Text/Dongguan
Editor/Dongguan
Preface
This is a film with mixed reviews, which won 11 Academy Award nominations, but was scolded for "special effects are greater than feelings", "deliberately catering to the Oscars", and "the plot is incomprehensible".
It has a very earthy name - the literal translation of "Hugo" in Chinese, which translates to "incredible invention" in Japanese.
As the name suggests, this film starts with a magical robot and leads to a historical story with feelings, dreams, and temperature.
It pays tribute to "Georges Mérieux", the father of drama and film, the development process of the film industry, and the dream!
The film has exquisite pictures, uses large-scale 3D special effects, and uses movies to pay tribute to the film industry, which is full of the director's strong film feelings.
The secret of Hugo's book
In a crowded train station.
A little boy is looking through the hollowing out of the clock in the clock tower and looking at the owner of the toy store.
The boss glanced at the boy and found it.
He deliberately played with a fancy clockwork mouse and then pretended to be asleep.
This clockwork mouse was the bait to lure the boy to the bait.
The boy looked at the clockwork mouse on the table and took the bait.
He followed the pipe to the toy store and approached the mouse lightly, but the moment he got it, the boss woke up and grabbed him.
The clockwork mouse was broken, and it turned out that the little boy often stole the boss's things, and this time he was caught.
The boss told him to take out the contents of his pocket, otherwise he would hand him over to the patrolman, and the boy was afraid and had to do so. The boy pulled out a small package, and the cloth was wrapped in some mechanical parts of the clockwork gears.
Then the highlight came, the boy took out a notebook, and the boss opened it and was shocked!
The book is painted with a sophisticated mechanical structure design.,And these pictures in the book,It's all about a robot.。
The boss asked curiously: "Is the machine structure diagram on this book hand-drawn by you?"
The boy was silent, but the boss suddenly became angry and told him to get out of here quickly!
Look for the heart key
The boy's name was Hugo, and his father was a watchmaker.
My father stumbled upon an old robot that could write.
Restoring the robot has become the greatest joy in the lives of father and son.
Their purpose is to make the robot run and explore the secrets behind the robot, which has become the greatest wish between father and son.
Due to the old age of the robot, the missing parts inside could not be operated.
The heart-shaped keyhole on the fuselage has always been an unsolved mystery for robots.
Just as the father and son were looking for answers, a sudden fire took their father's life.
And the book with the structure of the robot is from his father, which is the only thing his father left to Hugo.
Since then, Hugo has always taken the robot with him, lived with his uncle, and lived in the forgotten and well-connected maintenance room of the train station.
My uncle was an alcoholic, often neglecting his family, and the work at the station was done by the young Hugo alone.
In the evening, Hugo wanted to find the boss and wanted to get his book back.
But the boss was furious and bluntly said that he wanted to burn the book.
Hugo was not reconciled and quietly followed the boss to his house.
Hugo smashed a snowball into the window to attract the attention of Elizabeth, the owner of the attic, who wanted her to help get the notebook back.
Hugo threatens Elizabeth that if she doesn't help, he won't leave.
Elizabeth, who was naturally kind, could only agree to him.
But the next morning, Hugo was waiting in the toy store, and the owner handed him a handkerchief.
When he opened it, he saw that it was the ashes of the burned book.
The book recorded the key information of repairing the robot, and now that it was destroyed, Hugo ran out heartbroken.
Hugo met Elizabeth around the corner, but she told Hugo that the book had not been burned.
In fact, the owner of the toy store pays attention to this book, and this book also makes the owner very sad.
Now the only thing Hugo can do is to face the boss and explain his demands calmly.
Sure enough, this trick worked, and the boss took out the clockwork mouse that broke last time and asked him to fix it.
This is a piece of cake for the mechanically proficient Hugo!
Put the screws on the screwdriver, make the shell sheet metal with a small hammer, and finally assemble them.
The boss inserted the key, wound it up, and the clockwork mouse was restored by Hugo.
