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.
Good start--with lots of ideas…. don't feel like you need to explain everything at once:
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*Its a sort of metaphor for what is about to happen to the automaton.
Interesting: boy inside of a machine at start-----later, machine will find a heart?
in some sense, you're suggesting that the human inside of the machine at the start of the film is a symbol of the desire to make machines have hearts----what does that mean for film…. return film to its roots in connecting people? dreaming? isn't that in some sense what the painting is also about? people inside of the machine (in a good way?)
In terms of framing---the view of the machine--hugo's view---is in search of community, right? connecting people? what's on the screen in the painting?
might you think about how these different artifacts/film/painting are about making machines serve human interests (as opposed to, say, train crashes…)