In this film Martin Scorsese has made a Tarantino, that is to say, inserting hundreds of references to the film history, blending it with the 'external' story of the orphan Hugo and his adventures. Maybe it's more correct to say that Tarantino usually makes Scorsese's?
The story is though set in 1931 in Paris.
Hugo's (Asa Butterfield) father (Jude Law) works as a clockmaker in Paris and Hugo's mother is dead.
They often go to the movies to see not least the films by George Méliès.
After his fathers death - in a museum fire - Hugo is taken care of (not the correct word in this case) by his alcoholic uncle Claude (Ray Winstone).
The latter works as a watchmaker who is responsible for maintaining the clocks in the railway station. When his uncle has taught him how to handle the clocks, the former disappears, living Hugo all alone. In order to survive he steals food.
Parallel to his work at the station, he's also working on a project his father began, namely repairing a broken automaton, a sort of mechanical, self operating, 'man' or metal 'puppet' (robot) being able to write.
He is though in need of spare parts and he steals them from a toy store owner, that happens to be Méliès (in the body of Ben Kingsley). Hugo doesn't know then that this is his idol from the movies but he will become aware of this later on. Méliés catches him and also takes his blueprints of the automaton away from him, causing Hugo a minor cerebral hemorrhage (metaphorically speaking).
From now on Hugo tries to get the blueprint back; meets the goddaughter of Méliés and his wife - Isabelle (Chloë Grace Moretz) - the young girl not allowed to visit the cinema. In spire ot this Hugo takes her to see a film.
Hugo is also being chased by a zealous station inspector (Sacha Baron Cohen) who is 'collecting' missing, orphans.
Hugo is indirectly helped by a specialist in the films of Méliès and finally he gets to know that the automaton was created by Méliés, now becoming aware of that the old man in the toy shop is 'Le Maître'.
The fact that Méliés didn't want his goddaughter to visit the cinema, was a result of his own chagrin over the fact that the world had forgotten him, one of 'their' finest film magicians.
The film is - as mentioned above - filled with references to the life of Méliés, to the early cinema and to many events in Paris during these years.
One example is when a train is barreling through the walls of the train station, an event actually having happened in Paris.
All these references are very obvious if one know a little about the early cinema and the life of Méliés, actually ending this tragically, being forgotten by the world around him.
Besides this, the film was shot in 3D but as we don't have that technique - yet - in La Châtre (coming this spring), we saw it in a 'normal way'.
On the whole the script is very thin and it circles around the same theme all the time, the scenario not moving forward in any interesting ways.
It's not enough making references to the history of cinema, even though we know that Martin Scorsese is very interested in the history around 'The Seventh Art', a collector of historic items and films.
It's not enough to shot it in 3D as this doesn't add more than a superficial sensation, not lasting longer than the film.
In short, we thought it rather a boring experience, even though one must say that they had succeeded in making Ben Kingsley look very much like George Méliès.
Pointing at the importance of the latter is something Scorsese should be praised for though.
The story is though set in 1931 in Paris.
Hugo's (Asa Butterfield) father (Jude Law) works as a clockmaker in Paris and Hugo's mother is dead.
They often go to the movies to see not least the films by George Méliès.
After his fathers death - in a museum fire - Hugo is taken care of (not the correct word in this case) by his alcoholic uncle Claude (Ray Winstone).
The latter works as a watchmaker who is responsible for maintaining the clocks in the railway station. When his uncle has taught him how to handle the clocks, the former disappears, living Hugo all alone. In order to survive he steals food.
Parallel to his work at the station, he's also working on a project his father began, namely repairing a broken automaton, a sort of mechanical, self operating, 'man' or metal 'puppet' (robot) being able to write.
He is though in need of spare parts and he steals them from a toy store owner, that happens to be Méliès (in the body of Ben Kingsley). Hugo doesn't know then that this is his idol from the movies but he will become aware of this later on. Méliés catches him and also takes his blueprints of the automaton away from him, causing Hugo a minor cerebral hemorrhage (metaphorically speaking).
From now on Hugo tries to get the blueprint back; meets the goddaughter of Méliés and his wife - Isabelle (Chloë Grace Moretz) - the young girl not allowed to visit the cinema. In spire ot this Hugo takes her to see a film.
Hugo is also being chased by a zealous station inspector (Sacha Baron Cohen) who is 'collecting' missing, orphans.
Hugo is indirectly helped by a specialist in the films of Méliès and finally he gets to know that the automaton was created by Méliés, now becoming aware of that the old man in the toy shop is 'Le Maître'.
The fact that Méliés didn't want his goddaughter to visit the cinema, was a result of his own chagrin over the fact that the world had forgotten him, one of 'their' finest film magicians.
The film is - as mentioned above - filled with references to the life of Méliés, to the early cinema and to many events in Paris during these years.
One example is when a train is barreling through the walls of the train station, an event actually having happened in Paris.
All these references are very obvious if one know a little about the early cinema and the life of Méliés, actually ending this tragically, being forgotten by the world around him.
Besides this, the film was shot in 3D but as we don't have that technique - yet - in La Châtre (coming this spring), we saw it in a 'normal way'.
On the whole the script is very thin and it circles around the same theme all the time, the scenario not moving forward in any interesting ways.
It's not enough making references to the history of cinema, even though we know that Martin Scorsese is very interested in the history around 'The Seventh Art', a collector of historic items and films.
It's not enough to shot it in 3D as this doesn't add more than a superficial sensation, not lasting longer than the film.
In short, we thought it rather a boring experience, even though one must say that they had succeeded in making Ben Kingsley look very much like George Méliès.
Pointing at the importance of the latter is something Scorsese should be praised for though.
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