Cast and Crew:   Brian Selznick (Book); Johnny Depp (Producer); Howard Shore (Original Music); Sacha Baron Cohen, Emily Mortimer, Christopher Lee

What It’s About: Hugo Cabret (Asa Butterfield) lives in the walls of a Paris train station, an orphan whose uncle Claude (Ray Winstone) is a drunk who is supposed to keep the clocks of the station running.  Cabret manages this duty for him and lives by his wits, but everything changes when he meets Isabelle (Chloe Grace Moretz) and her god father, Georges Melies (Ben Kingsley), a toy maker and shop keeper who holds the key to solving the mystery of the automaton that Hugo’s father (Jude Law) left Hugo.

Why Watch it Today?: Georges Melies, the pioneering filmmaker who Martin Scorcese pays loving tribute to in today’s film, died on this date in 1938.

Other Choices:  Georges Melies own film, From Earth to the Moon, is one of his most referenced works.