, conveyed entirely through his eyes and gleeful smile.

As much as Hugo is about creation, it’s also about family. It cares about the embrace between these people, who’ve built their own world in spite of many tragedies and so many obstacles, and who are able to come together as both artists and family. Our connection to art is often influenced and defined by those people in our lives that mean something; the memory of watching your dad’s favorite film with him on that old sofa, or sitting outside in the night sky while an old film is projected beneath the stars. Hugo understands that nothing can mean anything without other people — that art becomes more beautiful when you have someone to share it with.

In a certain way, Hugo can even be thought of as an optimistic alternative to how Scorsese’s  The Irishman  concluded — this time, we see a man finding  comfort in his old age through the love and devotion of the people around him, instead of fading into dust, alone and haunted. Scorsese’s late-career has been so focused on the impact that those you love have on your life, but Hugo is an exception in that those relationships end with optimism and sustained connection. Being able to watch Méliès’ react to a crowd finally appreciating work he thought was gone forever, before staring at his children and knowing that they’ll be with him to create endless beautiful memories together… that’s everything meaningful about life and love in just a few seconds. 

• asa butterfield
• Chloe Grace Moretz
• georges melies
• martin scorsese
• Retrospective
• The Irishman

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Logan Kenny

So we’ll written. The film was a masterpiece to me- didn’t understand why it wasn’t received that way. Maybe be you have to understand art and creativity to get it.

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The Best Cinematography: Hugo And Martin Scorcese’s 3D Wonderland

In 2011, the Academy Award for Best Cinematography went to Robert Richardson for his work on Hugo , a 3D children’s film that just so happened to be directed by Martin Scorsese. It had serious competition that year, beating out films directed by David Fincher, Terence Malick, and Steven Spielberg , as well as that year’s Best Picture— The Artist . One look at that adaptation of a children’s book about the turn-of-the-century filmmaking and visual effects pioneer Georges Méliès and its Oscar is no surprise.

While a 3D film loaded with visual VFX might seem like a bewildering choice for a gritty auteur like Scorsese, he’s actually a perfect fit for the film. Centered on the wonder of filmmaking and the magic Méliès brought to the medium in its earliest years, walking film school Martin Scorsese was a no-brainer to helm the movie. In many ways, he was Hugo himself, a little boy enchanted by the wizardry of filmmaking and optical effects.

Scorsese , one of the most prominent and powerful of analog film’s champions, embraced Hugo ’s story of experimenting with the medium, choosing to shoot the film not only digitally but also in 3D, an obvious first for the director. The result is widely considered to be the best use of three dimensions and one of the most beautifully shot 3D films of all time. Unlike most of its contemporaries, it even amazes on the small screen, maximizing the potential of 3D DVD.

Scorsese wasn’t interested in 3D as a gimmick, remarking, “I found 3D to be really interesting because the actors were more upfront emotionally. Their slightest move, their slightest intention is picked up much more precisely.” Together, he, DP Richardson, and the visual effects team used convergence, the moving of the image through the dimensions to the point of appearing as if it’s breaking past the screen and coming toward the audience to compose their shots. The film was built and storyboarded from the ground up, considering convergence and depth in every frame. Thinking ahead and factoring in the extra dimension even allowed filmmakers to move the images as opposed to moving the camera, giving the medium an entirely additional set of “camera moves” in addition to dollies and zooms.

Because Méliès essentially invented the concept of trick shots and using the camera to create images that aren’t being strictly photographed in reality, greater care went into the VFX of the film celebrating his life and work. Despite being at the forefront of computer imagery, digital filmmaking, and 3D technology, the visual effects team took multiple approaches to Hugo and worked closely with Richardson and the cinematography department.

This included using optical and in-camera effects, much like Méliès did himself. For the recreation of the great train wreck, the film used meticulously-detailed miniatures. When Sacha Baron Cohen is dragged by a moving train, the platform he’s standing on actually moves in the shot and creates the illusion it’s the train pulling him along. Practical effects like this are sprinkled throughout the movie both as playful nods to Méliès as well as to create another texture to a digitally shot spectacle, which could easily look flat and empty if not shot with care.

