It was at that moment that Seznick (the original author), Scorsese (the film director), and the "dream-making Hugo" worked together to open a door to the history of world cinema. Behind the door stood a magical old man named Meili Ai.
I remember someone asked Mr. Jin Yong about the protagonist of "The Deer and Ding Tale". Mr. Jin Yong replied that the real protagonist of his book of writing is Kangxi-a truth, under the guidance of Scorsese, "Hugo" is the real The protagonist is actually Meili Ai.
Of course, this is first attributed to Scorsese’s passion for film history and film heritage protection. In 2007, Scorsese initiated the establishment of the non-profit World Film Foundation with the purpose of preserving the neglected films for future generations. And repair those damaged copies.
In a sense, "Hugo" is like the "official propaganda film" of the World Film Foundation. The film adopts a narrative perspective like Jin Yong's "The Deer and Ding Ji", in which the fictional characters are cleverly "embedded" into the real ones. From historical events and characters, through Little Hugo’s fantasy experience, a film history story about the rise and fall of Meili Ai has been successfully reproduced on the big screen.
Speaking of the invention of film, the Lumière brothers often occupies the most important position in the historical narrative, but the role of Mélière cannot be ignored. In Lumiere's hands, the image display based on photography began to be active, but in the hands of Mélière, the film's "dream-making" function really began to come true. Meili Ai, the former magician and puppet artist, turned the film into a light and shadow illusion full of fantastic ideas: before Meili Ai, the film was only a recording tool that crawled under the feet of reality. With Meili Ai, film creation began. Shows the infinite imagination, and gradually demonstrates the infinite charm as the "imaginary signifier" (Metz).
Since entering the modern society, "art" and "technology" have often appeared as a pair of sharply opposed conceptual categories. Heidegger believes that "technology" has become the "Ge-stell" of modern society-the pursuit of For the "poetic dwelling" philosopher, it is inevitably frustrating (of course this understanding is vulgar). In the field of film, many "art lovers" will selectively pursue "boring films" and are full of contempt, dislike and derogation for the "show off" of audio-visual technology. But Mélière reminds us that as a product of the second industrial revolution, every pore from head to toe is actually full of modern technology. There can be multiple understandings of the love and meaning of movies, but Meili's game-like technology research and development and the display of visual wonders are also an important dimension of the value of movies. Both Kant and Schiller said that art originated from games. Judging from Mélière's pioneering contribution to film art, it is quite right.
Meili Ai’s film career suffered a major blow in the later period. His copies were sold out and then melted as waste plastic to make high heels and combs. Meili Ai himself became an open-air toy dealer at the station in his later years until 1928. In 2009, some fans discovered this pioneer of film art and caused a small sensation. People collected his copies and held a retrospective exhibition-this is exactly the story of film history shown in "Hugo" It is also one of the most important film heritage excavation and protection events in the early film history.
Méliès, Cameron, Scorsese, "Moon Journey", "Avatar" and "Hugo", their tireless pursuit of audio-visual technology and game-like passion have already outlined an important sky in film art.
Mathematics master Chen Xingshen once wrote an inscription "Mathematics is fun" for teenagers, and Scorsese used "Hugo" to pay tribute to Meili Ai to tell us that the movie is also very fun.
Where is China's Meili Ai?
(Published in "Southern People Weekly" Issue 10, March 26, 2012)
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