Scorsese's Hugo & Nostalgia for the Future.

Hugo was a paean to the death of the possibility of cinematic magic.  How cinema never quite delivered on its promise.  Even Hugo was framed in lavish cinematography, set pieces and in 3D, kind of mirroring the subject matter's sadness for the moribund possibilities of cinema.

 

Sacha Baron Cohen in Allo! Allo! er sorry... Hugo.


This fits in with all that nostalgia for the future vibe that runs through a lot of pop culture today.  Wanting that feeling,wonder and excitement of how we thought technology and the future was going to be.  Now though being left in a state of anti-climax as that future never arrived.

Was (Hugo the movie) it saying this is it! That's the best we can do! It was exciting once (that was a very long time ago) but come on who are we kidding now?  Could this actually be the subtext of the film.  Given Scorsese's recent comments on how he hasn't got time to be wasting on watching films these days, it does start to make sense.