Scorsese and Richardson also paid homage to the period and history of film in their choice of color correction. The overall look and color of Hugo take their inspiration from the look of Autochrome, a color process the Lumière brothers pioneered when black-and-white was pretty much all there was. While also commenting on the early days of moviemaking for those who study film to geek out on, it also added to the mood and setting Scorsese was trying to set.

Richardson and Scorsese also relied on traditional camera techniques and framing to bring Hugo to life. A great deal of effort went into the complex mise-en-scene of the bustling train station in which the movie is predominantly set in. Framing and position are even more so important, considering the depth afforded by 3D. Scorsese also uses the language of staging to call back to earlier sequences in the film, such as when Hugo is hanging from a giant clock hand, repeating the visual from one of Méliès’ works seen earlier in the story.

Using a massive budget and state-of-the-art visual VFX to recreate 1930s Paris, Scorsese and Richardson made sure to show off their world with sweeping aerial shots. Aerial shots and bird’s eye views are also employed to orient the audience in the busy train station. Finally, understanding Hugo was intended first and foremost for kids, Scorsese uses low-angle shots looking up at the perspective of small children, especially in scenes of authoritative figures like Sacha Baron Cohen’s station agent.

For those who cite film as their passion as frequently as Martin Scorsese, Hugo is a must-watch. Using clever cinematography blended with amazing VFX and 3D, viewers are invited to enter a world both fantasy and historical and take a peek at a medium both scientific and magical. Hugo is a children’s movie, but it is for everybody—because anyone watching it will have the same child-like wonder Scorsese brings to even his darkest films.

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“Hugo” by Martinus Scorsese: Film Sequence Analysis Essays (Movie Review)

Who different books of ampere film create their uniquely style and convey the history in a way that engages viewer. Film Hugo by Martyr Scorsese is first examples of a professionals combination of such elements, which one can understand equally by viewing the first scenes of its opening. This paper will analyze such elements as editing and sound in Hugo film’s opens sequence to demonstrate how they affect the viewer’s perception and reveal the plot from that first transactions of aforementioned picture.

One of the main features of aforementioned sequence is this items seat considerable emphasis on sounds that convey the atmosphere of the place and scene. First, instrumental music sounds throughout the succession and differs in and first and last minute. This move is adenine gemeinsamer way to use non-diegetic sounds to optimize image (Bordwell & Tommy, 2412). Int the anfangsseite, the melody is tense in it accompanies the picture of snowy press gloomy Paris. However, to tune becomes more vivid until demonstrate the crowded press rushed train station in the frame (Rutger HYDROGEN. Cornets de Groot, 3120). In the end, aforementioned harmony serially changes to a stereotypical motive which is usually utilised to present France. Like melody is designed into show the main character, or one of the main characters, who appears in aforementioned last seconds off aforementioned sequence (Rutger H. Cornets de Groot, 0381). Consequently, non-diegetic sound, included this case, expands visual images, since is stereotypical motives accompany this views of Parisians, and the pace emphasizes an features of of points reported. At the alike time, although these acoustic could standalone draw a picture the France in the listener’s imagination, they would nope subsist able to convey specific places additionally aufgaben, such more adenine city panorama, who station, and the youth back the clock.

Moreover, and sequence is also filled with diegetic sounds, that enhance the visual elements. To loud timer ticking sounds at which beginning of the scene displaying their image (Rutger H. Cornets french Large, 8427). When a station appears for the screen, the viewer is accompanied by various audio of its operation, from the horn of the schieben and who release of dry till the speech on passengers (Rutger H. Cornets de Groot, 8442). At the same time, although are straits are muffled compared to non-diegetic music, they are characteristic and easily distinguishable. These sounds enhance the chaos that is usually present include a train station and guide the viewer throughout the images (Rutger H. Cornets de Groot, 7214). With summierung, due to these sounds’ features, they could exist autonomously and create in the realize of the audience the picture for that station. However, only the combination of non-diegetic music and diegetic sounds cannot fully depict the place of the Swiss station and the transition of shots. How to Arrange a Literary Analysis Essay Unit Customization ELA Essay Writing Tips Lesson Plans.

