muslims-who-helped-save-french-jews/

http://forward.com/articles/149041/muslims-who-helped-save-french-jews/?p=all

Benjamin Stora, an Algerian-born writer and political activist who turned 61 in December, has for years combined history and self-history as a North African Jew. Most recently he has become embroiled in a controversy about the role that Muslims may have played in saving French Jews during the Holocaust.




As adviser for the acclaimed French film “Free Men” (“Les Hommes Libres”), the prolific Stora was responsible for its historical accuracy. Released in Paris in the fall, and set for American arrival in the spring of 2012, “Free Men” tells how, in German-occupied Paris during World War II, a young Algerian immigrant unexpectedly joins the anti-Nazi resistance after becoming friends with a Jewish cafe singer. Co-written and directed by Ismaël Ferroukhi, a Frenchman born in Morocco, “Free Men” is inspired by real-life episodes in which Si Kaddour Ben Ghabrit, an Algerian-born high-society lover of the arts who served as the rector of the Great Mosque of Paris, managed to save the life of Jewish singer Salim Halali, who would later become a well-known performer of North African music.

Born Simon Halali in Algeria, the singer was performing in Paris by the late 1930s. The artsy and intellectual Ben Ghabrit was also an amateur violinist and oud player. He frequented high-toned Gallic salons, where he was admired as the “most Parisian of Muslims.” He hired Halali to perform at the Café Maure de la Mosquée, a North African-style coffeehouse and tearoom still located within the Great Mosque in Paris’s 5th Arrondissement.


Ben Ghabrit, although required to collaborate with the Nazi-controlled French Vichy government, was also a close friend of Mohammed V, King of Morocco. The latter monarch’s laudable efforts to protect his Jewish subjects during the Second World War have led to his name, among others, currently being bruited about to be named one of the “Righteous Among the Nations,” an initiative that Shimon Peres reportedly supports. As Eva Weisel pointed out in a December 28 Op-Ed in The New York Times, getting Yad Vashem to grant the honorific to a Muslim seems to be unusually difficult.


If not quite this heroic, Ben Ghabrit did indeed save Halali by issuing him a false certificate of Muslim religion to mislead the Nazis. To back up this document, the name of Halali’s father was even inscribed on a blank headstone in the Muslim cemetery of the Parisian suburb of Bobigny.




“Free Men” cites other cases of such false certificates being issued, although the full number has been a matter of dispute, with undocumented estimates ranging from more than 1,500 to a scant few, depending on the account. After “Free Men” opened, a number of articles on the news and culture website rue89.com alleged that the film exaggerated the number of such salvations. The articles also implied that the filmmakers painted a misleading portrait of solidarity between Arabs and Jews.



In an October reply posted on the website, Stora explained that the film was centered on the true story of Halali as well as that of two little Jewish girls whose rescue by Mosque officials was authentic because Stora had personally interviewed them as part of his previous research. Stora further explained that “Free Men” is a fictional film based on factual incidents, in the manner of Claude Berri’s much loved “Le Vieil Homme et L’enfant,” “The Two of Us”, about an old Frenchman who shelters a Jewish child during the Nazi occupation. Stora concluded the polemic over how many Jewish lives were actually saved by Arabs by reminding readers of the talmudic saying “Whoever saves one life, if it is as if they had saved the whole world.”


Precisely the same phrase is cited in a 2006 Washington Post article by Robert Satloff, author of “Among the Righteous: Lost Stories From the Holocaust’s Long Reach Into Arab Lands (PublicAffairs, 2006).” In The Washington Post, Satloff stated: “There is strong evidence that the most influential Arab in Europe — Si Kaddour [Ben Ghabrit], the rector of the Great Mosque of Paris — saved as many as 100 Jews by having the mosque’s administrative personnel give them certificates of Muslim identity, with which they could evade arrest and deportation.”




Whatever the actual numbers may be, equally pertinent both to history and to its fictional filming in “Free Men” is to understand what would motivate an impoverished Algerian immigrant, psychologically and emotionally, to fight Nazis in defense of Jews. Here, Stora’s professional and life expertise is invaluable, as recounted in his “self-history,” “Three Exiles: Algerian Jews” (“Les Trois Exils, Juifs d’Algérie”), reprinted this past spring by Pluriel.



