Film: Yes, it does sound like an oxymoron — “A Martin Scorsese family film” — particularly when the family is not the Mafia. But put Hugo on your viewing list and you are likely to enjoy the many pleasures of the great director, more versatile than he is usually given credit for, taking his first foray into adapting children’s lit for the screen. Set in Paris in the 1930s, it is the tale of a precocious young French boy named Hugo who lives in a train station clock tower. The son of an inventor, he carries on that tradition by stealing materials from a toy store owner who happens to also be filmmaking pioneer Georges Melies. Leave it to Scorsese to make a kid’s picture that celebrates the early days of movies and also puts in a plug for his favorite cause — film preservation. Hugo is also the first 3D film in a long time that understands how to use the technique as more than a mere box office-boosting gimmick. Opening in area theaters this weekend.
Theater: Palm Beach Dramaworks more than justifies its move into the new Don & Ann Brown Theatre on West Palm Beach’s Clematis Street with its season opener, Arthur Miller’s 1947 family tragedy, All My Sons. It is the story of a father and husband whose factory supplied defective airplane parts during World War II and — knowingly or not — led to the deaths of numerous American pilots. All My Sons is not as universal or as powerful as Miller’s next play, Death of a Salesman, but you would never know it from the expert production directed by J. Barry Lewis or from the stunning performance by Kenneth Tigar as patriarch Joe Keller. And note the extraordinary backyard scenic design by Michael Amico, surely a harbinger of boundary-pushing work from him ahead. Continuing through Dec. 11. Tickets available at (561) 514-4042.
Art: Northern Palm Beach County’s development as a biotech hub was furthered when the Max Planck Florida Institute set up temporary shop on Florida Atlantic University’s MacArthur Campus in Jupiter. It’s an arm of Germany’s huge Max Planck Society, which each years asks scientists from its 80 institutes to submit photos from their research.
Next Wednesday at the Palm Beach Photographic Centre, the Max Planck Florida Foundation opens a monthlong exhibit of 40 of these photographs. The Images of Science photos are judged by architects, photographers and journalists before being allowed into the exhibition. The exhibit runs through Dec. 30 at the center on 415 Clematis St. in downtown West Palm Beach. Hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday and Saturday. This is “found art” of a most elite kind, and should make fascinating viewing. Call 253-2600 or visit www.fotofusion.org for more information.
Music: The Cameo Chamber Players, a locally based piano trio featuring violinist Dina Kostic, cellist Christopher Glansdorp and pianist Robert Prester, will be in concert this coming Sunday at the Steinway Gallery in Boca Raton.
On the program is one of the first of Beethoven’s published works, his Piano Trio No. 1 (in E-flat, Op. 1, No. 1), and the Piano Trio No. 2 (in C minor, Op. 66) of Felix Mendelssohn. The threesome also will play this program March 17 in West Palm Beach and May 7 in Palm Beach Gardens.
“We like to include something a little lighter, and something a little heavier,” Prester said of Cameo’s programs. “We like to have that sort of contrast.” The group has been playing together about three years, since Prester moved to South Florida from New York, and usually does five or six concerts a season.
Sunday’s concert begins at 5 p.m., and tickets are $20. Call 982-8887 for more information.