Clockworks, Automata and the Silents – the magic of Hugo!

A dazzling array of gears dissolved into the streets of Paris, and a single gear turned magically into a roundabout, and just like that for me Hugo went from the realm of near animation to reality. The teeming Gare Montparnasse is well endowed with clocks that all keep working on precisely oiled and turned gears.

Advertisements

Kafkaesque tale of brooding violence – Shutter Island

WARNING – this review may contain spoilers!!

Our first view of Shutter Island is through an approaching storm, remote island off Boston harbor, with a crumbling fortress, ruined and abandoned buildings, and a lighthouse. There is a strong sense of “Abandon Hope All Ye who Enter Here” as the US marshals Teddy Daniels (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Chuck Aule (Mark Ruffalo) hand over their weapons and the metal doors close behind them! They have been sent to the island, a facility for the criminally insane, to investigate the mysterious disappearance of a child murderer Rachel (Emily Mortimer) from her locked room.