In the lead
up to Hugo I’ve read a number of
articles and reviews posing the question; can Martin Scorsese do a kids film? I
never really viewed that particular question as one worth asking, and having
now seen Hugo my suspicions have been
confirmed. Though perhaps best known by some for his gangster pictures and his
thrillers, Scorsese has never been a director to shy away from certain genres.
A film aimed at a younger audience is one of the very few types he was yet to
tackle in his long career.
Instead the
central element to Scorsese’s entire body of work, in my opinion, is the
presence of a male, socially-isolated protagonist. One who either lives outside
of society or is trapped within one that doesn’t understand him and that he can
never fit in with. Across all Scorsese’s genres we can see this character from
Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver, to
Henry Hill in Goodfellas, from Jake
La Motta in Raging Bull, to Newland
Archer in The Age of Innocence. These
characters allow Scorsese to explore his central themes of masculinity and its
implicit melancholia.
Hugo Cabret
in Hugo is the natural progression of
Scorsese’s work, exploring the birth of
this melancholia as a boy comes of age. For Hugo it begins with the loss of his
father and the resentment of his uncle as an unsatisfactory replacement. All
Hugo’s failures of masculinity serve as reminders to him of his grief. His
impotence becomes intricately linked with his pathos. His search for a
replacement father leads him to idolise George Melies, though he too is another
example of Scorsese’s flawed and isolated males, denying his past work as an
artist since becoming less successful than he used to be. He also befriends
Isabelle, a girl who despite her cheery demeanour has clearly lived a childhood
as isolated as his own, and prefers the company of books to other people.
Additionally, despite the friends he makes throughout the film he continues to
be forever in public and rarely noticed.
Even the
film’s happy ending masks the continuation of Hugo’s sense of isolation and
loss. His success is in facilitating George’s acceptance of his past and the
re-emerging of his films, but Hugo himself stagnates. Though by the end he has
discovered the mystery of the automaton and delved into the idealised past of
Melies’ films, he does this with the continued aim of reconnecting with his
father, an aim that can never be realised. Hugo finds companionship but never
accepts a replacement father-figure or moves on from his grief, ensuring his
continued melancholia and sense of impotence.
This lack
of conclusion for his suffering males is another recurring element in
Scorsese’s work. Henry Hill hates suburban life after selling out his friends,
Teddy Daniels in Shutter Island
refuses to accept reality, Newland Archer ultimately refuses to break with
social convention despite a life-long opposition. Though overall Hugo is an uplifting film, its
protagonist carries a masculine melancholia that makes it Scorsese through and
through.
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