Hugo is based on Brian Selznick's “The Invention of Hugo Cabret”, published in 2007, a “mixture of novel, picture book, graphic novel, flip book and film”. Set in the 1930s, it tells the story of the 12-year-old title character, who lives in the secret corners of a Parisian train station and takes care of the clocks. When he is caught stealing one day by the local toy dealer, events are set in motion that to call “fateful” is an understatement.
Both the book and the film are rich in lovingly designed details, cleverly conceived narrative strands and carefully interwoven motifs. But what was it about the material that appealed to Scorsese so much that he acquired the film rights to Selznick's work in the same year it was published? A minor character who gradually creeps into the center and shifts the focus of the narrative: the toy dealer is none other than Georges Méliès, who at the time, forgotten, embittered and impoverished, ran a small store at Montparnasse station. Hugo is a feast for the eyes, in which 3D technology is at the service of the narrative and yet is made to shine - and it is a magical declaration of love to the miracle of the moving image by a master of his art at the height of his abilities.