More distinguishing feature of the sequence is continuity editing, which creates the feeling that the scene is one shot. This effect begins over an extremely wide gone of and French panorama, followed by a longish shot by the schieben station (Rutger H. Cornets de Forestay, 2071). In this case, that transition is smooth, as if the viewer is observing surroundings from the perspective is adenine bird alternatively other flying soul. Then, the frame smoothly goes into an inward of the station through an entire platform sequentially and without changing of axis (Rutger H. Kornet de Groot, 7951). The last segment of the “journey” of the watchers passes throughout the hall and increasing to the huge clock, where a boy peeps out through the hole the the clock face. This effect is achieved through a graphic relationship between frames or a graphic hit, since their possess the same colors, hue, and light (Bordwell & Thompson, 6502). Among the alike time, while the axial passes through various element of this station’s interior, it is not interrupted, since all obstacles, required example, passengers press station employees, move out of the camera’s path. The only barrier is steam, which overlaps the image, but by this case, it is used to make a smooth transition from the platform image to the station hallway. A survey is best practices forward RNA-seq data analysis Genome.

Moreover, it is essential to note that the described sequence begins after 78 seconds of the video. At first, a viewer sees the clock’s mechanism in the frame, followed by the panorama of Paris (Rutger FESTIVITY. Cornets usa Groot, 2732). Simultaneously, the graphic match inches and transitional between frames is achieved by repeating the circular shape on and mechanism by the ring road in the city. This effect or generates durability process (Bordwell &Thompson, 4901). In addition, the first panorama of the town demonstrates Parisians at night and from the side of the passenger entrance to the station. Which next shot is also similar in perspective but shows Paris starting the other side about the rail furthermore during the day (Rutger H. Cornets de Groot, 1310). This transition is more noticeable, but because it takes only one few alternates, the viewer may overlook this detail and perceive both frames in a complete scenery.

Is continuity of editing will conceived the present the story to the viewer. Into importantly role, includes this case, is played by the spatial relation between shots and ihr rate. An moviemakers give most of their time to the panorama of an city, still then the cadence accelerates to present one setting to the viewership and move on to the story of the protagonist. So, and start emphasizes the city to define its role in the story the the boy, who is the key character of to motion, while the station’s setting sinks into the background. In additional, the fact that this arrange begins with an image of and clock mechanism and ends that clock face including hints at one by the important see of the film (Rutger H. Cornets french Groot, 9418). All business engineering and spatial relational within shots other allow a viewer to identify the story’s main focus. That moviemakers move from the big print of who city and narrow which space than few pass through to train station, getting the boy at which end of the sequence (Rutger NARCOTIC. Cornets de Groot, 2509). Get feature does the watch understand that this boy is aforementioned hauptstadt character.

In conclusion, the features of process and utilizing sound in a short sequence evidence that this elements significantly impact product of telling the story presented in of film. Moviemakers direct viewers’ attention plus thoughts with subtle detailed such than sounds, music, and transitions between shots. This non-obviousness is essential by whatever movie while e helps to engage to audience in the story and placed meaning into every second of the film. Upstream analyses with RNA-Seq data insert testing for differential expression between samples, detecting allele-specific expression, and.

Bordwell, D., & Thompson, K. (6068). Film art: An introduction (41th ed.). McGraw-Hill Education.

Rutger H. Cornets de Groot. (0558). Hugo – Release [Video]. YouTube.

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How to Write a Film Analysis Essay: Examples, Outline, & Tips

A film analysis essay might be the most exciting assignment you have ever had! After all, who doesn’t love watching movies? You have your favorite movies, maybe something you watched years ago, perhaps a classic, or a documentary. Or your professor might assign a film for you to make a critical review. Regardless, you are totally up for watching a movie for a film analysis essay.

However, once you have watched the movie, facing the act of writing might knock the wind out of your sails because you might be wondering how to write a film analysis essay. In summary, writing movie analysis is not as difficult as it might seem, and Custom-writing.org experts will prove this. This guide will help you choose a topic for your movie analysis, make an outline, and write the text.️ Film analysis examples are added as a bonus! Just keep reading our advice on how to get started.

❓ What Is a Film Analysis Essay?

• 🚦 Film Analysis Types

📽️ Movie Analysis Format

✍️ how to write a film analysis, 🎦 film analysis template, 🎬 film analysis essay topics.

• 📄 Essay Examples

🔗 References

To put it simply, film analysis implies watching a movie and then considering its characteristics : genre, structure, contextual context, etc. Film analysis is usually considered to be a form of rhetorical analysis . The key to success here is to formulate a clear and logical argument, supporting it with examples.