In “Three Exiles” and other works, Stora uses his own family history as a springboard for understanding the historical fate of North Africans — more specifically Algerians, and even more specifically, Algerian Jews. Stora ranges from accounts of brutal anti-Semitic oppression to sweet memories of Jewish cultural delights in Constantine, Algeria, such as the Sephardic culinary wonder known as la dafina, the slow-cooked Sabbath-evening dish that is sometimes inadequately described as a North African cholent; in Constantine, la dafina was a patiently simmered concoction of beef, potatoes, chickpeas, eggs and spinach, among other ingredients.



In 1962, Stora and his parents left such delicacies behind after his homeland’s independence from France was declared. They settled in France, where he still lives in the working-class Paris suburb of Asnières-sur-Seine. At first feeling estranged in his new surroundings, Stora found context and purpose during Paris’s 1968 student revolution, when he became a Trotskyite activist alongside such budding politicians as Lionel Jospin, who would later serve as France’s prime minister and as the Socialist Party candidate for his country’s presidency. Stora’s own political achievements were humbler, although they did alienate his father, a traditional-minded semolina salesman from Algeria, and his mother, whose only dream was for her son to embrace the stable career of dentistry.

Instead, Stora acquired the historical and social acumen to appreciate working-class sufferings and to see why in Paris, circa 1940, some Algerian immigrant laborers were ardent anti-fascists and devoted supporters of Léon Blum’s socialist Front Populaire. As ill-treated immigrants, some Arabs preferred to side with persecuted working-class Jews rather than haughty Nazi propagandists within France’s Vichy government. In a comparable way, North African Jews enjoyed the music and culture on offer at the Paris Mosque, where they could be sure to avoid pork products, elsewhere a French culinary staple, in any meals served. Stora notes that even today, we can encounter French Jews who during wartime requested to be documented as Muslims at the Paris Mosque in order to save their families.




On the human level and the cinematic scale of “Free Men,” Stora’s judgment has been wholly validated. And in the historical context, Satloff writes in “Among the Righteous” that albeit in very modest numbers, it can be demonstrated that during “Nazi, Vichy, and Fascist persecution of Jews in Arab lands, and in every place that it occurred, Arabs helped Jews.”



When the first volume of Stora’s “The Algerian War Seen by Algerians,” (“La Guerre d’Algérie Vue par les Algériens”) appeared in 2007 from Les Éditions Denoël, it was praised by Le Monde for “offering a viewpoint, in the cinematographic sense of the word, which is both original and up-to-date.” This same cinematographic sensibility made it only a matter of time before Stora’s talents hit the big screen. He was historical adviser for the 1992 French film “Indochine” which won the Oscar for best foreign film, and he wrote the documentary “The Algerian Years,” broadcast by France 2 television in 1991. In “Les Hommes Libres,” Stora has found a subject of unprecedented closeness to his heart and the essence of his work as a historian.



Benjamin Ivry is a frequent contributor to the Forward.







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Salim Halali

http://www.youtube.com/artist/salim-halali

Note the film "FREE MEN" where his vocal reproducings of Andalusian music is simulated.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWn8EFE5VDg

Long playlist   

http://www.roxtag.com/Home.aspx?tag=D6u1SkwoIg-y8LS1xFKz-g



Andalusian Mahwwal singer and dabukkah master

He deliberately escaped fame which dogged him

Passed away 2005 Cannes  in deliberate anonymity

A sephardic Jew protected in the Mosque of Paris during the Nazi infestation of Paris WWII. Protected by the rector of that Mosque   .SEE my other post on this righteous saver of lives,  Si Kaddour Ben Gabrit

Arab-Andalusian music

http://archive.org/details/OrchestraOfTheTetouanConservatory_SahraLasamir_BasitRasdDayl

Orchestra Of The Tetouan Conservatory - Sahra Lasamir 1970s - BasitRasdDayl


This is a collection of Arab-Andalusian music recordings which were performed at a soiree in the city of Tetouan (Morocco) in the 1970s.


The recordings are specifically from mizan "basit" of the nawba "rasd dayl".


