Hugo

How this film uses it

The mechanical man, called an automaton, and the heart-shaped key that starts it keep coming back. They begin as a puzzle for Hugo. Later they become the way Georges Méliès is found again, so the object ties the boy's grief to the old filmmaker's lost work.

Where to see it

The automaton drawing scene. Once Isabelle's key winds it up, the machine draws a scene from A Trip to the Moon and signs it Georges Méliès.

How this film uses it

Méliès' glass studio was built as a set at Shepperton Studios. Actors then play his crew inside it. The flashbacks look as if the real studio had been filmed in the early 1900s.

Where to see it

The flashback to Méliès making his films. The glass-walled studio, the painted sets and the stage tricks are staged as they were done.

How this film uses it

The film was shot in 3D, and Scorsese said the actors felt more upfront emotionally in it. The station, its gears and its crowds sit in clear layers. The depth makes the clockwork world feel like a place you could step into.

Where to see it

The opening shot. The camera moves from the sky down into the busy train station, and crowds swarm in every direction.

How this film uses it

Hugo dreams that a runaway train smashes through the station, and then that he is turning into the automaton he is trying to fix. The dream shows what the boy fears most, that he is only a machine with nobody to wind him up. You wake when he wakes.

Where to see it

The train crash dream. Hugo chases the key onto the tracks and a train comes through the station. He then hears ticking from his own body.