Dear Monsieur Scorsese, I shall never doubt you again. With “Hugo,” there was some unavoidable doubt in anticipating the director’s first family-friendly film, in 3D no less. If Brian Selznick’s Caldecott winning novel, “The Invention of Hugo Cabret,” is an illustrated love letter to the dream of cinema, then Scorsese’s adaptation seals it with an imaginative kiss.
Selznick created Hugo Cabret as a fictional hero to tell the real-life rediscovery of a trailblazing genius of cinema, Georges Méliès. The French pioneer picked up on the side-show projections of the Lumière Brothers at the turn of the 20th century in France. Méliès gave film a lifeline by innovating visual narrative and used his talents as a magician to create the first special effects.
So much of Hugo’s story, and thus Méliès’, is about preserving the past by romanticizing history. Martin Scorsese is like a guardian of such preservation, as his organization The Film Foundation, has been a driving force in the restoration of hundreds of films. This includes 2 of Méliès’ films, “La Danse Du Feu” (1899) and “Les Fromages Automobiles” (1907).
The brilliance of Scorsese’s “Hugo” is it’s fully immersive 3D world is a vehicle to an illuminating and emotionally riveting history lesson. “Hugo” reunites Scorsese with screenwriter John Logan, from another chapter in film history, “The Aviator” about Hollywood Producer and flyboy extraordinaire, Howard Hughes.
In “Hugo,” Méliès is lovingly captured by Sir Ben Kingsley, equaled by Helen McCrory’s performance as Jeanne d’Alcy, the filmmaker’s leading lady onscreen and off. Kingsley can conjure the curmudgeon, while still peeling away at the character to reveal a boyhood twinkle of wonderment.
Sacha Baron Cohen’s station inspector often seems just a rigid cog in the wheels of plot, but his comedic intuition uplifts an emotionally heavy ensemble of characters. There are welcome performances from Jude Law, Emily Mortimer and Ray Winstone. Though, it is the commanding presence of Christopher Lee as the bookstore owner that seals my adoration of “Hugo.” As an actor, Lee is a history lesson in himself having appeared in nearly 250 films since 1948.
The visuals of “Hugo” seem projected right out of Selznick’s illustrations, without becoming the saturated wash of colors it could have been. The wide-eyed Asa Butterfield and piercing gaze of Chloe Grace Moretz dance right off the pages into vivid motion.
The film is just as much as a fascinating success in Scorsese trying his hand at entertaining kids, as it is for cinematographer Robert Richardson. Both filmmakers have bloodstained hands, but especially Richardson who was DP for “Natural Born Killers,” and “Kill Bill.” “Hugo” reunites Scorsese with Richardson from collaboration on several films, and winning the Cinematography Oscar for “Aviator.”
While I haven’t ventured beyond much more than the production values of “Hugo,” there are numerous reasons to experience it, multiple times. Perhaps I’m just enamored with cinema and easily hypnotized by the spellbinding work of Scorsese and his sculptress of raw filmic energy, Editor Thelma Schoonmaker. If the film can awaken a romance with film history in kids or jaded adults, it is testament that with the right elements, cinema is more than just a movie.