Christopher Lee as Monsieur Labisse
in "Hugo" (2011)
Christopher Lee was in his late 80s when he appeared in Martin Scorsese's "Hugo" as the old bookseller Monsieur Labisse. It was one of Lee's last screen roles.
Monsieur Labisse presides over a bookshop in the Paris train station where much of the movie takes place. Thanks to Dante Ferretti's set design, the shop is more vertical than horizontal, with ladders and staircases and books piled up everywhere. Monsieur Labisse looks down on everything from a tall desk in the middle of the room.
The first time Chloë Grace Moretz as Isabelle takes Hugo into the shop and introduces him to Monsieur Labisse, the old man gives him a look that freezes Hugo in his tracks. Hugo (Asa Butterfield) is a boy who lives in the walls of the train station and survives at least partly by stealing. Whether Monsieur Labisse suspects that or not is unclear, but the look he gives Hugo conveys the unmistakable messsage that walking off with anything from the bookshop would be less than a good idea.
What makes the look even more intimidating is that it's coming not just from the old bookseller, but the actor playing him, and for viewers who know anything about Lee's career, that means one thing: Dracula. It's an extra dimension of dread.
Monsieur Labisse turns out to be much less forbidding than he first appears, but in the bookshop, at least, Hugo won't be taking any chances. Heck, if you were a 12-year-old kid getting the evil eye from Christopher Lee, you'd be intimidated, too.