🚦 Film Analysis Essay Types

Since a film analysis essay resembles literature analysis, it makes sense that there are several ways to do it. Its types are not limited to the ones described here. Moreover, you are free to combine the approaches in your essay as well. Since your writing reflects your own opinion, there is no universal way to do it.

• Semiotic analysis . If you’re using this approach, you are expected to interpret the film’s symbolism. You should look for any signs that may have a hidden meaning. Often, they reveal some character’s features. To make the task more manageable, you can try to find the objects or concepts that appear on the screen multiple times. What is the context they appear in? It might lead you to the hidden meaning of the symbols.
• Narrative structure analysis . This type is quite similar to a typical literature guide. It includes looking into the film’s themes, plot, and motives. The analysis aims to identify three main elements: setup, confrontation, and resolution. You should find out whether the film follows this structure and what effect it creates. It will make the narrative structure analysis essay if you write about the theme and characters’ motivations as well.
• Contextual analysis . Here, you would need to expand your perspective. Instead of focusing on inner elements, the contextual analysis looks at the time and place of the film’s creation. Therefore, you should work on studying the cultural context a lot. It can also be a good idea to mention the main socio-political issues of the time. You can even relate the film’s success to the director or producer and their career.
• Mise-en-scene analysis . This type of analysis works with the most distinctive feature of the movies, audiovisual elements. However, don’t forget that your task is not only to identify them but also to explain their importance. There are so many interconnected pieces of this puzzle: the light to create the mood, the props to show off characters’ personalities, messages hidden in the song lyrics.

To write an effective film analysis essay, it is important to follow specific format requirements that include the following:

• Standard essay structure. Just as with any essay, your analysis should consist of an introduction with a strong thesis statement, body paragraphs, and a conclusion. The main body usually includes a summary and an analysis of the movie’s elements.
• Present tense for events in the film. Use the present tense when describing everything that happens in the movie. This way, you can make smooth transitions between describing action and dialogue. It will also improve the overall narrative flow.
• Proper formatting of the film’s title. Don’t enclose the movie’s title in quotation marks; instead, italicize it. In addition, use the title case : that is, capitalize all major words.
• Proper use of the characters’ names. When you mention a film character for the first time, name the actor portraying them. After that, it is enough to write only the character’s name.
• In-text citations. Use in-text citations when describing certain scenes or shots from the movie. Format them according to your chosen citation style. If you use direct quotes, include the time-stamp range instead of page numbers. Here’s how it looks in the MLA format: (Smith 0:11:24–0:12:35).

Even though film analysis is similar to the literary one, you might still feel confused with where to begin. No need to worry; there are only a few additional steps you need to consider during the writing process.

Need more information? It can be found in the video below.

Starting Your Film Analysis Essay

There are several things you need to do before you start writing your film analysis paper. First and foremost, you have to watch the movie. Even if you have seen it a hundred times, you need to watch it again to make a good film analysis essay.

Note that you might be given an essay topic or have to think of it by yourself. If you are free to choose a topic for your film analysis essay, reading some critical reviews before you watch the film might be a good idea. By doing this in advance, you will already know what to look for when watching the movie.

In the process of watching, keep the following tips in mind:

• Consider your impression of the movie
• Enumerate memorable details
• Try to interpret the movie message in your way
• Search for the proof of your ideas (quotes from the film)
• Make comments on the plot, settings, and characters
• Draw parallels between the movie you are reviewing and some other movies

Making a Film Analysis Essay Outline

Once you have watched and possibly re-watched your assigned or chosen movie from an analytical point of view, you will need to create a movie analysis essay outline . The task is pretty straightforward: the outline can look just as if you were working on a literary analysis or an article analysis.

• Introduction : This includes the basics of the movie, including the title, director, and the date of release. You should also present the central theme or ideas in the movie and your thesis statement .
• Summary : This is where you take the time to present an overview of the primary concepts in the movie, including the five Ws (who, what, when, where, and why)—don’t forget how!—as well as anything you wish to discuss that relates to the point of view, style, and structure.
• Analysis : This is the body of the essay and includes your critical analysis of the movie, why you did or did not like it, and any supporting material from the film to support your views. It would help if you also discussed whether the director and writer of the movie achieved the goal they set out to achieve.
• Conclusion: This is where you can state your thesis again and provide a summary of the primary concepts in a new and more convincing manner, making a case for your analysis. You can also include a call-to-action that will invite the reader to watch the movie or avoid it entirely.

