'Hugo' at the Library

The will be showing "Hugo" (Rated PG, 126 minutes) on Friday, April 20 at 2 p.m. in the Community Room.

Here is a summary of the movie:

After his clockmaker father perishes in a museum fire, Hugo goes to live with his Uncle Claude, a drunkard who maintains the clocks at a Paris train station. When Claude disap­pears, Hugo carries on his work and fends for himself by stealing food from area merchants. In his free time, he attempts to repair an automaton his father rescued from the mu­seum, while trying to evade the station inspector, a World War I veteran with no sympathy for lawbreakers.

When Georges, a toy­maker, catches Hugo stealing parts for his mechanical man, he recruits him as an assistant to repay his debt. While Georges is guarded, his open-hearted ward, Isabelle, introduces Hugo to a kindly bookseller, who directs them to a motion-picture museum, where they meet film scholar René.  

In helping unlock the secret of the automaton, they learn about the roots of cinema, starting with the Lumière brothers, and give a forgotten movie pioneer his due, thus illustrating the importance of film preservation. 

This program is sponsored by the Needham Free Public Library. For further information, call the library at 781-455-7559.