The boss finally relented: "The book can be returned to you, but you have to come to work in my toy store every day and earn it back with your actions." ”
Since then, Hugo has been working in a toy store, and the owner teaches him magic tricks and plays with him, and Hugo and the boss are getting closer and closer.
He has never let go of the robot's repair work.
On this day, he fumbled to assemble the last part.
Filling the clockwork and driving the gears to work, Hugo was looking forward to the robot's miracle.
But the robot's writing arm didn't move, and the parts suddenly stopped.
Hugo thinks the reason must be in the heart-shaped keyhole, and the key is the key to activation.
What he didn't expect was that the heart-shaped key was hanging around Elizabeth's neck.
Robot "starts"
One day, Hugo takes Elizabeth to his lodgings at the station, where she is fascinated by the fully mechanical robot.
Elizabeth took out the heart-shaped key and handed it to Hugo, who filled the clockwork, inserted the key, turned it 180 degrees, and then the robot moved.
After so many years, the robot is finally functioning properly.
The bite of each gear makes sense, and the robot waves its arms and begins to write haphazardly, only to stop after a while.
Hugo thought that if the robot was repaired, there would be someone to accompany him in the future, but he failed.
Just as Elizabeth comforted him, the robot moved again! It turned out that the robot was not writing, but drawing.
The picture drawn by the robot is a scene from the movies that his father used to take Hugo to see when he was a child.
And in this painting, the robot is signed by Georges Mérieux, Elisabeth's father.
Look for clues to the painting
Although his heart was full of doubts, in any case, this was the message that his father left to Hugo.
To find out, they went to Elizabeth's house.
Hugo gave the painting to Elizabeth's mother, who was thrilled to see it.
He turned around and drove Hugo away, and said that he couldn't let Elizabeth's father George know anyway.
Hugo cried to Elizabeth's mother that this was the only thing his father had left him.
He wanted to understand what was hidden.
But Elizabeth's mother said, "There are some things that you are too young to understand." You shouldn't know these sad things. ”
But just then, George returned.
Mother had to let Hugo and Elizabeth hide in the back room.
As she was leaving, she subconsciously glanced at the cabinet.
Hugo found that there was a cat here, and he rummaged through the cabinet for the notebook left by his father, but found nothing.
Eventually, Hugo noticed that there was an unevenness at the top of the cabinet, and there was probably a hidden compartment on it.
Just as Hugo was about to take it, one accidentally knocked over the box, and the paintings inside were scattered all over the floor and scattered all over the room.
And one of them, the pattern on it is highly consistent with the pattern drawn by the robot.
George came in when he heard the sound, and when he saw the scene in front of him, he didn't know whether it was heartbreak or helplessness.
He picked up the painting on the ground and tore it to pieces.
What's the secret?
The only film
Hugo and Elizabeth come to the library.
Found the movie in the painting in a book.
What is introduced in the book is that the film's maker is named George, who died in World War I.
And the author who wrote the book was the person in charge of the library, and when he saw someone reading his book, he came over.
Hugo and Elizabeth questioned the claim that George was dead.
But I didn't expect the author of this book to turn out to be a fan of George.
George is a filmmaker in his own right.
At its peak, more than 500 films were made.
When the author was a child, he had a relationship with George.
The reason why this writer loved George so much was because he saw George's love and contribution to the film industry.
George built a professional movie studio, and the set inside was very shocking, which was the birthplace of George's film dream.
Since then, the author has been fascinated by the dreamy movie studio, and has been deeply immersed in George's "cinematic dream".
George's charisma deeply influenced the author.
In the hands of the writer, only one film made by George is now left in the world.
After knowing this, Hugo wanted to re-release the film.
Let George know that the world has not forgotten him.
During this period of getting along, Elizabeth saw the meaning of human existence from Hugo.
And she doesn't see the meaning of her existence.
Elizabeth confessed her life to Hugo.
In fact, she was not George's own child, but George's adopted child.
Hugo took Elizabeth to a place that overlooked the city.
Hugo imagined the world as a big machine, and people were the parts in it.
For a machine, no part is superfluous, and the same is true for people, I am born to be useful!