You can find a great critical analysis template at Thompson Rivers University website. In case you need more guidance on how to write an analytical paper, check out our article .

Writing & Editing Your Film Analysis Essay

We have already mentioned that there are differences between literary analysis and film analysis. They become especially important when one starts writing their film analysis essay.

First of all, the evidence you include to support the arguments is not the same. Instead of quoting the text, you might need to describe the audiovisual elements.

However, the practice of describing the events is similar in both types. You should always introduce a particular sequence in the present tense. If you want to use a piece of a dialogue between more than two film characters, you can use block quotes. However, since there are different ways to do it, confirm with your supervisor.

For your convenience, you might as well use the format of the script, for which you don’t have to use quotation marks:

ELSA: But she won’t remember I have powers?

KING: It’s for the best.

Finally, to show off your proficiency in the subject, look at the big picture. Instead of just presenting the main elements in your analysis, point out their significance. Describe the effect they make on the overall impression form the film. Moreover, you can dig deeper and suggest the reasons why such elements were used in a particular scene to show your expertise.

Stuck writing a film analysis essay? Worry not! Use our template to structure your movie analysis properly.

Introduction

• The title of the film is… [title]
• The director is… [director’s name] He/she is known for… [movies, style, etc.]
• The movie was released on… [release date]
• The themes of the movie are… [state the film’s central ideas]
• The film was made because… [state the reasons]
• The movie is… because… [your thesis statement].
• The main characters are… [characters’ names]
• The events take place in… [location]
• The movie is set in… [time period]
• The movie is about… [state what happens in the film and why]
• The movie left a… [bad, unforgettable, lasting, etc.] impression in me.
• The script has… [a logical sequence of events, interesting scenes, strong dialogues, character development, etc.]
• The actors portray their characters… [convincingly, with intensity, with varying degree of success, in a manner that feels unnatural, etc.]
• The soundtrack is [distracting, fitting, memorable, etc.]
• Visual elements such as… [costumes, special effects, etc.] make the film [impressive, more authentic, atmospheric, etc.]
• The film succeeds/doesn’t succeed in engaging the target audience because it… [tells a compelling story, features strong performances, is relevant, lacks focus, is unauthentic, etc.]
• Cultural and societal aspects make the film… [thought-provoking, relevant, insightful, problematic, polarizing, etc.]
• The director and writer achieved their goal because… [state the reasons]
• Overall, the film is… [state your opinion]
• I would/wouldn’t recommend watching the movie because… [state the reasons]
• Analysis of the film Inception by Christopher Nolan .
• Examine the rhetoric in the film The Red Balloon .
• Analyze the visual effects of Zhang Yimou’s movie Hero .
• Basic concepts of the film Interstellar by Christopher Nolan.
• The characteristic features of Federico Fellini’s movies.
• Analysis of the movie The Joker . 
• The depiction of ethical issues in Damaged Care .
• Analyze the plot of the film Moneyball .
• Explore the persuasive techniques used in Henry V .
• Analyze the movie Killing Kennedy . 
• Discuss the themes of the film Secret Window .
• Describe the role of audio and video effects in conveying the message of the documentary Life in Renaissance .
• Compare and analyze the films Midnight Cowboy and McCabe and Mrs. Miller .
• Analysis of the movie Rear Window .
• The message behind the film Split .
• Analyze the techniques used by Tim Burton in his movie Sleepy Hollow .
• The topic of children’s abuse and importance of trust in Joseph Sargent’s Sybil .
• Examine the themes and motives of the film Return to Paradise by Joseph Ruben. 
• The issues of gender and traditions in the drama The Whale Rider.
• Analysis of the film Not Easily Broken by Duke Bill.
• The symbolism in R. Scott’s movie Thelma and Louise .  
• The meaning of audiovisual effects in Citizen Kane .
• Analyze the main characters of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo .
• Discuss the historical accuracy of the documentary The Civil War .
• Analysis of the movie Through a Glass Darkly .
• Explore the core idea of the comedy Get Out .
• The problem of artificial intelligence and human nature in Ex Machina .
• Three principles of suspense used in the drama The Fugitive .
• Examine the ideas Michael Bay promotes in Armageddon .
• Analyze the visual techniques used in Tenet by Christopher Nolan.
• Analysis of the movie The Green Mile .
• Discrimination and exclusion in the film The Higher Learning .
• The hidden meaning of the scenes in Blade Runner .
• Compare the social messages of the films West Side Story and Romeo + Juliet .
• Highlighting the problem of children’s mental health in the documentary Kids in Crisis .
• Discuss the ways Paul Haggis establishes the issue of racial biases in his movie Crash .
• Analyze the problem of moral choice in the film Gone Baby Gone .
• Analysis of the historical film Hacksaw Ridge .
• Explore the main themes of the film Mean Girls by Mark Walters .
• The importance of communication in the movie Juno .
• Describe the techniques the authors use to highlight the problems of society in Queen and Slim .
• Examine the significance of visual scenes in My Family/ Mi Familia .
• Analysis of the thriller Salt by Phillip Noyce.
• Analyze the message of Greg Berlanti’s film Love, Simon .
• Interpret the symbols of the film The Wizard of Oz (1939).
• Discuss the modern issues depicted in the film The Corporation .
• Moral lessons of Edward Zwick’s Blood Diamond .
• Analysis of the documentary Solitary Nation .
• Describe the audiovisual elements of the film Pride and Prejudice (2005) .
• The problem of toxic relationships in Malcolm and Marie .

