Hugo

In 2011, when I first saw the trailer for Hugo, I thought it looked like something whimsical akin to the Harry Potter movies, a Young Adult film made for the juvenile crowd. Having actors from Harry Potter in it helped build that expectation. But one thing stood out that puzzled me. At the end of the trailer it said A Martin Scorsese Picture. That made me raise my eyebrows and sparked my attention in a way nothing else in that trailer could have. Martin Scorsese? Director of The Departed and Gangs of New York? The man who made all those grungy New York movies about sadists and mobsters? The Last Temptation of Christ? Taxi Driver? Raging Bull? This was a man who was not known for making movies aimed at kids. So what was he doing helming what looked like a children’s movie? That was a question I simply had to have answered. Unfortunately Hugo never played at the small town theaters where I lived and I didn’t get a chance to see it until it released on home video just in time for the Oscars where it was nominated for eleven awards including Best Picture. When I finally sat down to watch it I discovered a film that was so good it entered into my top ten list of favorite films where it has stayed firmly in the #2 spot ever since. 

The story of Hugo comes from a novel titled: The Invention of Hugo Cabret. This book is practically more pictures than it is text. This makes for an interesting read in an of itself, altering the experience from a purely imaginative one to that of a visual one. What is there in the text is surprisingly poignant, though, for a book that looks and feels like a Young Adult story. Yet it is tackling a subject that is likely to not appeal to that age demographic. The central premise deals with the golden age of cinema, especially the first years of motion pictures and a director whom few younger people would have even heard of. The way it is written takes this subject and makes it accessible to younger audiences and may have helped bring new audiences to these old films. It is a loving homage to classic cinema and to Georges Méliès, the director, specifically.

The setting is 1931 Paris, and 12-year-old Hugo Cabret (Asa Butterfield) lives inside Gare Montparnasse train station where he has been an apprentice to his uncle, the clock mechanic, ever since his father died in a fire at his job in a museum. His father had found amongst the museum storage a mechanical automaton that was badly rusted and in need of repair and the two had been working on it at the time he died. Recently his uncle has disappeared, too, leaving Hugo alone to tend to the clocks. Knowing that he may be taken to the orphanage, Hugo stays in the hidden rooms of the train station, keeping the clocks running to avoid suspicion and stealing food since he has no income of his own. The book makes it clear he also makes off with his uncle’s paychecks but cannot cash them, another bit of subterfuge he uses to hide that the uncle is gone. He has also gotten in the habit of pilfering small mechanical parts from a toy shop in the station, parts he needs to continue working on the automaton, a mechanical man that was designed to write. Hugo has gotten it into his head that if he can get it running it will write out a message from his deceased father. 

One day, while trying to steal more parts for the repair he is caught by the toy maker and his notebook with his father’s repair notes on the automaton is confiscated. Determined to get it back he comes back to the shop but is told that the notebook has been burned. The contents of the notebook seem to have upset the man, Georges (Ben Kingsley). The news of the burned notebook upsets Hugo but, as he is running away crying he is stopped by a young girl, Isabelle (Chloë Grace Moretz), who tells him that Georges, her godfather, did not actually burn the book but something about it has really hurt him and he was up all night with his wife talking, even crying over it. Hugo approaches him again, insisting for it back. Instead, Georges puts him to work repairing toys and cleaning, earning back all the parts he has stolen. Meanwhile, Hugo and Isabelle become friends as they learn more about Georges past, including things thought lost and buried forever in the past. 

In 2011 I must confess to having never heard of Georges Méliès. I was, however, familiar with the famous image of the man on the moon with a rocket ship crashed into his eye. This image had appeared in countless shows and featured prominently in an episode of the science fiction series Futurama. I had seen clips of it all the way back into my childhood but had no context for that image. It turns out it is a brief moment in one of Georges Méliès’ short films: Le voyage dans la lune (A Trip to the Moon). From Hugo I became aware of him as an artist and have since sought out some of his movies. He was a pioneer of the silent cinema whose career was cut short with the start of the Great War when people’s tastes in entertainment were changed by the real world tragedies around them and it put him out of business. This sudden shift left him bitter and broke, forcing him to sell his camera negatives which were melted down for their chemicals, leaving him with nothing to show for all his work. He thought he was forgotten. But people have long memories and there is always a group of people out there who are fascinated by things from the past that will keep it alive in their hearts. 

