Film Music Analysis: HUGO, Saint-Saëns, and Scorsese's Adaptation

This report provides an in-depth analysis of the film music in Martin Scorsese's HUGO, focusing on the influence and contributions of composer Camille Saint-Saëns. The report begins with a biographical overview of Saint-Saëns, detailing his early musical prodigy, significant life events, and key compositions. It then connects his musical style and historical context to the film HUGO, examining how his work enhances the narrative, themes, and emotional impact of the movie. The report discusses the adaptation of Brian Selznick's novel, the character of Hugo Cabret, and Scorsese's approach to filmmaking, including his use of 3-D and his personal connection to the story. It further explores the themes of art, memory, and the restoration of forgotten film history, highlighting how Saint-Saëns' music complements these elements. The report also touches upon the historical commentary on the devaluation of art and the effects of war, concluding with a celebration of art's role in culture and life. Work cited are included.

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The composer of music in HUGO is Camille Saint-Saëns. He was one of the most
precocious French musicians ever existed in the 19th century. He begun piano lessons at the age
of two and a half and composed his first melody at three. When he was seven years old, he
studied Pierre Maledin. Upon reaching ten, he added another concert which included
Beethoven`s third piano concert (Saint-Saens, 2012). He displayed the same characteristics of a
genius in his studies since he learned languages and mathematics with ease (Stegemann &
Bilgin, 2O12). He married Marie Truffaut who was 19 years and this brought the saddest phase
in his life. They were blessed with two children who died after six weeks following one another
(Saint-Saens, 2013). The marriage came to an end in the year 1881.In these darkest days of his
life, he was severely challenged and is the time when he came up with most of his work
including: Danse macabre and Samson et Dalila.
He remained very close to his mother who was not in for his marriage. The mother
passed on in 1888 making the composer face another depression in his life (Saint-Saens, 2013).
In the years that followed, he travelled and visited many places and hence making interests in
Algeria and Egypt and then ended up writing Africa in 1891 and then his Piano Concerto no.5
called Egyptian (Saint-Saens, 2013). He later turned out to works which were related to the
exotic places including the most enduring composition called symphony number 3.After the
year 1890, Saint-Saëns' melody was considered with condescension in his home country (Saint-
Saens, 2012). In USA and England, he was known to be the France`s most famous and greatest
composer of the century (Strasser, 2014). He faced a triumphant concert tour after he went to
USA in 1915.he had remained attached to his dogs in the last two decades and appeared to be a
loner to a big extent. He passed on in Algeria on 16th December 1921 (Saint-Saëns, 2012).

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The adaptation of Martin Scorsese of Brian Selznicks price winning Novel the invention
of Hugo, as a boy who is orphaned and who lives with his uncle in a train station in Paris (Fauré,
2012). He is sent to live with his uncle after the death of his father in a fire. He learns the tactics
of wiping the clocks running throughout the station. His uncle disappears one of those fine days
and then Hugo decides to keep the maintenance of the clock with hopes that nobody will catch
him squatting in the station (Saint-Saëns, 2012).
He had a natural engineering amplitude which made him steal gears, tools and some other
items from a toy shopkeeper who keeps maintenance of a storefront in this station (Gallois,
2013). Hugo needed those pieces to rebuild a mechanical man that was left under the eyes of the
father at the museum (the restoration was the father and son project in common).when Ben
kingsley who runs the toy stand caught on to the thievery, he warned that he would take Hugo to
the nearest police officer who would without doubts sent Hugo to the nearest children’s
orphanage just as he did to the other children who were orphans (CAMILLE, 2013). However,
Hugo’s run in to the old man turns out to be a great friendship with the elderly man’s
goddaughter Isabelle, who has the last item needed by Hugo to make the mechanical man to
come into functionality once more.
Unlike any other movie that Martin Scorsese has ever made, Hugo is the closest one in
his heart and the biggest budget, a family epic in 3-D and to some extent a mirror of his life.
Here, there is a feeling that a great artist has been given the command of the resources and the
tools with which he needs to make a movie about. He also makes it a fable to some children (if
not all) hence measuring the feeling that went into it (Saint-Saens, 2013).
The story of his hero Hugo Cabret is an own story of Scorsese. He was in Paris in his 30s
and schooled himself in the working of mechanisms of an art. The latter runs in the family