This audio is part of the collection: Community Audio


It also belongs to collection:

Arabic




Artist/Composer: Orchestra Of The Tetouan Conservatory




I have grown in appreciation and grown thereby of Andalusian music . Note the dance scene and sequence of  the film "Free Men"

Si Kaddour Ben Gabrit,

http://www.voanews.com/content/paris-mosque-sheltered-jews-during-world-war-ii-131779553/146563.html

A newly released film in France depicts for the first time how the Paris Mosque saved Jews and Muslim resistance fighters during World War II.




Troves of books, movies and articles have been released over the years in France describing almost every facet of World War II and the Nazi occupation here. But one historical nugget has been largely overlooked - the role played by Muslims during that dark period of French history.



A new movie aims to right the record. Released two weeks ago in cinemas across the country, "Les Homme Libres" - "Free Men" in English - describes how the former rector of the Paris Mosque, Si Kaddour Ben Gabrit, offered shelter and Muslim identity to Jews and resistance fighters. Just how many Jews is a matter of dispute. Some say very few. What is certain, is that gesture saved them from deportation and death.



The current rector of the Paris Mosque, Dalil Boubakeur, is no stranger to this story.



Boubakeur says he has tried for years to focus public attention to Ben Gabrit's acts through public conferences and the media. But he says he has had a hard time digging into the past. Many first-hand witnesses have died. Documents remain buried in government offices.



There have been a handful of accounts of the role played by the Paris mosque and Muslims in wartime France. But this is the first time it has been depicted in a movie.



Benjamin Stora, a North Africa expert who was a consultant for the film, say it is a first in other ways.



"Through the movie, French have learned that nearly 100,000 North Africans lived in France in the 1930s and '40s," Stora says. "Most were from Algeria. Some collaborated with the Nazis, but others joined the French resistance. Many French are only aware of the massive immigration of North African workers here after the war."



Stora says one reason that French know so little about the Muslim community of that era is that many later became resistance fighters during Algeria's war of liberation from France. Their World War II past was buried.



"Sephardic, or North African Jews, also lived in Paris during Nazi occupation. Like their Muslim counterparts, they spoke Arabic," said Stora. "The two communities shared the same food and love of Andalusian music."



Today, the relationship between French Jews and Muslims has deteriorated - reflecting the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Paris Mosque rector Boubakeur is among a number of religious leaders trying to improve ties between the two communities.



Boubakeur believes the movie might improve relations between Muslims and Jews here - changing the way each looks at the other. And for French citizens in general, it highlights a time when Muslims here reached out a hand to help those in great danger.




SYNOPSIS


1942, in German-occupied Paris. Younes, a young unemployed Algerian, earns his living as a black marketeer. Arrested by the French police but given a chance to avoid jail, Younes agrees to spy on the Paris Mosque. The police suspects the Mosque authorities, among which its rector Ben Ghabrit (played by Michael Lonsdale), of aiding Muslim Resistance agents, as well as helping North African Jews, by giving them false certificates. At the Mosque, Younes meets the Algerian singer Salim Halali, and is moved by Salim’s beautiful voice and strong personality. A deep friendship develops, and soon after Younes discovers that Salim is Jewish. In spite of the risks it entails, Younes stops collaborating with the police, and gradually develops from being a politically ignorant immigrant worker into a fully-fledged freedom fighter
    How is the movie born?

Everything started with a “Le Nouvel Observateur” article in which I read that the Mosque of Paris had hidden some members of the Resistance and Jews during World War II. After doing some research, I discovered that there was an important community of people from North Africa in Paris who had emigrated before the war. These people were working in factories; there were also Arabic cabarets, a Muslim hospital in Bobigny and a cemetery. I was really surprised since I had never heard of it before. Trying to find more information about Kaddour Ben Gabrit, creator and director of the Mosque, I discovered a generous but complex and deeply religious man. He was both reserved and open, being part of the Parisian life and also interested in music and art. Then a friend of mine told me that Ben Ghabrit saved his Jewish grandmother during the war. I wanted to write this story as soon as possible. “If Ben Ghabrit did not exist I would not be here today” said my friend who had never mentioned this before, though I’ve known him for years. This had a great impact on me.     What kind of research did you perform?