Martin Scorsese’s film is not only about that love for classic cinema and the art that went into making it, it is also about connecting with the past. Hugo has lost his father and holds on to the automaton as his connection to him. This automaton is also a connection to Georges’ past, the one thing he couldn’t bring himself to sell or destroy. He donated it to a museum only to see it get dumped into storage, unseen and uncared for, rusted and worn down. He truly thought it was gone forever, yet one more thing of his the world had no interest in anymore. Isabelle holds the key to the automaton literally on a necklace her mother gave her. This key, in the shape of a heart, is needed for the machine to run. Broken machines, Hugo says at one point, are the saddest things because they can no longer serve their purpose. He means more than just the automaton. 

Georges is a broken man. When he and his wife were young they were full of happiness and joy, performers in front of an audience doing magic tricks in their very own theater. Then came the invention of the motion picture camera and he sold the theater for a different kind of magic, the movies. When people stopped seeing his films he lost his purpose and became a broken down man with nothing more to him than an old toy shop in a train station, so bitter that he refuses to even allow his goddaughter to see movies. He never explains the reasons why to her but she, along with Hugo, will eventually learn the whole story bit by bit.

One major change from book to the screen is allowing all the secondary characters to have their own little stories within the bigger picture. The station security officer, Inspector Gustave Dasté (Sacha Baron Cohen) has a war injury that leaves his leg in a permanent brace. He is self-conscious about it, especially when he tries to talk to Lisette (Emily Mortimer), the flower girl that he fancies. Monsieur Frick (Richard Griffiths) is trying to be friendly with Madame Emile (Frances de la Tour) but her dog is always snapping at him whenever he gets too close. Christopher Lee has a memorable, albeit small, role as Monsieur Labisse, the man running a library of sorts. It’s in his shop that Hugo and Isabelle find a book about early movies including a whole section on Georges Méliès. This book, written by René Tabard (Michael Stuhlbarg, looking more than a little like Paul Muni’s interpretation of Emil Zola). René met Georges once as a child and has long since believed he was dead. When he learns from the two that Georges is still alive he makes plans with the two young adults to meet Georges, bringing with him the only known print left of one of his movies. 

One of the most powerful feelings a person can have is the feeling of worth. Georges has felt for a very long time that he is no longer of any worth to the world. The rediscovery of one of his films, along with a realization that his work is being rediscovered and celebrated by film preservationists and fans alike gives him a new sense of self worth. He spends so much of the film feeling discarded and forgotten. When he learns that he is not, life comes back to him and he rediscovers the magic that made him want to be a filmmaker and magician in the first place. A young boy, an orphan living inside the walls of a train station, did that for him. The ending may seem a little too sentimental but that is by design. Martin Scorsese has crafted a film that is a little magical, too. The images of Paris, as seen mostly through the windows outside the clock tower, look almost enchanted, like something from out of a story book. It gives the city of Paris a heavily stylized, almost ethereal look to it.  This is a gorgeous film to look at all around. But even more important than those beautiful visuals is the story itself which is absolutely perfect. This is a great movie that takes an obscure moment in motion picture history and opens it up for the masses to view, enjoy and to  understand. It is a love letter the cinephiles that should have been more successful at the box office than it was. For those who have watched it, it is a magical adventure that will remain in their hearts for decades to come.

Academy Award Nominations:

Best Picture: Graham King and Martin Scorsese

Best Director: Martin Scorsese

Best Adapted Screenplay: John Logan

Best Art Direction: Dante Ferretti and Francesco Lo Schiavo (won)

Best Cinematography: Robert Richardson (won)

Best Costume Design: Sandy Powell

Best Film Editing: Thelma Schoonmaker

Best Original Score: Howard Shore

Best Sound Editing: Philip Stockton and Eugene Gearty (won)

Best Sound Mixing: Tom Fleischman and John Midgley (won)

Best Visual Effects: Robert Legato, Joss Williams, Ben Grossmann, and Alex Henning (won)

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Release Date: November 23, 2011

Running Time: 126 Minutes

Rated PG

Starring: Ben Kingsley, Sacha Baron Cohen, Asa Butterfield, Chloë Grace Moretz, Ray Winstone, Emily Mortimer and Jude Law

Directed By: Martin Scorsese