Elizabeth understood Hugo's meaning from Hugo's words, and slowly realized the reason for her existence.
The secret of Georges Mérieux
That night, Hugo had a dream within a dream that he had become a robot and was run over by a train.
What Hugo didn't know was that these dreams would foreshadow the disaster that would come to him.
Soon after, Hugo's uncle died on the street in an accident, which meant he was orphaned.
Hugo has become a wanderer again, and his identity will soon be discovered by the patrolmen.
Hugo contacted the writer and visited him with George's films.
Although it was a good intention, it was rejected by Elizabeth's mother, and the writer understood it and prepared to leave.
But the writer turned back to Elizabeth's mother with affection.
"You are as beautiful now as you were in the movie."
Unexpectedly, Elizabeth's mother, who was an actress, learned that they came to bring the movie that George made that year.
She still couldn't help but want to take another look at the style of the year.
The machines are set up, the film is loaded, and the film is shown manually by the writer.
The only surviving film of George is the scene painted by the robot.
What's even more surprising is that it's actually in color.
At that time, color film production was not easy, and it was necessary to color the film frame by frame, which was the filmmaker's incomparable love for film.
Looking at her appearance back then, her mother was very emotional.
When the movie ended, my mother's eyes were already full of tears.
"You were so beautiful when you were young," Elizabeth sighed.
"It's the same now!" George replied excitedly!
It turned out that George was standing at the door and watched for a long time, and the sound of the projector was already engraved in his mind.
The re-screening of his own film brought George back to his youth.
He is finally willing to accept the past and tell the story of the past.
George told Hugo what was going on.
He was a magician and, like Hugo, he loved repairing!
George has spent his life building a robot.
Until he came across the movie, he used some parts of his beloved robot to build a projector.
He spent all his family property to build a studio and produced countless excellent works.
But one day, when war came, people lost interest in movies.
Youth and hope were drowned out along with the war.
To make a living, George melted all the film he made with his own hands.
And the melted film was made into high heels under the woman's feet, which were sold for money.
He then sold his family property and bought a toy store.
Here buried his life's talent.
George donated the robot that was dismantled for the movie to the museum, but it was not taken seriously.
Until the museum was burned, Hugo's father discovered and brought the robot to his home to study.
At this point, all the mysteries have finally been solved.
Hugo's "mission"
Hugo heard this, and suddenly ran out.
He returns to the station and wants to get the robot back, return it to George, and return it to its rightful owner.
But halfway through, he was accidentally caught by the patrol police and put him in a cage.
Hugo escaped by taking advantage of the patrolman's inattention to pick the door lock, and he ran back to his residence to retrieve the robot.
But on the way back, he was found by the patrolman again, and the patrolman grabbed Hugo.
The robot broke away from his hand and fell on the rails, and Hugo jumped off without even thinking about it.
At this time, the train entered the station, and seeing that his life was hanging by a thread, the patrol officer snatched Hugo back from the hands of death.
The decent patrol officer is not deliberately trying to embarrass Hugo.
And this is his job, upholding the principle that orphans should be sent to orphanages, and only by sending Hugo to orphanages can he be safe.
Hugo hoped that he would spare him, and told him that I might find my "chance to be born again"!
Just then, George arrived, and he said that Hugo was his child.
Seeing that Hugo was claimed, the patrol had a reason to let him go.
Hugo sadly told George that the robot had broken.
But George said, "He's doing well!"
Through the efforts of the writers, they recovered a total of 80 of George's works around the world.
But George is most grateful for Hugo's perseverance.
These works were re-screened, once again showing the charm of George and the film.
All this is indispensable to Hugo's efforts, and Hugo is finally no longer lonely.
epilogue
There is such a man in history as Georges Mérieux.
It was he who invented the "montage" method of filmmaking, and there are many details in the film that pay tribute to Georges Mérieux, who knew magic, photography, choreography, and invention.
He has devoted his life to the innovation of the film industry, and has made at least 800 films, and is affectionately known as the "father of drama film".