I worked with two historians: Benjamin Storam, specialist of the Maghreb region, and Pascal Le Pautremat, who has been working for years on the subject of Islam in France. I needed to be surrounded by experts to get historical documents. I wanted to have some historical and realistic background to be able to explore fiction after

Ensemble (Film Short)

Based on the true, yet still nearly unbelievable story of the life and actions of Si Kaddour Ben Gabrit, the rector of the Paris Mosque during WWII, who saved as many as 1600 Jews from the Nazis, Ensemble is a fictional retelling of this story through the eyes of Isaac, a boy on the run who finds refuge at the Paris Mosque, and its Imam, Ahmed. This is a short film that will leave a lasting impression.

Crossing_Over

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crossing_Over_(film)
Crossing Over (film)From Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaJump to: navigation, search Crossing Over




Directed by Wayne Kramer

Produced by Wayne Kramer

Frank Marshall

Written by Wayne Kramer

Starring Harrison Ford

Ray Liotta

Ashley Judd

Music by Mark Isham

Cinematography James Whitaker

Editing by Arthur Coburn

Studio Kennedy/Marshall

Distributed by The Weinstein Company

Release date(s) February 27, 2009 (2009-02-27)



Running time 113 minutes

Country United States

Language English

Box office $3,030,259



Crossing Over is a 2009 American independent drama film about illegal immigrants of different nationalities struggling to achieve legal status in Los Angeles. The film deals with the border, document fraud and extortion, the asylum and green card process, work-site enforcement, naturalization, the office of counter-terrorism, and the clash of cultures. Crossing Over was written and directed by Wayne Kramer, himself an immigrant from South Africa, and is a remake of his 1995 short film of the same name. Kramer produced the film alongside Frank Marshall.



Contents [hide]

1 Plot

2 Cast

3 Production

4 Release

5 Reception

6 References

7 External links





Plot [edit]There are several stories interwoven throughout the movie. For simplicity, they are separated out in this description, each with its own paragraph.



After immigrant Mireya Sanchez is deported, immigration officer Max Brogan takes care of her little son and brings him to the boy's grandparents in Mexico. Later the woman is found dead near the border. Brogan returns to the grandparents to tell them the bad news.



Taslima Jahangir, a 15-year-old girl from Bangladesh, presents a paper at school promoting that people should try to understand the 9/11 hijackers. The school principal reports this to authorities. FBI agents raid the home and ransack the girl's room, reading her diaries and a school assignment on the ethics of suicide; they criticize her room as "too austere" and note that she has an account on an Islamic website. The profiler says this makes her look like a would-be suicide bomber. Taslima is not charged for this, but it turns out that she stays in US illegally. She was born in Bangladesh and brought to the United States at age three. Taslima's continued presence jeopardizes his chances and puts at risk her two younger siblings, who are US citizens because they were born in the country Denise Frankel, the immigration defense attorney, suggests that instead of the whole family's being deported, Taslima can leave for Bangladesh with her mother while the rest of the family stays in the U.S.



Cole Frankel, an immigration officer, gets into a car accident with Claire Shepard, an aspiring actress from Australia. Realizing that she is in the country illegally, Cole makes an arrangement with Claire whereby she will have unlimited sex with him for two months in exchange for a green card. When Cole eventually says he wants to leave his wife for Claire, she makes it clear that she holds him in contempt and is only sleeping with him for the green card. In a moment of clarity, Cole exempts Claire from completing the two months and arranges for her to get her green card in the mail. Authorities eventually confront Claire about the suspiciousness in her immigration paperwork, and she admits to the sexual arrangement she had with Cole and leaves the country "voluntarily". Cole is arrested. His wife Denise Frankel adopts a little girl from Nigeria, who has already been in the detention center for several years.



Brogan has an Iranian American colleague, Hamid Baraheri. Hamid's family disapproves of his sister's having sex with Javier Pedroza, a married man. Encouraged by his father, Hamid's brother plans to scare the couple, but things get out of hand: he shoots both of them, and goes to Hamid, who helps him hide the evidence. Brogan slowly suspects Hamid's involvement as the film progresses.



Also, Javier Pedroza works in a copy shop and makes extra money by providing counterfeit immigration papers. Claire had previously paid him for false papers before she had made her arrangement with Cole. But when Javier was killed, the authorities discovered her documents among his belongings, leading the immigration team to examine Claire's case more closely.



