Hugo, 2011.
Directed by Martin Scorsese.
Starring Ben Kingsley, Sacha Baron Cohen, Asa Butterfield, Chloë Grace Moretz, Ray Winstone, Emily Mortimer, and Jude Law.
SYNOPSIS:
Martin Scorsese’s 2011 film Hugo comes to us from Arrow in a new edition featuring 3D and 2D versions of the film as well as an extra Blu-ray packed with bonus features. The breadth and depth of the extras make this one a must-have for fans of the movie.
I’m a sucker for movies about movies, such as The Player, Cinema Paradiso, and others. Hugo is one that holds a special place in my heart, since it focuses on a little-known director from the silent era, Georges Méliès, whose movies were highly influential on subsequent works.
I’m not sure when Méliès’ iconic shot of a rocket hitting the man in the moon in the eye first entered my consciousness, but it seems like it’s been there since I was a kid, so I was glad to gain some context for it through Martin Scorsese’s film.
Our protagonist is 12-year-old Hugo Cabret (Asa Butterfield), who lives with his clockmaker father in Paris in 1931. His mother is deceased, and he loses his father in a fire not long after the pair find and try to repair an automaton, a mechanical representation of a man that is capable of writing with a pen.
Hugo ends up living with his abusive alcoholic uncle Claude (Ray Winstone), who maintains the clocks at a railway station. After Claude disappears, Hugo takes on the task of clock maintenance by himself, living in hiding lest he be found and sent away. He still has the automaton, which he believes could convey a message from his father if it’s fixed.
Hugo befriends a girl named Isabelle whose godfather turns out to be Georges Méliès, now the owner of a toy store in the railway station. The rest of the story involves Hugo’s attempts to get the automaton working again while trying to evade the sadistic station inspector (Sacha Baron Cohen). Méliès and his famous movie A Trip to the Moon, which has a connection to the automaton, factor into the story as well.
Hugo didn’t fare well at the box office when it was released in 2011, but it received a lot of critical acclaim at the time and it was nominated for 11 Oscars, winning six of them. Arrow has now issued it in a couple editions, a three-disc release with 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray, and 3D Blu-ray platters, and another set that has the latter two discs.
The two-disc version, sans the 4K Ultra HD disc, was what Arrow sent to me for this review. They’re only sending out QA discs these days, so I can’t comment on the booklet included here, and I don’t have 3D Blu-ray capability, so I’m not able to offer thoughts on that option.
The inclusion of the 3D version is a curiosity, given the fact that 3D Blu-ray has just about died out these days, except for this film, the Avatar movies, and maybe a couple other releases. I do realize that 3D was important to Scorsese for Hugo over a decade ago; I’m just not sure that the movie-buying public feels the same way these days.
However, you don’t need 3D Blu-ray capability to watch the film, since you can choose between 2D and 3D options when putting the disc in your player. The only extra found on that disc is a commentary track by filmmaker and author Jon Spira, who wrote The Lost Autobiography of Georges Méliès. Spira actually touches on the 3D version of Hugo and why it was important to Scorsese among many other topics, including Méliès himself, the era in which he worked, and much more. It’s one of those “film class in a box” tracks, and I love it.
The other Blu-ray houses the rest of the bonus features. I don’t have previous home video editions of Hugo, so I’m not sure what’s new and what was ported over, but here’s what you’ll find:
• Interviews (108 minutes): This is a trio of discussions with Brian Selznick, author of the book (The Invention of Hugo Cabret) that was the basis for the script, director of photography Robert Richardson, and composer Howard Shore. The first one runs nearly an hour and is a must-watch for fans of the film, while the chat with Richardson is 40 minutes and Shore’s interview clocks in just under 14 minutes.
• Ian Christie on Hugo (23 minutes): The film historian digs deep into the movie as it relates to Scorsese’s career as well as Méliès and other topics. There’s some overlap here with other extras, especially the commentary track, but it’s still worth watching.
• Secret Machines: Hugo and Film Preservation (18.25 minutes): Scout Tafoya, a filmmaker and critic, offers up a visual essay that puts the movie in the context of what was being shown in theaters in 2011. It also touches on Méliès’ work and the desire of Scorsese and others to preserve those and many other classics from the early days of the industry.
• Creating New Worlds (37.75 minutes): French film journalist Julien Dupuy covers Méliès’ life in depth.
• Papa Georges Made Movies (10 minutes): Film historian Pamela Hutchinson discusses the era Méliès worked in, which might seem a bit redundant given all the other extras here, but she gives her talk in London’s Bill Douglas Cinema Museum, where she can illustrate her points with items on display.
• Méliès at the Time of Hugo (7.75 minutes): Spira reappears to focus on what was happening during the filmmaker’s life during the time period covered in the movie.
• Shoot the Moon – The Making of Hugo (19.75 minutes): This is a basic overview of the making of the movie that was found in an earlier release. You could probably skip it if you’ve watched everything else discussed so far.
• The Cinemagician: Georges Méliès (15.75 minutes): A cursory overview of the director which, again, you could probably skip in light of all the information imparted in the extras above.
• The Mechanical Man at the Heart of Hugo (12.75 minutes): The movie’s automaton is the focus of this extra, and it’s worth a watch since none of the other extras dig deep into this topic.
• Big Effects, Small Scale (6 minutes): A quick look at the movie’s visual effects.
• Sacha Baron Cohen: Role of a Lifetime (3.5 minutes): Cohen’s role is a serious one in the film, but, of course, he’s a trickster at heart, and you get a taste of that here.
An image gallery rounds out the platter.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★ ★
Brad Cook
