The D in 3D stands for dimensions

Author: E Canuck from Vancouver, Canada
22 November 2011

What Martin Scorcese has managed to do is add story dimensionality to a family film that has 3D technology. Some of the dimensions he's included which don't always make into Hollywood blockbusters are an imaginative and original concept, thematic unity and resonance and deft homage to film itself, in the story of Georges Méliès, French film pioneer.

Saw the film in an advance screening and we were among the many there who were obviously not standard family film consumers. This being a Scorcese film is likely to bring lots of adults to Hugo and I would think many of them, like me, will feel the film stands up as entertainment for all age groups.I especially enjoyed the resonance and intricacy of the theme of clocks, clockworks, animatronics and "the ghost in the machine"--our fear, in the post industrial age that perhaps we are just a rather complex machine, rather than a divine creation. This is all beautifully rendered cinematically. I doubt the little ones will be bewildered while older viewers can pick out levels and layers in the film.

Good fun and visually interesting throughout. The 3D is used in service of the story. I hope Hollywood is watching and notices that special effects are only special when they get the heart of the machine working, like Hugo's little man.

Certaines scènes reprennent des extraits de grands classiques du cinéma. Il s'agit notamment du Voyage dans la Lune (1902) et de Monte là-dessus !(1923)Les séquences dans l'atelier de Méliès, quant à elles, ont été en grande partie inspirées par Le Royaume des fées, Le Cake-walk infernal et Le Palais des mille et une nuits.

Lors de la séquence finale, on peut voir projetés les extraits des films suivants : Le Roi du maquillage, À la conquête du pôle, Le Mélomane, Le Royaume des fées, Papillon merveilleux, La Fée Carabosse ou le poignard fatal, Les Illusions fantaisistes, Les quatre cents farces du diable, Le Voyage à travers l'impossible et Le Voyage dans la lune.

Musique
Outre la musique originale composée par Howard Shore, Jean-Michel Bernard a produit, orchestré et dirigé Dominique Cravic et Les Primitifs du futur, qui ont notamment enregistré une dizaine d'œuvres de Vetese Guerino et Émile Vacher (valses, javas, pasos dobles et fox trots) pour les scènes de bal musette se déroulant dans la brasserie de la gare, ainsi que la reprise d'une chanson de Fragson.

Pendant les séquences utilisant des anciennes œuvres cinématographiques, on peut entendre de la musique classique française du XIXe siècle. On décèle un arrangement de La Danse Macabre de Camille Saint-Saëns, notamment quand les deux jeunes personnages feuillettent le livre de René Tabard. Puis, au cours des séquences qui montrent les scènes des tournages de Méliès jeune, ce sont deux œuvres pour pianos qui accompagnent les images. Pendant le tournage avec le dragon, il s'agit du premier mouvement, Manière de commencement des Morceaux en forme de poire, d'Erik Satie. Ensuite, lorsque le personnage de Méliès brûle ses bobines et ses décors, il s'agit de la Première Gnossienne, du même compositeur.