South Korean teenager Yong Kim is about to be naturalized with the rest of his family, but he has started to hang out with a bad crowd and ultimately participates in a convenience store robbery to "pop his cherry" with his gang. Hamid happens to be at the same convenience store and kills the other robbers but (due to his own guilt over his involvement in his sister's death) lets Yong Kim go free.



Gavin Kossef, an atheist Jewish musician from the United Kingdom pretends to be a religious Jew in order to get a job at a Jewish school, which allows him to stay in the U.S. In a test in which he has to demonstrate his familiarity with the Jewish religion he does not perform properly, but a rabbi asked to assess it approves it because of his voice. After the test, in private, the rabbi requires the immigrant to take lessons from him to eliminate the deficiencies in his knowledge.

Joe_the_King

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_the_King

Joe the KingFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaJump to: navigation, search Joe the King


Directed by Frank Whaley

Produced by Jennifer Dewis, Scott Macaulay, Lindsay Marx, Robin O'Hara

Written by Frank Whaley

Starring Noah Fleiss

Val Kilmer

Karen Young

Ethan Hawke

John Leguizamo

Austin Pendleton

Camryn Manheim

Max Ligosh

James Costa

Release date(s) 1999

Country United States

Language English



Joe the King is a 1999 drama film, written and directed by Frank Whaley, based largely on his own childhood and the childhood of his brother. It stars Noah Fleiss, Val Kilmer, Karen Young, Ethan Hawke, John Leguizamo, Austin Pendleton, Camryn Manheim, Max Ligosh and James Costa. The film premiered at the 1999 Sundance Film Festival, where it won the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award (shared with Guinevere).



Contents [hide]

1 Plot

2 Trivia

3 References

4 External links





Plot [edit]14-year-old Joe Henry (Noah Fleiss) has spent his life in an abusive household. His father Bob (Val Kilmer) is a raging violent alcoholic, while his mother, Theresa (Karen Young) feels too stressed to pay attention to him and lives in fear of getting caught in the path of her husband's wrath. His brother, about a year older, is normal and friendly, but offers no affirmative guidance. He mostly ignores Joe as he doesn't want the association of Joe's natural uncoolness ruining his attempts to get into the "in" crowd. Joe is taunted by his classmates, and hassled by creditors about his father's mounting bills. To make matters worse, one night Bob goes off the deep end and smashes all of Theresa's records. In response to economic pressure, he takes a full-time job after school, leaving him tired and even less able to keep up with class work. Far worse, he becomes a petty thief to raise the money to pay Bob's bills and replace her records. He even does an insider job--robbing the diner where he works illegally.



Failing in school, Joe is assigned a Guidance counselor Leonard Coles (Ethan Hawke), who, though reasonably friendly, is incompetent. (For example, in their first session, when Joe starts to talk about his problems, the counselor unthinkingly shuts him off). Disaster eventually strikes, and Joe faces the rest of his seemingly doomed life in doubt. Ironically, where he winds up next seems more like hope than tragedy. Perhaps a chance to get away from his horrible childhood and family.



Trivia [edit]This film marks Frank Whaley's directorial debut. Whaley himself has referred to this movie as "semi-autobiographical." For the childhood of him and his older brother, Robert.

John Leguizamo was originally set to direct the film, but while doing "Summer of Sam" and his latest one-man show "Freak" as well as being cast as Jorge, Frank Whaley stepped in as director. Leguizamo acted as well as staying on as executive producer.

Whaley has a director's cameo as one of the residents of the town Bob owes money to. He's the unnamed mustachioed man in the scene where Joe is watching his father being pushed and yelled at right near their home.

Val Kilmer gained a significant amount of weight for his role as an abusive alcoholic father.

Near the end of the movie where Henry is making an attempt to tell Joe how much he really cares, the lullaby music coming from the ice cream truck was unintentional. But Whaley liked the way it played in the scene, so he left it in.

References [edit]Bernard, Jami (October 15, 1999). "'Joe the King': Poignancy Rules". Daily News.

Deming, Mark "Joe the King". Allmovie.