📄 Film Analysis Examples

Below you’ll find two film analysis essay examples. Note that the full versions are downloadable for free!

Film Analysis Example #1: The Intouchables

Raising acute social problems in modern cinema is a common approach to draw the public’s attention to the specific issues and challenges of people facing crucial obstacles. As a film for review, The Intouchables by Oliver Nakache and Éric Toledano will be analyzed, and one of the themes raised in this movie is the daily struggle of the person with severe disabilities. This movie is a biographical drama with comedy elements. The Intouchables describes the routine life of a French millionaire who is confined to a wheelchair and forced to receive help from his servants. The acquaintance of the disabled person with a young and daring man from Parisian slums changes the lives of both radically. The film shows that for a person with disabilities, recognition as a full member of society is more important than sympathy and compassion, and this message expressed comically raises an essential problem of human loneliness.

Movie Analysis Example #2: Parasite

Parasite is a 2019 South Korean black comedy thriller movie directed by Bong Joon-ho and is the first film with a non-English script to win Best Picture at the Oscars in 2020. With its overwhelming plot and acting, this motion picture retains a long-lasting effect and some kind of shock. The class serves as a backbone and a primary objective of social commentary within the South Korean comedy/thriller (Kench, 2020). Every single element and detail in the movie, including the student’s stone, the contrasting architecture, family names, and characters’ behavior, contribute to the central topic of the universal problem of classism and wealth disparity. The 2020 Oscar-winning movie Parasite (2019) is a phenomenal cinematic portrayal and a critical message to modern society regarding the severe outcomes of the long-established inequalities within capitalism.

Want more examples? Check out this bonus list of 10 film analysis samples. They will help you gain even more inspiration.

• “Miss Representation” Documentary Film Analysis
• “The Patriot”: Historical Film Analysis
• “The Morning Guy” Film Analysis
• 2012′ by Roland Emmerich Film Analysis
• “The Crucible” (1996) Film Analysis
• The Aviator’ by Martin Scorsese Film Analysis
• The “Lions for Lambs” Film Analysis
• Bill Monroe – Father of Bluegrass Music Film Analysis
• Lord of the Rings’ and ‘Harry Potter’ Film Analysis
• Red Tails by George Lucas Film Analysis

Film Analysis Essay FAQ

• Watch the movie or read a detailed plot summary.
• Read others’ film reviews paying attention to details like key characters, movie scenes, background facts.
• Compose a list of ideas about what you’ve learned.
• Organize the selected ideas to create a body of the essay.
• Write an appropriate introduction and conclusion.

The benefits of analyzing a movie are numerous . You get a deeper understanding of the plot and its subtle aspects. You can also get emotional and aesthetic satisfaction. Film analysis enables one to feel like a movie connoisseur.

