LIFE IS BUT A DREAM.

I had, instead, a feeling that I felt I had to chase, something stirred up in me by Woody Allen, Ingmar Bergman, Robert Altman, Quentin Tarantino, Martin Scorsese and a hundred other directors. Something that I could no longer ignore. I simply had to face facts: movies were what did it for me. I had been bitten by the film bug and it wasn’t going away. It’s where my heart was.

… This is why all of that is worth it, and more than worth it, really. Necessary. Among other things, art makes one feel less lonely. It makes life more worth living.

And so, as Hugo and Isabelle bring George Melies back to life - both as a man and a filmmaker - a huge smile began to form on my face. In heartfelt scenes that easily rival anything out of Cinema Paradiso (that other great love letter to cinema), we watch as Melies and his wife (and long-time co-star) remember and relearn the wonder of the movies. They have found themselves again, and Hugo has found a family.

“Films have the power to capture dreams,” says Melies, as we near the end. Hugo reminded me of my own, and then some.

(la verdad también se inventa)