External links [edit]Joe the King at the Internet Movie Database

Joe the King at AllRovi

HUGO

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugo_(film)

Hugo (film)From Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaJump to: navigation, search Hugo




Theatrical release poster

Directed by Martin Scorsese

Produced by Graham King

Timothy Headington

Martin Scorsese

Johnny Depp

Screenplay by John Logan

Based on The Invention of Hugo Cabret

by Brian Selznick

Starring Ben Kingsley

Sacha Baron Cohen

Asa Butterfield

Chloë Grace Moretz

Ray Winstone

Emily Mortimer

Christopher Lee

Helen McCrory

Michael Stuhlbarg

Frances de la Tour

Richard Griffiths

Jude Law

Music by Howard Shore

Cinematography Robert Richardson

Editing by Thelma Schoonmaker

Studio GK Films

Infinitum Nihil

Distributed by Paramount Pictures (Worldwide)

Entertainment Film Distributors (UK)

Release date(s) November 23, 2011 (2011-11-23)

[1]

Running time 128 minutes

Country United Kingdom

United States

France

Language English

Budget $150 to $170 million[2]

Box office $185,770,160[3]



Hugo is a 2011 3D historical adventure drama film based on Brian Selznick's novel The Invention of Hugo Cabret about a boy who lives alone in the Gare Montparnasse railway station in Paris. It is directed and co-produced by Martin Scorsese and adapted for the screen by John Logan. It is a co-production between Viacom's Nickelodeon Movies, Graham King's GK Films and Johnny Depp's Infinitum Nihil. The film stars Asa Butterfield, Chloë Grace Moretz, Ben Kingsley, Sacha Baron Cohen, Helen McCrory, Ray Winstone, Emily Mortimer, Jude Law, and Christopher Lee.



Hugo is Scorsese's first film shot in 3D, of which the filmmaker remarked: "I found 3D to be really interesting, because the actors were more upfront emotionally. Their slightest move, their slightest intention is picked up much more precisely."[4] The film was distributed by Paramount Pictures and released in the U.S. on 23 November 2011.[5]



The film was received with critical acclaim, with many critics praising the visuals, acting, and direction. At the 84th Academy Awards, Hugo won five Oscars—for Best Cinematography, Best Art Direction, Best Visual Effects, Best Sound Mixing, and Best Sound Editing—and its 11 total nominations (including Best Picture) was the most for the evening.[6] Hugo also won two BAFTAs and was nominated for three Golden Globe Awards, earning Scorsese his third Golden Globe Award for Best Director.



Contents [hide]

1 Plot

2 Cast

3 Production

4 Historical references

5 Box office performance

6 Critical reception

7 Top ten lists

8 Accolades

9 References

10 External links





[edit] PlotIn 1931, Hugo Cabret (Asa Butterfield) is a 12-year-old boy living in the walls of the Paris Gare Montparnasse railway station, where he mends the station's clocks. Previously, he was raised by his widowed father, a museum worker (Jude Law). His father had doted on Hugo, teaching him the art of repairing mechanical devices, taking him to movies, and showing him how he was repairing an automaton (mechanical man) that supposedly could write a message. After his father was killed in a museum fire Hugo was taken in by his alcoholic uncle Claude (Ray Winstone) who showed little sentiment for Hugo but taught the boy how to maintain the clocks at the station. When Claude disappears, Hugo continues to maintain the clocks while eking out a living by stealing food and supplies. All the while Hugo lives in fear that if the vigilant Station Inspector (Sacha Baron Cohen) were to discover him, he would be turned over to an orphanage.



Hugo continues the work on the automaton. Relying on his father's notebook for insight, he steals the required parts wherever he can, including from the shop of a toymaker who makes and sells mechanical toys. One day, he is finally caught by the bitter toymaker, Papa Georges (Ben Kingsley), who has long known that Hugo robs him. Georges looks through Hugo's father's notebook, is evidently strongly affected by it, and keeps it despite Hugo's protests. Hugo is forced to trail Georges to his home to retrieve it. There, he meets Georges' goddaughter, Isabelle (Chloë Grace Moretz), who promises to help.



