Hugo

There's some awards buzz surrounding The Artist at the moment, most of which holds the film up as a glowing tribute to the days of silent cinema. I don't think it would be fair to say that Hugo hasn't also had its fair share of critical acclaim, but I do like to think of it as the other tribute to silent cinema released in 2012. Martin Scorsese has a long and distinguished career as a groundbreaking director with a self-preserving reverence for cinema history. His films have mostly been of a decidedly adult nature (murderous gangsters, child prostitutes, dark obsessions) but his ability to both innovate on and revisit the techniques of cinematic storytelling have ensured him a place as one of the most iconic directors of his age. It's this sense of historical expertise that combines with the more family-friendly story of Hugo to create a truly wonderful experience that should appeal to anyone with even the slightest love of cinema. It's not a silent film, you don't need to be a fan of silent films to enjoy it, and without spoiling Hugo I'll just say that it's simply spellbinding in the way it unravels and explains the origins of movie magic. You get caught up in it. It's beautiful.

Hugo concerns an orphaned boy named Hugo Cabret (Asa Butterfield) who literally lives in the clockwork of a 1930s Parisian railway station. He's on a mission to repair a clockwork man that his deceased father rescued from a museum, hoping that this automaton will reveal to him some kind of secret that will give his life purpose. Whilst stealing parts for this mission his path crosses with Papa Georges (Ben Kingsley), a grumbling toymaker with a shop in the station. Georges confiscates Hugo's precious notebook, forcing Hugo to join forces with George's ward, Isabella (Chloe Moretz), on an adventure to recover this item and to uncover the mystery of the automaton.

I've restricted a few plot details in the above summary as I really don't want to spoil this film. I'll just say that Hugo deals with themes of usefulness, fate, and fulfilling one's potential. There's an array of supporting characters that fill the film with a lot of life and humour - the highlight probably being Sacha Baron Cohen as the bumbling Station Inspector fixated on delivering lost children to a nearby orphanage. A lot of this comes down to the performances, but it's also due to the wonderful one-of-a-kind book that this film is based on, The Invention of Hugo Cabret, a strikingly original children's novel that combined illustration and text in a unique way to tell a story that paid homage to the great yesteryears of the silent cinema. Scorsese is the perfect director to translate this to the screen, and here's why...

• Not only does Scorsese show the pioneering special effects of the early days of film, he also shows us how they were created. Revealing a magician's secrets would normally deprive the magic of its punch, but in this case it's an illuminating process because it allows the audience (who are about 100 years removed from these early films) to discover the wonder in what we now take for granted.
• Scorsese sneakily employs many techniques of the silent cinema well before their relevance is revealed to the audience. The opening introductory sequence takes place without any dialogue, though you barely notice it. Scorsese frequently allows events to unfold in a physical and organic manner without the presence of talking.
• I was elated to see some stop-motion used in the bit where Hugo repairs a clockwork mouse... stop-motion is rarely used these days, so it was nice to see Scorsese find a place for it in this film. I was further startled some time after this though when Isabella falls over and it looks like she's going to be trampled underfoot, and Scorsese actually uses double-exposure to show this. It's an unusual technique in that it was almost purely used before the advent of the 'talkies', but somehow he manages to make it work here as a homage to these earlier days - a time when the cinema was in a creative state of flux and yet to be constrained by the hallowed rules of filmmaking.

The other part of Hugo that makes it a must-watch is the setting itself. Scorsese has created an enchanting world, if I didn't know better I would've believed that this giant railway station had been constructed as a 100% real place, rather than a collection of ambitious sets combined with CGI and modelwork. There are loads of overhead shots that show the schemata of the place as Hugo races behind walls and through scaffolding behind clockfaces. The film really showcases the environment, and it was breathtaking to see it on the big screen.

I need to watch this film again, and again, and again. It was a brilliant experience and it was everything I could hope for and more. It's the kind of film I think I'll watch whenever I feel my love of movies dwindling, so that it can reaffirm my passion. Let there be no doubt from anyone that Scorsese isn't a master of cinema, he has finally made a piece of art that's entertaining, meaninful and something that anyone of any age or background can enjoy.

DIRECTOR: Martin Scorsese
WRITER/SOURCE: Screenplay by John Logan, based on the novel by Brian Selznick.
KEY ACTORS: Asa Butterfield, Chloe Moretz, Ben Kingsley, Sacha Baron Cohen, Helen McCrory, Christopher Lee, Richard Griffiths, Jude Law, Frances de la Tour, Ray Winstone, Emily Mortimer, Michael Stuhlbarg.

RELATED TEXTS:
- The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick, who followed it up with a similarly structured book called Wonderstruck.
- Martin Scorsese's love for film history can be experience firsthand with the documentary A Personal Journey with Martin Scorsese Through American Film.
- See also the films of Melies, such as A Trip to the Moon, Vanishing Lady, The Four Troublesome Heads, An Impossible Balancing Feat, Joan of Arc and The Merry Frolics of Satan.
- Other films referenced in Hugo include: Safety Last, Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat, The Great Train Robbery, The Thief of Bagdad and The General.

AWARDS
Academy Awards - won Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing and Best Visual Effects. Also nominated for Best Film, Best Director, Best Costume Design, Best Film Editing, Best Original Music and Best Adapted Screenplay.
AFIs - nominated Best International Film and Best International Director.
BAFTAs - won Best Production Design and Best Sound. Nominated for Best Director, Best Cinematography, Best Editing, Best Make Up and Hair, Best Costume Design, Best Original Music and Best Special Visual Effects.
Golden Globes - won Best Director. Nominated for Best Film (Drama) and Best Original Music.