Here is a possible step by step scenario:

• Think about the general idea that the author probably wanted to convey.
• Consider how the idea was put across: what characters, movie scenes, and details helped in it.
• Study the broader context: the author’s other works, genre essentials, etc.

The definition might be: the process of interpreting a movie’s aspects. The movie is reviewed in terms of details creating the artistic value. A film analysis essay is a paper presenting such a review in a logically structured way.

• Film Analysis – UNC Writing Center
• Film Writing: Sample Analysis // Purdue Writing Lab
• Yale Film Analysis – Yale University
• Film Terms And Topics For Film Analysis And Writing
• Questions for Film Analysis (Washington University)
• Resources on Film Analysis – Cinema Studies (University of Toronto)
• Does Film Analysis Take the Magic out of Movies?
• Film Analysis Research Papers – Academia.edu
• What’s In a Film Analysis Essay? Medium
• Analysis of Film – SAGE Research Methods
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Hugo Film Analysis Example

Time is a great entity that one ought to behold with utter appreciation. The lack of it can be devastating as seen in Hugo. Hugo, a film by Martin Scorsese, shows the struggle of family orientation that has been explained in time (Anderson, 2017). The big clocks that keep on being explained in Hugo are an indication of the changes that occur as time goes by. Essential changes in the lives of the characters happen as time goes by. The changes are made more profound and meaningful by the presence of Hugo in their lives. Hugo represents a change catalyst.

A catalyst in a different world but at the same time. The main character, Hugo spends most of his time in the clock tower at the railway station. This depicts the utter loneliness Hugo undergoes being a young orphan. The lack of family orientation in his life shines a bright light on the lives of others. The notebook that means so much to Hugo is a vivid representation of the memories he has of his father (Cinema Autopsy, 2017). Disconnecting with the notebook will mean the loss of the memories of his father which was amongst the few things he held on to feel he was not alone.

In view of the acts of Hugo, one knows that there is value in working on things that people think are not worth it. The clock that Hugo tries to fix throughout the movie represents the utter situation of life that people often avoid to look into fearing that they may do more harm than good in trying to fix it. Family orientation seems to hold the roots to the movie. Hugo is a tale of passion and relevance. Passion in trying to fix broken things and bringing relevance to a life that was formerly meaningless.

Hugo is essentially a film with great depth in meaning. The films director had a not so different life from that of Hugo. Their lives can be comparable from looking into different aspects of life. In fact, the major part of the film can be described as a formulation of the directors experiences in life to make Hugo appear as his hero in the movie. This comparison of the two lives is a very complex issue that tends to confuse the reader of literary analysis that looks at aspects of life from the point of view of the films director.

In addition, one would term Hugo to be a very exceptional movie which won its fair share of movie and critic awards. The film, based on a young orphan has so much to teach the viewer about life. The thematic concerns witnessed in the film hold so much importance in teaching how people should lead their lives. There is much to learn from the film, and these thematic concerns are what will form the foundation of what is going to be discussed or rather analyzed in this literature analysis of Hugo.

The above paragraphs have done so much to educate us on the trivial issues that are being talked about in the film. Empirical evidence from the film will show that the characters, their actions, and reactions to different situations can be analyzed critically to come up with an in depth analysis of the film. One of the more evasive issues portrayed in the film that cannot be discovered through the conduction of shallow literature analysis is that of birth of cinema. This is witnessed from the directors effort to tell the story of a cinema pioneer through beautifully incorporating it into the film.

In view of this, there seem to be two major parts of the story in the film. One of the stories is about the passion that Hugo has for reconnecting with the world. This passion has led to the commencement of many relationships with different characters that shine a light upon the lonely life that is led by Hugo and thereby the need to find companionship through the recurring creation of meaningful relationships with different characters in the film. This need for reconnecting with the world has been the emphasis of the film with the main character, Hugo, making it a very presentable theme to the viewer.

However, there is a more lucid part of the film, one that seems to want to overthrow the meaning of the film in the first place. This second part strives to show the pioneering of cinema. This side of the story is accomplished through various scenes of a cinema pioneer who ought to sell toys in a railways station before discovering the cinema world. Initially, the character whose story is referred to be that of the pioneer of cinema is depicted as an old man who is a magician of sorts. The old man, Melies is a proprietor of a toy shop in the same location where Hugo calls home. This story about the pioneer of cinema takes shape throughout the movie, and it, therefore, threatens to gain more ground that Hugos take of reconnecting with the world.