At the station on the following day Georges gives some ashes to Hugo, referring them as the remains of the notebook. Later, Isabelle tells him that the notebook was not burnt, adding that the notebook has somehow deeply disturbed her Papa Georges. Finally, Georges tells Hugo that he may earn his notebook back if he works in the toy store every day to pay for all the items Hugo stole. During his free time, Hugo continues to work on the automaton. When it is finished, however, it is still missing one part: a heart-shaped key that goes into the back of the automaton to make it work.



As the two grow close together, Hugo takes Isabelle to the movies, something that Georges would never let her do, while she introduces him to a bookstore owner (Christopher Lee) who has loaned her books in the past.





A Georges Méliès drawing similar to the one drawn by the automaton in the filmHugo is surprised to find that Isabelle wears a heart-shaped key as a necklace. He asks to borrow it, but Isabelle refuses to lend the key to Hugo unless he tells her why he needs it. At first Hugo declines, but his desire to see the automaton operate eventually leads him to take Isabelle to see the automaton. They use the key to start the automaton, and watch as it draws out an iconic image from the film Voyage to the Moon by the film pioneer Georges Méliès. When the automaton writes a signature beneath the drawing, Isabelle recognizes the name as her godfather's own. They take the drawing to Georges' home for an explanation. They ask Isabelle's godmother Mama Jeanne (Helen McCrory) but she will not tell them anything. As Georges arrives home, Jeanne forces the children into a back room, where they find a hidden compartment in an armoire. In the compartment is a small chest containing a copy of the automaton's drawing, along with many other drawings. The noise of a collapsing chair draws Georges into the room, and he throws Hugo out, feeling betrayed.



Some time later, Hugo and Isabelle discuss Méliès with the bookstore owner; he directs them to the library, telling them just where they may find a book on the history of film. As they read the book, its author, Rene Tabard (Michael Stuhlbarg), appears and describes his love for Méliès's work. The book asserts that Méliès died during World War I, but the children convince Tabard that the filmmaker is still alive. Tabard reveals he has the last known copy of Voyage, and Hugo suggests that they go to the Georges' house to watch it the next evening. That night, Hugo has a dream where he finds a golden heart-shaped key lying on a railbed in the station but is run over by an approaching train and his dream ends with images of the Gare Montparnasse accident of 1895.



The next evening, Jeanne is hesitant about letting them show the film until Tabard recognizes her as Jeanne d'Alcy, a frequent and beautiful actress in many of Méliès' films. When the film finishes, Georges comes out, and emotionally reveals himself to be Méliès, recalling his filmmaking career. He transformed his illusionist skills into the special effects he used for his movies to bring his vivid imagination to life. However, after the horrors of World War I, his films lost popularity with the jaded and disillusioned population, and he became ruined, selling the films to be melted down to chemicals, used to mold shoe heels, and quietly disappeared as a toy maker to sustain himself and Jeanne. Georges is despondent, believing all of his former film materials were otherwise destroyed in a museum fire, leading Hugo to recall the automaton.



Hugo races back to the station to get the automaton (intending to use it as a surprise for Georges), but before he can retrieve it, he is discovered by the Station Inspector who reveals that Claude's body had been discovered in the River Seine. The Inspector now knows Hugo is an orphan. During the ensuing chase, Hugo climbs up the clock tower and is forced to climb onto the clock hands to hide from the Inspector. When he goes away, Hugo quickly climbs back in and gets the automaton but is quickly cornered again by the Inspector and the automaton is thrown onto the railway tracks. Despite the approach of an oncoming train, Hugo jumps onto the tracks to recover the automaton. With no time to climb back up onto the platform to save himself and the automaton, Hugo appears to face certain death from the oncoming train. However, the Inspector saves Hugo at the last moment. As the Inspector decides whether or not to arrest Hugo, Georges arrives and asserts that Hugo is now in his care. Hugo presents the automaton to Georges.



Sometime later, a film festival is held showcasing over eighty recovered and restored Méliès films. Georges tearfully takes the stage, and thanks Hugo for his dedication and to the other attendees for sharing his imagination with him. After the festival, in the Georges' house, Hugo has acclimated as Georges' son, while Isabelle begins writing a book on the recent events. The film ends on a shot of the automaton sitting at a writing desk in a pleasant room, posed as though prepared to resume drawing.



