Director Martin Scorsese

Martin Scorsese is fascinated by the mechanics and the physical elements of early film making. He loves to hear the clattering whir of gears as film cascades past a bright lamp, and how the projected images create the illusion of motion.

Before motion, photography had been a static medium, still images taken over long exposure periods with stiffly posed subjects. With the advent of faster film, photographs could be taken in quick succession, and as with a child's flip book, the illusion of motion could be achieved.

One of the early geniuses who embraced and advanced this emerging technology of motion was French stage magician Georges Méliès.

Scorsese is in awe of what Méliès accomplished and the influence he has had on film and other art forms. In Picasso and Braque Go to the Movies, Scorsese documented how the films of Georges Méliès had a profound influence on Parisian artists Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque in their establishment of cubism. Picasso and Braque attended the cinema often, and studied how motion pictures could capture images beyond the perception of the eye, especially with different angles and slow motion.

In Sorsese's new film Hugo, a recently orphaned boy is adopted by his inebriated uncle who winds the huge mechanical clocks in the Montparnasse Train Station in the Paris of the 1920's. Hugo has a number of misadventures at the station, eventually leading to his meeting the irasible toy shop owner, whom Hugo eventually learns is the former filmmaker Georges Méliès.

At this low point in his life, Méliès was a forgotten and bankrupt silent film maker who was put out of business by World War I. The economic realities of the war years kept people from enjoying pleasurable pursuits like attending the cinema.

Méliès suffered more than economic disaster. He suffered the indignity of helplessly standing by

as the majority of his films were taken from him through the bankruptcy. What made this reality worse was the knowledge that his films had been melted down to make boot heels for the French military. The pittance from the sale of these films went to help pay off creditors. But for Méliès and for generations yet unborn, these wonderful silent gems from the early days of cinema were lost forever.

In Hugo, the embattled and embittered Méliès now runs his humble toy business. Into his diminished existence comes a youthful, inquisitive and enthusiastic Hugo. At first Méliès is not open to Hugo, but Hugo eventually helps revive Méliès' spirit, reminding him of his accomplishments in film, and giving him hope that new generations would be inspired by a his film A Trip to the Moon, a surviving remnant of his film career.

This story is enriched by an actual historical event from the Montparnasse Station's past. On October 22, 1895, The Granville-Paris Express overran its buffer stop. It careened 30 meters across the station concourse, crashing through the outer wall of the station, and falling 33 feet to the street below, with its steam locomotive ending up standing on its nose. In Hugo, this historical train wreck is borrowed from history and fictionally aimed at Hugo who is on the tracks retrieving a treasure. Without giving too much away, as the train crew does its best to avoid the disaster Hugo is pulled from danger, just seconds before the train plows through the lobby and onto the street below.

Scorsese makes effective use of Méliès' 1902 film, A Trip to the Moon. Méliès based that film on Jules Verne's novel of the same name, featuring a spaceship of earthlings landing in the eye of the man in the moon. It was a hugely imaginative and innovative film, establishing a genre of space fantasy including later films such as Forbidden Planet from the 1950's, and George Lucas' Star Wars Trilogy of the 1980's.

While paying homage to Méliès' magic from the early 20th century, Scorsese adds some 21st century movie magic of his own. Critics have claimed Hugo to be one of the best productions done in 3-D. But for Scorsese, it is as if he's telling movie fans that the marvels of today's movie magic owe a huge debt to the "cinemagicians" of the past. Through Hugo, he teaches that the marvels of today did not happen in a vacuum. Honor must be given and inspiration taken from those who laid the foundations of filmmaking. With Hugo, Scorsese has accomplished a wonderfully entertaining and enlightening homage to that spirit of innovation, and he's successfully introduced the accomplishments of Georges Méliès to new generations.

If you've not yet done so, treat yourself and see Hugo in all its 3D glory before it leaves the theaters. Back to the Top

Artists often seek out the advice of other artists, regardless of their medium. Although they have different accents, they speak the same language. While seeking to perfect his pantomime techniques, early movie producer, director and actor Charlie Chaplin sought the advice of a deaf artist, the famed California landscape painter, Granville Redmond.

Granville Redmond lost his hearing as a small child, and it was Redmond's deafness along with his artistic sense which intrigued Charlie Chaplin. Chaplin was so taken by Redmond that he included Redmond in eight of his films. On the movie lot, Chaplin provided Redmond a painting studio and became an avid collector and an influential promoter of Redmond's work.

When just a toddler, young Redmond suffered a case of scarlet fever which left him deaf and mute. He attended the California School of the Deaf in Berkeley (now UC's Clark Kerr Campus). His teacher in Berkeley, Theodophilus D'Estrella, encouraged Redmond to study art at the San Francisco School of Design under Arthur Mathews and Amedee Joullin.

At the school, he became friends with other Tonalist artists, Gottardo Piazzoni and Giuseppe Cadenasso. Both encouraged young Redmond, and Piazzoni was so moved to learn sign language, a step which insured a life-long friendship with Redmond.

Next up for the talented Redmond was study in Paris at the Academie Julian where he studied under Jean Paul Laurens and Benjamin Constant. He shared living quarters with Douglas Tilden, a fellow graduate of the California School for the Deaf. In 1895, his career took a giant leap when his Matin d'Hiver was accepted for the Paris Salon.

After his return from France, he painted in Southern California.

In 1899, he married Carrie Ann Jean, also deaf, from Illinois. Together they had three children, and lived a portion of their lives nestled in the hills north of LA in La Crescenta. Like all good painters of his day, he was a member of all professional painting associations, and even was a member of San Francisco's famed Bohemian Club. His paintings in both Northern and Southern California were earning him a reputation as a bold colorist. Critics also noted his use of pointillism and likened his work to Claude Monet and Camille Pissarro.

gripping and leading the woman with her head downcast in shame have ideas of punishment on their minds. But Titian's Jesus meets the tenseness of the moment with calm, open hands and eyes of tenderness and understanding. His presence is commanding and compassionate, without being forceful and authoritive.

The third of Titian's paintings of Christ is The Entombment of Christ. Here we have a Jesus who appears to be extremely physically fit, his anatomy revealing Titian's expertise in anatomy and his ability as a sculptor. Titian provides his vision of the scene as the

limp body of Jesus receives the loving touch and care of his devotees. The work of those laying Jesus in his tomb is sanctified by the presence of an angel, and the devotion of Jesus' loving mother Mary.

All in all, I found these paintings powerful in conveying Titian's underlying theology. These are not paintings reflecting the established orthodoxy of the Roman Catholic Church nor of the darker side of an ecclesiastical power structure capable of conceiving and carrying out the Inquisition. Rather. Titian's paintings reveal a divergent view of Christ, one of an enlightened open and understanding and accepting presence. They reflect much more than a piety or an adherence to inherited ideas. These paintings are bold statements by Titian, projecting ideas of a loving and caring Christ onto the contemporary scene of his day.
Back to the Top

The Walt Disney Family Museum
tickets available online
The WDFM tells Walt's story from his early days through the creation of his famed "Mouse Factory" and the Magic Kingdom. Displays superbly present pre-computerized animation, explaining the artistic, technical, and imaginative processes, Well Worth a Visit!