"Machinal" & Modern Times

The young woman in Treadwell's play is suffocating. The office environment is restricting her to the point that she can't think for herself, can't make decisions, can't even process what is going on around her. She keeps complaining that she needs air, like she's a caged animal rattling the bars that hold it captive. The sheep in the opening shot of Modern Times are comparable to the young woman, and everyone else in the office for that matter, except for Mr. George H. Jones who is the overseer as is the president in the tramp's factory.
Work is an impulsive, jolting, and systematic action that consumes the office workers. I pictured men and women as recordings being played over and over again, not thinking of what they are doing or saying, but just carrying out the actions because that's all they have been taught, allowed. They are all stuck on a rotating wheel with no way to get off. They are so consumed by their work that it's impossible for them to do anything else. Reciting numbers in manic manners, repeating the same phrases over and over again when answering a phone, etc., and they are just so blind. They can't help repeating each other's words; they hardly speak in full sentences because the stress and urgency of the workplace demands it.

Prompt C- Hugo in the clock & film painting

The image of Hugo inside the clock at the end of the movie's first scene is a really powerful image. Its a sort of metaphor for what is about to happen to the automaton. The automaton, its metal skeleton, will be filled with human emotion by the end of the movie, having a human quality inside of it mechanical framework. There will be more meaning behind just the empty metal body. The vital organs of the mechanical man consist of Melies' love for old film, as that is his purpose in life, just as the automaton needed a purpose to fill its creation. The camera frames Hugo's face in this shot much as the artist does in his painting. The emphasis is placed on the person's experience. Scorsese highlights Hugo's experience by mirroring the camera to what Hugo sees in the train station. By studying the painting, we notice that the entire audience is enthralled in the film that is being shown, and the woman is inviting us to do the same, to become enthralled in what film has to offer.
The exit sign, located right next to the screen, suggests that film is an escape from the world going on around us. The audience's attention is completely consumed by what is going on on the screen, as is Hugo's face with what's going on in the train station, as if Hugo's eyes are a camera projecting what he sees out into his world. Its almost as if Hugo is assessing his situation so that he can best going about solving it. Other than that, I'm still trying to figure out how Melies' broken past can connect with the painting, besides that both are obviously about old film and the magic that it has lost.

NYT review of Hugo

"This is a story shared by all children, who begin as observers and turn (if all goes well) into participants." I love this line in the review. We were all children at one point. We can all remember at least one memory from our childhood in which we watched, as an outsider, something take place. Hugo is doing this almost the entire first scene of the movie. But before we know it, his role has shifted and he winds up completely involving himself in fixing Papa Georges and his wife, the Station Inspector, and even himself. This is the true crux of the movie; Hugo's enlightenment and conquering of his insecurities and helping to conquer the insecurities of the others around him. He orchestrates the gears of the clock perfectly, as he does also the gears inside of the other characters.

As Scorsese says in his interview, "With Hugo, the fantasy is very real, but it’s in your head and in your heart. It has to do with the mechanisms — whether it’s the clocks, the interiors, the locomotives, the trains, the automaton — with the inner workings of these objects." He's completely right. The fantasy is in watching old film be incorporated into the new 3-D medium that Scorsese uses, but more importantly, the fantasy is in journeying with Hugo as he collects the pieces that are needed to fix each person. As Hugo said, no clock ever comes with an extra piece. He fixes each person, and double-checks that all the pieces are perfectly in place by the end of the movie. Hugo says he sometimes feels like a machine himself, maybe in the way that his life has been so repetitious, that he just keeps living his days in eternal purgatory, winding clocks, trying to figure out the automaton's meaning and his father's message.  But Isabelle, his saving beauty, is his partner in crime that helps him to find all the gears and put everyone back together. 

Illustration Series, ch. 2 beginning

The series of illustraions that start off the second chapter of the book are not neccessarily a huge part of the story's plot, but definitely of its meaning. Hugo starts out just entering through the metal vent into the wall of the train station. From that first picture, Hugo is always moving in the ones that follow. Selznick build suspense with the images of Hugo running through his "playground", a close-up of his shoe, him winding up the strairs, around corners, and beginning to open a door. The reader's viewing range zooms in and out, as Hugo gets closer to his destination. Suspense is building until finally we find him in front of this mysterious door, not knowing what lies behind it.  All of the pictures are very dark, getting even darker the closer he gets to the door. This series of pictures provokes anxiety in the reader, awaiting what comes next. I believe it is part of connecting to the reader, and trying to make them feel the rush that Hugo feels as he hurries through his tasks as commander of the clocks.

Role of film: general and Hugo

The purpose of any film is to capture a theme. Maybe the theme is deep and meaningful like the fragility of human nature, or its just a shallow statement like funny things happen all the time. Depending on the goal of the film, the power and weight the images have depend on the light in which they are portrayed. In Hugo, the beginning is a dark, damp, depressing sequence of childhood tragedies that a young French boy has survived. But as the film progressed, lighter parts are incorporated in until, at the end, all the dampness has been dried and the warm light is seen in all the characters.

There is not much complexity when it comes to the plot, or even the characters, but the theme of Hugo has many small crevices that the viewers are allowed to discover. Time is a huge theme, as is the idea that everyone needs a purpose in life, and Martin Scorsese does an excellent job of showing that in more than just Papa George's case. Hugo himself, as a protagonist, is one of the more interesting characters to see transform. As we watched the film it was very easy to see how he was changing, and to feel happy for his victories both along the way and in the end. I jus loved the theme because it is one that everyone's life can be applied to. What are we if we don't have a purpose? We are a rusting machine, sitting in a corner, guarding secrets that can never bring joy to other people.