[edit] CastAsa Butterfield as Hugo Cabret

Chloë Grace Moretz as Isabelle

Ben Kingsley as Georges Méliès / Papa Georges

Helen McCrory as Jeanne d'Alcy / Mama Jeanne

Michael Stuhlbarg as René Tabard

Jude Law as Hugo's father

Ray Winstone as Claude Cabret

Christopher Lee as Monsieur Labisse

Sacha Baron Cohen as Inspector Gustave

Emily Mortimer as Lisette

Frances de la Tour as Madame Emile

Richard Griffiths as Monsieur Frick

Marco Aponte as a train engineer assistant

Kevin Eldon as policeman

Gulliver McGrath as young Tabard

Angus Barnett as a cinema manager

Ben Addis as Salvador Dalí

Emil Lager as Django Reinhardt

Robert Gill as James Joyce

Michael Pitt, Martin Scorsese and Brian Selznick have cameo roles.



[edit] Production

GK Films acquired the screen rights to The Invention of Hugo Cabret shortly after the book was published in 2007. Initially, Chris Wedge was signed in to direct the adaptation and John Logan was contracted to write the screenplay.[7] The film was initially titled Hugo Cabret. Several actors were hired, including Ben Kingsley, Sacha Baron Cohen, Asa Butterfield, Chloë Grace Moretz and Helen McCrory. Jude Law, Ray Winstone, Christopher Lee, Frances de la Tour and Richard Griffiths later joined the project. The venture was officially launched into production in London on June 29, 2010. The first shooting location was at the Shepperton Studios in London along with other places in London and Paris.[8] The Nene Valley Railway near Peterborough, also loaned their original Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits rolling stock to the studio.[9][10] The film's soundtrack includes an Oscar-nominated original score composed by Howard Shore, and also makes prominent use of the Danse macabre by Camille Saint-Saens and the first Gnossienne by Erik Satie.



Hugo was originally budgeted at $100 million but overran with a final budget of between $156 million and $170 million.[11] In February 2012, Graham King summed up his experience of producing Hugo: "Let’s just say that it hasn’t been an easy few months for me — there’s been a lot of Ambien involved".



[edit] Historical references


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The Jaquet-Droz automaton "the writer", an inspiration for the design of the automaton in the filmThe overall backstory and primary features of Georges Méliès' life as depicted in the film are largely accurate: he became interested in film after seeing a demonstration of the Lumière brothers' camera,[12] he was a magician and toymaker, he experimented with automata, he owned a theatre (Theatre Robert-Houdin), he was forced into bankruptcy, his film stock was reportedly melted down for its cellulose, he became a toy salesman at the Montparnasse station, and he was eventually awarded the Légion d'honneur medal after a period of terrible neglect. Many of the early silent films shown in the movie are Méliès's actual works, such as Le voyage dans la lune (1902). However, the film does not mention Méliès' two children, his brother Gaston (who worked with Méliès during his film making career), or his first wife Eugènie, who was married to Méliès during the time he made films (Eugènie died in 1913). The film shows Méliès as having been married to Jeanne d'Alcy during their film making period, when in reality, they did not marry until 1925.



The design for the automaton was inspired by one made by the Swiss watchmaker Henri Maillardet, which Selznick had seen in the Franklin Institute, Philadelphia,[13] as well as the Jaquet-Droz automaton "the writer".[14]



Several viewings of the film L'Arrivée d'un train en gare de La Ciotat are portrayed, depicting the shocked reaction of the audience - although this view is in doubt.[15]



Emil Lager, Ben Addis, and Robert Gill make cameo appearances as Django Reinhardt, the father of Gypsy jazz guitar, Salvador Dalí, the Spanish surrealist painter, and James Joyce, the Irish writer, respectively. The names of all three characters appear towards the end of the film's cast credit list.[16]



The book that Monsieur Labisse gives Hugo as a gift, Robin Hood le proscrit, was written by Alexandre Dumas in 1864 as a French translation of an 1838 work by Pierce Egan the Younger in England. The book is symbolic, as Hugo must avoid the "righteous" law enforcement (represented by Inspector Gustave) to live in the station and later to restore the automaton both to a functioning status and to its rightful owner.