Méliès and Hugo

If you lose your purpose... it's like you're broken.

Jeanne and Georges talk about Hugo

Jeanne: The kids don’t say much.
Georges: The writer didn’t give them much to say.

Jeanne: Best line they gave Hugo was, “Maybe that's why a broken machine always makes me a little sad, because it isn't able to do what it was meant to do... Maybe it's the same with people. If you lose your purpose... it's like you're broken.”

Georges: But the cinematography, the visuals, the sound, Jeanne.  Brilliant. As magical as Méliès.
Jeanne: You were always a vision person, Georges. You gave them icons. But I was an actress. In silent films. I always wanted to say something.

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Voice-over

Scorsese has given us Hugo. Beautiful film. Jeanne wishes there had been more dialogue. But Méliès’ films were silent, accompanied by music. Hugo is almost a silent film with music, punctuated with snatches of dialogue. Perhaps Scorsese intentionally reduced the dialogue as a tribute to Méliès.

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