Trivia

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-The cam mechanism in the automaton is heavily inspired by the machinery in the Jaquet-Droz automata, built between 1768 and 1774. Indeed these automata are still in working condition (they can be seen at the Musée d'Art et d'Histoire of Neuchâtel, in Switzerland) and are capable of drawing figures as complicated as the drawing depicted in the film. Many nuances such as the head following the pen as it was drawing and dipping the pen in ink were also present in the automata in real life.
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-The opening track shot of the city ending at the train station was the very first shot designed and it took one year to complete. It required 1000 computers to render each frame required for the shot.
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-Martin Scorsese and Christopher Lee are very good friends, but up until 2010 had never worked together. Lee's response when he was asked by Scorsese to appear in Hugo was: "It's about time!"
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-In flashbacks we see Georges Méliès staging his productions with lavishly colored sets and costumes. The real Méliès only used sets, costumes and make-up in grayscale, since colored elements might turn out the wrong shade of gray on black and white film. Many of the prints were then hand tinted in post-production.
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-A Nintendo DS game "Hugo Cabret" was planned but never made. It would have been the first ever video-game tie-in for a Martin Scorsese film.
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-Ben Kingsley based his characterization of Georges Méliès on Martin Scorsese.
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-The guitarist, who appears early in the film and also at the Georges Méliès party near the end, is modeled after famed Belgian guitarist Django Reinhardt. The filmmakers even went so far as to have the actor's left hand match Django's: that is, he doesn't use his fourth and fifth fingers (they were burned in a fire).
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-When Ben Kingsley (as Georges Méliès) is seen directing one of his films, the camera operator on screen left is played by his real son Edmund Kingsley.
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-After a screening that James Cameron attended, he called the film a "masterpiece" and told Martin Scorsese it was the best use of 3D he had seen, including his own films.
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-The poem Isabelle recites in the train station to Inspector Gustav is "A Birthday" by Christina Georgina Rossetti.
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-The music during the scene in which Hugo and Isabelle read in the book The Invention of Dreams about the history of film making is Danse Macabre by Camille Saint-Saëns. He is considered to be the first composer ever to write an official movie soundtrack for L'assassinat du duc de Guise (1908), making this musical reference quite apt. (à écouter d'urgence!!...toute son oeuvre)
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-Martin Scorsese directed the 3D cinematography by wearing clip-on 3D lenses over his prescription glasses. This is his first foray into 3D.
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-During the early scene which introduces the interior of the train station, there are appearances by characters representing Django Reinhardt, James Joyce, and Winston Churchill.
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-The driving force behind the film was Martin Scorsese's young daughter Francesca Scorsese who presented him a copy of the Brian Selznick book as a birthday gift hoping that he would make a film out of it someday. It was also her suggestion to have the film presented in 3D format. Rather than having the 3D accomplished by post-conversion, Scorsese decided to have it shot in native format, so together with VFX supervisor Robert Legato and cinematographer Robert Richardson, they spent (before filming) about two weeks at the Cameron/Pace group doing a crash course on filming in that format.
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-The first motion picture by Martin Scorsese fully shot in digital.
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-This film was one of a number of movies that were in competition at the 2012 Academy Awards that was related to France and French culture in some way. The films included The Artist (2011), Hugo Cabret (2011), Cheval de Guerre (2011), Minuit à Paris (2011), Les aventures de Tintin: Le secret de la licorne (2011), Le chat potté (2011) from the French fairy-tale by Charles Perrault, La planète des singes: Les origines (2011) based on the novel by Pierre Boulle and Une vie de chat (2010). Interestingly though, there was no French film nominated for the Best Foreign Film Academy Award (Oscar) in 2012.
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-Martin Scorsese's first feature film to be shot in the 1.85:1 aspect ratio since Les affranchis (1990).
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-Martin Scorsese's first feature film in twelve years not starring Leonardo DiCaprio. His last feature film without DiCaprio was À tombeau ouvert (1999).
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-Martin Scorsese's first PG rated film in 18 years.
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-Robert Richardson's win on the Oscar's cinematographic category for this film meaning that he and Vittorio Storaro are the only present living cinematographers to win the award 3 times.
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-This movie was made and released about four years after its source novel 'The Invention of Hugo Cabret' by Brian Selznick was first published in 2007.
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-This film was one of a group of films that were in competition at the 2012 Academy Awards that referenced film history. This film and The Artist (2011), which both won five Academy Awards, examined silent cinema; La couleur des sentiments (2011) referenced Autant en emporte le vent (1939), its Best Supporting Actress winner Octavia Spencer evoking Hattie McDaniel from that classic; whilst My Week with Marilyn (2011) with two nominations was about the making of Le prince et la danseuse (1957).
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-This Martin Scorsese movie won the same number of Academy Awards as Scorsese's Aviator (2004) totalling five. Both were nominated for Best Picture and Best Director Oscars but lost out. The film also won the same number of Oscars in the same year as The Artist (2011). Both films examined silent cinema.
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-The first 3D movie directed by Martin Scorsese.
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-There are several references to James Joyce in the movie. In the beginning he is standing in the café. Also, the frozen people outside of the apartment building are a direct reference to Joyce's short story "The Dead", which has the central character imagining frozen people in the snow all over Ireland.
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Cameo
Brian Selznick:  The author of the book can be seen at the very end of the movie at Georges Méliès' apartment.
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Director Cameo
Martin Scorsese:  The photographer, is taking a picture of young Georges Méliès outside his new studio and a minute later his voice can be heard in Melies' studio saying "good, that's good, yes".
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Spoilers
The trivia item below may give away important plot points.
The train station depicted is the Gare Montparnasse. The real life Georges Méliès did in fact work as a toymaker at that station after World War I. The derailment scene during Hugo's dream is a reference to the famous 1895 derailment at the station.