I don’t think I’ve ever had the chance to explore it before. In “Goodfellas,” there are moments with physical humor that are quite funny. It’s dark humor, because if Joe Pesci is arguing with Henry Hill, and they just set fire to the place, and this fire is starting in the background, you know? But humor is going to depend on the context. If you tell me about a guy who goes in every week to rob a bank dressed as Gumby — that’s funny! It’s not funny to rob a bank. But it’s funny dressed as Gumby. The bottom line with “Hugo” is it’s a story about the boy and his relationship to his dead father. It’s more serious than funny.

In the past, you’ve gone to great lengths to achieve a desired texture. In “Raging Bull,” someone held a hot bar of iron beneath the lens to make Jake LaMotta look particularly weary. In “The Age of Innocence,” when Archer first sees Ellen, you overcranked the camera and then dissolved each frame into the next to make things flutter and slow down. In what ways did you experiment on “Hugo”?

My instinct was if something wasn’t normally done with 3-D cameras, let’s see if we could do it. And that actually was almost every other shot. But the most enjoyable time was building an approximation of Georges Méliès’s glass studio. We started replicating scenes from Méliès films as best we could. We recreated the underwater set for “Kingdom of the Fairies.” With Méliès’s films, especially the hand-colored ones, it’s like illuminated manuscripts come alive. We shot Méliès shooting his films for five or six days. It was one of the best times I’ve had shooting a picture.

What made you want to work with 3-D?

I’ve been a 3-D fan since I was 12, in 1953, and I saw every 3-D film at that time: “It Came From Outer Space,” “Creature From the Black Lagoon,” “Kiss Me, Kate,” which is quite beautiful in 3-D. What I really responded to was the figures, the people in the frame. You have a lot of that in “Dial M for Murder.” In “Kiss Me Kate,” there’s a shot where Ann Miller moves toward the camera with a fan as she dances. You feel as if you’re onstage right next to her. It’s a different experience, completely. Different from theater, different from 2-D film. It just is.

Did you feel a void during the 40 intervening years when there wasn’t any 3-D?

I did. I’m not kidding. David Cronenberg one time sent me a comic book in 3-D, because he knows.

To see in 3-D, you had to wear those glasses that flip up and down.

There were a number of times where I got caught saying: “For God’s sakes, will they focus up? What is the problem with the focus?” And someone would have to remind me, “Marty, put your glasses on!”