In 2011, the premiere of a new film by Martin Scorsese, called the “Guardian of Time”, was held. It is worth noting that for the cult director, this was the first family full-length fairy tale, which he shot in 3D.
The fantasy script was handled by John Logan, taking as a basis the work of Brian Selznik “The Invention of Hugo Cabre”. The book appeared on store shelves in 2007, almost immediately after that Scorsese acquired the rights to it. After a couple of years, he began filming the project “Guardian of Time”, whose actors subsequently did an excellent job of their task. So, what is remarkable about this film story?
Plot
The capital of France, the thirties of the last century. Twelve-year-old Hugo Cabre is forced to dwell at the station with his uncle. A teenager is an orphan, therefore, most often left to his own devices.
From early childhood, the boy was passionate about mechanics, and one day he has a chance to repair the mechanism that he inherited from his father. Having eliminated the problems, the young man hopes to discover some secret of his dad, who died in a fire in the museum. Several years have passed since then. The main character did not know his mother (the woman died during childbirth).
Meanwhile, it turns out that the mechanism that he inherited was created by one of the founders of cinema, Georges Méliès. Having got down to business, the boy finds himself in an exciting world full of adventures, and his girlfriend, Isabella, becomes his faithful companion in the maze of dangers and mysteries.
Role performers
Many leading critics noted how brilliantly the cast was selected. One of the leading roles went to a young actor named Ace Butterfield. The thirteen-year-old lyceum was already well known to the audience. He starred in the film “The Boy in the Striped Pajamas” before he was invited to the fantasy “Guardian of Time”.
Chloe Moretz, his shooting partner, was no less popular, because by 2011 she had already managed to play in more than a dozen films of various genres.
At the same time, the performers who took on the roles of the second plan were in no way inferior to the main stars.
We are talking about celebrities such as Christopher Lee,
Sasha Baron Cohen, Jude Law. It is especially worth highlighting Ben Kingsley, who portrayed a man who was seriously experiencing his losses and suffering from difficult memories. However, this, of course, does not end with the names of the participants in the tape “Time Keeper”. Actors who also contributed to Scorsese's work: Francis De La Tour,
Helen McCrory, Richard Griffiths, Emily Mortimer and many others.
Errors in the film version
Blunders and historical inaccuracies were noticed in this film, as in many others, which in general do not spoil the general impression of a family detective story shot by a famous director. For example, according to the plot of the project “Guardian of Time”, the actors played a scene according to which Méliès, without buying a camera-projector from the Lumiere brothers, created its analogue in his own workshop. In fact, he was not a skilled mechanic and acquired the right camera in the UK.
The hero, played by Ace Butterfield, had a dream, according to which he saw a key in the shape of a heart on rails. It is noteworthy that when Hugo looks at his find, it lies near the sleepers, but when he bends down to raise it, the key is already on the sleeper itself.
When the boy started the machine, there was no paper sheet in front of the robot, however, when it worked, the paper appeared.
Data
Undoubtedly, many viewers remembered the moment of the train crash, shown in the film “Guardian of Time”. Actors played very plausibly in the aforementioned scene, and in fact this tragedy is not an invention of a screenwriter or writer. In October 1895, a similar incident did occur at the Paris train station . As a result of a dramatic incident, five people were injured, and the kiosk saleswoman died from a wall fragment falling on him.
The automaton shown in the movie has prototypes: a robot created by the Jacques Droz family and an automaton that the watchmaker Henri Mayardt once worked on.
In conclusion, it is worth noting that the project was a real hit, having received a positive rating from leading film critics, as well as eleven Academy Award nominations. As a result, the masterpiece managed to win five treasured statuettes, and was also awarded the prestigious Golden Globe Award.