Hugo (Martin Scorsese, 2011): USA

Reviewed by Christopher Connor. Viewed at the Santa Barbara Film Festival, AppleBox Presentation.

Seeing Scorsese’s name on a movie you might think of hard New York streets, mafia, and crime. You will undoubtedly think of intense, often times, violent characters. But with his new movie, Hugo, you get something different, but nothing short of amazing, that proves itself able to hold its own even among some of the man’s bests.

Hugo, based on the book The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick, is an enthralling adventure about a young poor boy living in the intricate maze of the Paris train station’s walls. After losing his clock maker father in an accident, and his alcoholic uncle seemingly disappears, Hugo is left to tend to the clocks of the train station alone. Along with making sure the clocks click on time, Hugo works on an automaton left behind by his father, but can’t find the last missing piece to make it work: a heart shaped key. Stealing food from the vendors to survive, he travels between his small world of the train station. But food isn’t the only things he steals. We are introduced to the mysterious toy shop owner when Hugo attempts to take a wind up toy mouse and is caught. Forced to give up his handful of cogs and other gadgets, under the threat of having the station inspector being called, he also hands over a worn notebook that strikes a chord with the man.  When Hugo attempts to get this prized notebook back, he meets the shop owner’s goddaughter, Isabelle, and we soon find out that he very well might be the famous, but sadly forgotten, Georges Méliès. Their new friendship and surprising discovery leads them on an amazing journey and we are lucky enough to be taken along with them.

This movie works on so many more levels than a children’s movie. Scorsese’s love for film is extremely apparent throughout. Not only his love, but his knowledge as well. There are so many amazing scenes demonstrating this, but his remarkable take on the Lumière Brother’s Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat was one of the most memorable. Not only do we get a wonderful, exciting story, but we get a fun, entertaining history lesson on early film and one of the most important film makers, Georges Méliès, who was essential in the development of special effects and narratives in early films. We know from Méliès’ real life that he was a magician that did direct around 555 films, actually did work in a toy shop to make ends meet when he was broke, and that he really did use automatons in his stage shows. Although embellished and inventive to create a new world to fit the story, we are treated to a handful of classic clips from several of Méliès’ actual movies, including A Trip to the Moon, as well as many others. Scorsese blends with ease and amazing talent his own versions of the Méliès films, sometimes making you question whether you are actually watching the original or the wonderful reproductions.

This movie should be seen in 3D. Characters jump off the screen and objects throughout the movie seem to take on a life of their own. Scorsese doesn’t pull any cheap tricks with this technique and instead creates the fantastical, dream-like Paris of the 1930’s, a Paris we are sure to have never seen anywhere else.

Despite his advancing age, Scorsese has grown far from dull, and we see that with his latest movie.  It is sure to leave a lasting impression on everyone: children, adults, historians, and film lovers alike.  Hugo is another of Scorsese’s beautiful love letters to cinema.