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(Baumann, 2014). Hugo’s uncle is the overall boss in the clock at cavernous at the train station in
Paris. The dream of his father lies under the completion of an automaton, an automated man that
he found lying in the museum (Fauré, 2012). However, he passes on and leaves his dream
unfulfilled.
Rather than being kept and treated as an orphan, the little boy hides himself in a made of
ladders, catwalks, gears and passages of the clockwork themselves and keeps running just on
time (Baumann, 2014). He feeds from the croissants that are snatched from the station shops and
commences to sneak off to the movies. His life is made a little bit more complicated by an owner
of a certain shop by the name Georges Melies, the old man`s character played by Ben Kingsley
who is the immortal French film pioneer and the primary inventor of the automaton. Hugo does
not have any idea concerning the latter (Gallois, 2013). The factual Mellies was a magician who
made attempts to play tricks on his first movie to the audience.
There is also a parallel asthmatic Scorsese who lives in Italy although not of it but
observing life from the windows of his apartment building, soaking up the cinema from the
television ,making an adoption of greater directors of his mentors and then rescuing their jobs
after a couple of years of neglect (Fauré, 2012).
The method Hugo uses to deal with Melies is enchanting in itself. However, the films
first half is devoted to the adventure of the young hero. There is also the usage of another
technique to create the train station also the city (Gallois, 2013). The entrance swoops above the
large city scape of Paris and then comes into an halt with Hugo peering out through an opening
in the face of the clock which is far above the floor of the play station .We then follow this
adventure of Dicken as he keeps a step ahead of the choleric station inspector (Saint-Saens,

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2012) .Hugo makes it to escape back to his refuge behind the walls and above the stations
ceiling.
His father who is seen in flashbacks left behind notebooks which included part of his
plans to finish the automaton. Hugo appears to be somewhat a genius with gears, springs and
also levers. He is also a steampunk great work of the shining steel brass (Saint-Saens, 2013).
Hugo shares his secrets one day with a girl named Isabelle who also resides in the station
and was raised by Melies and his wife. They introduce one another to their secret lives as
explored by the book. The two kids are mile apart from the goofballs in most family pictures
(Saint-Saens, 2013). The coming out to befriend Isabella (a grandchild to the stallholder) is an
indication of the collapse of both the private and public space in the human narrative (Saint-
Saens, 2013).in the process of working towards the recovery of Hugo’s notebook which is
confiscated and then the repair of the automaton, the two discover a piece that was forgotten in
the film history (CAMILLE, 2013). What is seen by this film is slowly explained and revealed
for the benefit of viewers and is extremely rewarding since it is based on a true story.
The best scenes comes in the second part of the cinema whereby flashbacks are used to
trace back the history and work of Georges Melies. Scorsese has made numerous documentaries
concerning the great film and directors and this is whereby he brings the story telling with
outstanding skills (Strasser, 2014). Melies is seen building the first fantastical set and bizarre
costumes to come up with films that have magical effects. As the plot makes a handful
connections, the hold man gets to discover that he is not overlooked but is honored as worthy of
Pantheon.

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There are two images that resonate throughout Hugo: the clock and the automation. The
continued constant tick tocks of the clock and the sound represent the period of change and
progress between the world wars and the rush from the past (Stegemann & Bilgin, 2O12). It also
reminds of the risk of forgetting people, events that deserve a better recognition. The body of the
automaton is a symbol of humanity that has been damaged ad made expendable by war.
However, there is hope that technology can liberate to create world. Both of these images are a
clear message that we are living in world where we can receive barrage of information and other
sensory stimuli (Saint-Saëns, 2012). In Hugo, Scorsese delivers a film that is a passionate and
also a good reminder of the essential role that art should play in our culture and lives. Hugo also
displays the joy of reading, an aspect that is fitting to the society in which we live (Saint-Saens,
2013). It has historical commentary on the devaluation of art times of economic hardship and the
effects of war to the souls of a nation.
Hugo celebrates the birth of the show and gives a drama on Scorsese`s individual cause,
the old film preservation of the old films. In one of the given scenes and which is heartbreaking,
we come to know that Melies had melted down many films when he was convinced that the
celluloid they gave could be used in the manufacture of women’s shoes (Saint-Saens, 2013).

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Work cited
Baumann, E., 2014. Les grandes formes de la musique. s.l.:s.n.
CAMILLE, S.-S., 2013. FRENCH CHANSONS: SAINT-SAENS, FAURE, DEBUSSY, FOR SATB AND SATB/PIANO.
s.l.:s.n.
Fauré, G., 2012. Camille Saint-Saëns. La revue musicale. s.l.:s.n.
Gallois, J., 2013. Charles-Camille Saint-Saëns. Mradga: s.n.
Saint-Saens, C., 2012. Camille Saint-Saens. Astronomy. 33 ed. s.l.:s.n.
Saint-Saëns, C., 2012. Musical memories. Maynard: s.n.
Saint-Saëns, C., 2012. Outspoken Essays on Music. s.l.:Trubner & Company, Limited..
Saint-Saens, C., 2012. Portraits and memories. s.l.:Art publishing company..
Saint-Saens, C., 2013. Harmony and melody . Calmann Levy.. s.l.:s.n.
Saint-Saens, C., 2013. Truancy school: notes and memories . Lafitte. s.l.:s.n.
Stegemann, M. & Bilgin, O., 2O12. Camille Saint-Saens . Rowohlt.. s.l.:s.n.
Strasser, M., 2014. Camille Saint-Saëns. s.l.:s.n.