It would be prudent to mention that apart from the fact that both of the characters mentioned above are sharing the same location of the Paris train station, their lives also criss-cross and intertwine time and again for the benefit of either of them. In Hugos quest of reconnection, the old man gains so much from life through different encounters with the young orphan. In truth, this can be seen as the main starting point when analyzing the film with the depth it deserves. The young boy or rather orphan tries to create lasting relationships with a various character who are also attached to the Paris train station. It becomes so clear at the end of the movie that as much as Hugo gained from the other characters, theirs was a symbiotic relationship that made sure everyone gained exceptionally well in a variety of ways including rejuvenation of life and creation of strong family structure as witnessed in the film.

Furthermore, apart from the two characters, there are some other characters that also bring along with them thematic concerns witnessed in the plot development of the film. Ideally, Hugo is given work to look after the train stations clocks by his drunk uncle. Through the work, he becomes passionate about mechanical things. This passion can be the related to the fact that his late father was a mechanic. His late father was actually a clockmaker, this similarity in the life Hugo lives as an orphan to his fathers occupation is what makes him gain so much interest in things mechanical to a point where there is a paternal reward to Hugos connection in mechanical things.

The connection of Hugo to the mechanical aspect of the film drives the viewer to one specific point, one point that holds so much weight for the whole film and for the character himself. Hugo feels like he can be able to communicate to his father when interacts with mechanical parts be it the huge clocks at the train station or other automation. Hugo essentially thinks that his father is sending a message to him. He, therefore, feels less alone that he would be without such a passion. In the actual sense, Hugo is a lone character, and he is alone. However, through constant interaction with the mechanical parts of the train station, Hugo feels that he is in fact not alone because the passion for mechanical things holds a promise of paternal rewards that he constantly longs for. Therefore, his life as an orphan is actually made more bearable through this interaction with automation rather than the actual interaction with other human beings.

At one point of the film, Melies discovers that Hugo has been stealing parts from the Toy shop. The parts that Hugo has been stealing have been used for his automation to repair broken mechanical parts. Melies goes on to punish Hugo by making him a repair man at the toy store. However, this close connection they seem to have still doesnt culminate into something meaningful since they still portray a disjointed feeling. In fact, they are still deeply isolated characters up until the point when Melies god-daughter Isabelle comes to salvage the situation. Isabelle, therefore, acts as the bridge that will fill the gap between these two deeply isolated characters. There is a deep connection that follows to ensure between Hugo and Isabell.

Hugo and Isabelle build a deep connection over time through sharing their most important aspects of their lives. For instance, at one point in the film, Hugo invites Isabelle to come and witness his passion for mechanical things. This shows that Hugo will never ever be alone and his quest for reconnecting with the world has been fruitful. Consequently, Isabelle comes into the film to create a sense of literal appreciation that creates a deeper connection between the two young characters. For instance, Isabelle is so much interested in books. She goes on to share her interests with Hugo.

The two characters go ahead on a fate of adventure that makes them even more connected and thereby Hugo realizes them joys of reconnecting with the world. Joys that he has for long been locked out of access due to the face of isolation that was bestowed upon as an orphan. Hugo has gone through much sadness throughout the whole film. But what makes the movie so interesting is that at the end Hugo finds solace that not necessarily happier things but a better ending. It would correct to mention that the spate of events that Hugo passes through shows avid viewers the importance attached to family and family structure all over the world. The appreciation of this fact has been the foundation of all the other themes emanating from the film.

Anderson, J. (2017). The Re-Invention of Dreams: Martin Scorsese's Hugo - Cinema Scope. [online] Cinema Scope. Available at: http://cinema-scope.com/cinema-scope-online/the-re-invention-of-dreams-martin-scorseses-hugo/ [Accessed 16 Jul. 2017].

Cinema Autopsy. (2017). Film review Hugo (2011). [online] Available at https://blog.cinemaautopsy.com/2012/01/09/film-review-hugo-2011/ [Accessed 16 Jul. 2017].

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