The Artist

It’s the beginning of 2012, and I’ve just watched a silent film shot in black-and-white.  No, I wasn’t watching an old movie on TV; I was watching the new film The Artist.  It’s sort of a homage to the films of yesteryear.  Not only is it a silent film, it’s also about silent films and the eventual cross-over to those with sound. 
The main character is a silent film star named George Valentin.  He seems to be the most popular actor at the time, and he revels in it.  After premieres of his movies, he takes extended bows and doesn’t want to leave the stage.  Sucking up as much applause as he can get from the audience, he has no shame in stealing the spotlight from co-stars as well.  At the end of one of these premieres, he bumps into a woman named Peppy Miller.  She’s a nobody in the business, just trying to get roles as an extra and so forth.  But she garners immediate attention once she’s spotted with Valentin, even if it was accidental.  As an eventual extra in one of his films, he seems smitten with her.  Next thing you know, Peppy Miller becomes a star herself.  But as movies with sound become the big thing, people start to care less and less about George Valentin.
Soon enough, George becomes a has-been in the industry.  He finds himself selling his assets in order to make money since he’s no longer sought after for film work.  However, Peppy is a good person and keeps an eye on him.  She shows concern for him throughout the film no matter how famous she becomes.  Here’s my issue with the film: why does she care so much about him?  Sure she’s a good person with a good heart, but the guy was a bit of a cocky, careless, attention whore.  Of course, he did show interest in her so that explains a bit of her mutual attraction to him.  But it was hard for me to feel so bad for this guy as she did, simply because he had it all and didn’t realize it until it was gone.
You’ve got to give the film credit for managing to take up 100 minutes with no dialogue.  But then again, that’s how all films were back in that time.  So it’s not really a unique feat, only that it’s not done anymore.  That’s why the critics are eating up.  When something different comes along, people feel that makes it great.  But really the movie is just a simple story about an actor who loses his fame and the newly famous one feeling bad about it.  There’s not much else to it.  It could have been a lot more boring and dull, and the actors are pretty good (including George’s dog) but still, it shouldn’t be one of the front-runners at this year’s Academy Awards as it’s believed to be.  When movies like this and Hugo are the leading contenders for Best Picture, it just tells me there aren’t as many great movies as there used to be.

http://www.examiner.com/movie-in-philadelphia/danny-porcaro

Every so often, when you reluctantly head into cinemas to take a gander  at the dismal choices Hollywood has mass produced for your  not-so-viewing pleasure, you sometimes find a true gem that captures  your senses and engrosses you in a new world. French director Michel  Hazanavicius, known for his James Bond spoofs OSS:117,  has  delivered a true achievement in cinematic storytelling that is at once  classic and elegant in delivery and modern in its freshness and parody.  It is called The Artist and it is simply an inspired experiment  in bringing the silent film back from the dead in a way that is  classier than Mel Brook’s Silent Movie but just as delightfully  amusing. At the center of the film is the masterful French actor Jean  Dujardin who looks like William Powell, is as charming as Errol Flynn,  and dances like James Cagney. Without his true embodiment of the silent  era, including every movement and facial expression, The Artist wouldn’t  have been as stunning. But Dujardin isn’t alone in bringing this unique  piece of film to life. There is a brilliant score that aids the crisp  cinematography, which often mimics the silent era’s composition traits.  But Hazanavicius and his cinematographer Guillame Schiffman take great  lengths in bringing a renewed and splendid vision to telling their  silent film. It’s filled with classic cinema homage (Sunset Blvd., Citizen Kane, and The Thin Man come to mind) and exudes the style of the silent era in every aspect  from editing (montage, close ups, transposed images), acting  (exaggerated movements, facial hints), and image (black & white,  slanted composition, manipulative lighting). If Hazanavicius hadn’t  proved himself a student of the cinema before he has given us a magical  and truly charming love letter to classic cinema that shows that black  & white/silent era films have just as much charisma, story, and  emotion, if not more so, as any modern day film.

The Artist is appropriately set in the mid to late twenties and  uses the transition from silent era films to talkies as its story  backdrop. Dujardin plays George Valentin who is a charismatic and  popular silent movie star who loves the limelight but loves the work he  does even more. When he’s introduced to the future of movies with the  introduction of sound his world is turned upside down, which is  magnificently shown through an elegant and brilliantly executed dream  sequence where everything has sound except his own voice. As his stardom  begins to fade, an actress who he helped get her start, Peppy Miller (a  tactful and charming Berenice Bejo), begins to flourish as a talkie  star. Though she might feel an obligation to owe him a favor for the  start of her career, it is really out of a growing love that she begins  to try and help Valentin through his troubled times, including the loss  of all his money in the Stock Market crash. The acting from all of the  actors, whether they are French, English, or American, aid the film in  its silence giving the proper personality needed to hook audiences with  an entertaining and emotionally connected experience. Perhaps, though,  it is the beautiful score that drives every scene from the romantic and  heart wrenching to the humorous and fun. It’s a brilliant balancing act  dealing with darker themes, such as pride comes before the fall or even  the possibility of suicide in the face of losing all meaning, and the  lighter touches, including a fantastic part for a Jack Russell Terrier  named Uggie who steals the show half the time. Compliments can be given  to every technical element in the film, especially with the graceful  camera work and silent style oriented editing. The film becomes  irresistible as it sweeps you off your feet with a foresight for  delivery that is at once experimental and yet also unmistakably  conventional, which basically shows us that film can manipulate the  expectations of particular genres in a unique and welcoming way. So in a  way, The Artist is truly a rare cinema experience and not  simply because it is a silent film, but rather it is due to its  practically perfect use of cinema’s tools to tell a story that is moving  and memorable.

Doubters who will dismiss seeing the artist because it happens to be a  silent movie will be losing the chance to witness something  extraordinary. People forget that silent movies and early talkies during  the Great Depression were essential escapes for audiences nationwide  that were intended to remove all worries and enjoy a captivating  experience. The Artist can essentially be described with that  one word: captivating. Through all of the actors’ abilities and the  film’s technical achievements, the film engrosses you in mind, body, and  soul. Hazanavicius gives you a truly entertaining experience where  there is plenty of humor to compliment his wonderful script that not  only understands the film era he is capturing but also gives us  characters that are sympathetic, dynamic, and worthy of our time and  attention. The Artist, while using editing, cinematography, and  particular acting to embody a particular time and style, transcends the  limitations of simply being a silent film and becomes what we all head  for the movies to see, which is a stunning and awe-inspiring cinema  experience. The final scene has a momentary use of sound that will show  you that sound doesn’t necessarily add to the clarity of the project and  sometimes it can be just noise. The Artist isn’t even close to  having any noise for it is truly an elegant and classy film that will  have you leaving the movie with a smile.