FernFolio

Hugo Cabret lives in a secret apartment hidden deep within one of the great train stations of 1930s Paris. His clock maker father dead in a terrible fire and his drunken brute of an uncle vanished, Hugo travels the secret passageways and tunnels of the train station, keeping its twenty-seven clocks running and on time, and hoping that no one will notice his uncle’s disappearance before he can repair the wonderful clockworks man his father was working on at the time of his death.
The clockworks man, or automaton, is seated at a table, pen in hand and poised to write. Hugo is convinced that, if he can repair the automaton, it will reveal to him a final message from his father.
Without money for food and other necessities, Hugo is forced to steal from the many cafés and shops in the train station. Needing parts to fix the automaton, he also steals small wind-up toys from a toy booth opposite the main station clock, until, one day, Monsieur Georges, the old man who runs the booth, catches Hugo and forces him to empty his pockets. To Hugo’s horror, the old man takes from him the notebook in which his father detailed how the automaton might be repaired. Though Hugo begs him to return it, Monsieur Georges refuses and says that he plans to burn the notebook.
So begins Hugo’s desperate bid to reclaim the notebook. Enlisting the help of old Georges’ goddaughter, Isabelle, and her friend, Etienne, he risks everything to finish the repairs to the automaton and learn, finally, the mystery of the clockwork writer’s message.
A deliciously dark mixture of text and black and white images, including original drawings and period photos from the earliest days of French film, The Invention of Hugo Cabret is both a mystery and a celebration of the magic of cinematography.
FernFolio Editor