Title: The Artist
Director: Michel Hazanavicius
Writer: Michel Hazanavicius
Music by: Ludovic Bource
Cinematography: Guillaume Schiffman
Producer: Thomas Langmann
Distributor: The Weinstein Company
Studio: La Petite Reine
Location: Los Angeles, CA
In Theaters: January 20th, 2012
Running Time: 100 minutes
Color: Black and White
Language: Silent
Starring: Jean Dujardin, Bérénice Bejo, Uggie, John Goodman, etc.
Genre(s): comedy/romance/drama
Storyline: (IMDb.com) Outside a movie premiere, enthusiastic fan Peppy Miller literally bumps into the swashbuckling hero of the silent film, George Valentin. The star reacts graciously and Peppy plants a kiss on his cheek as they are surrounded by photographers. The headlines demand: “Who’s That Girl?” and Peppy is inspired to audition for a dancing bit-part at the studio. However as Peppy slowly rises through the industry, the introduction of talking-pictures turns Valentin’s world upside-down. Written by L. Hamre
Movie Trailer:
My Review: This movie is unlike any other filmed since the roaring 20s. When silent films was on its way out and “talkies” were in. I’m aware of this time period because I’ve seen my share of silent films and Singing in the Rain as well. If you haven’t seen that movie I highly recommend it to all for a lot of reasons. But if you are looking for a movie that pays homage to the classic black and white cinema, filmed in the older 4:3 aspect ratio (meaning it’s a box instead of a rectangle/CinemaScope) then you’ve come to the right place.
Just keep in mind that about 99.99% of the movie is, in deed silent. Except for a brief moment when George Valentin, played by Jean Dujardin, is having a nightmare where things around him are producing sound, like a glass being placed on a table, but he is unable to speak. Why the nightmare? The head of the studio he works for explains they are stopping production on silent films and working primarily on talkies.
This movie, despite it’s dialogue, depended upon the expressions an actor can convey. Something many actors of today have lost the ability to do because they rely too heavily on technology to fix any mistakes or tell the story they were unable to do themselves. Silent movies shows a certain vulnerability you cannot get from the best technology, production company, director, or actors of the 21st century.
The score for the entire movie was flawless and was such a part of the emotion of the movie you almost forget it’s there. It’s so complimentary. And the story-line takes a more serious tone than I had anticipated it to take. Add sound and dialogue to this story line and you’d get any ordinary movie of a man on the edge after he’s been told his career is over. Take away sound and words and what you see on the screen is poetry in motion. Although I’ve seen this story and heard it first hand so many times before it was like experiencing it on such a deeper level. We (those in the theater) laughed, I know I cried and I’m sure others did, and when it was all over we clapped.
It ends, I must say (don’t read on if you don’t want a spoiler!!), with sound and words! After George loses everything (his wife, his career, his best friend) he gains it all back ten-fold when he lets go of his pride which was holding him back from moving forward with the times. He falls in love, get the girl who fell in love with him as well, and she brings him back together with his best friend as well as gets him started on a new career. He fears the audience who once loved him as a silent film actor who made his career by “mugging it” as Peppy Miller (his young love) says at one point in the movie, will not want to hear his voice. She comes up with the brilliant idea for a movie to be made around both of them tap dancing, which the head of the studio Al Zimmer (John Goodman) thinks is amazing. Thus a musical starring Peppy Miller and George Valentin is born. When they are done doing a tap dancing routine that reminds me of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers (but only for a while), what’s to be expected is heavy panting from all the energy exerted on their dance. And heavy panting is what we hear. The audience (myself included) gasp we are so shocked to hear this sound! Can you blame us? We just went an entire hour and thirty-five minutes without any sound beyond his nightmare scene where young girls are laughing annoyingly and a strange choice of background music, Penny’s From Heaven (words included). After they are done breathing heavily, Al takes a deep breath of satisfaction and speaks these words: “Cut! Perfect. Beautiful. Could you give me one more?” Valentin, in his only audible line, replies “With pleasure”, in a strong French accent. I think Al hit the nail right on the head, this movie is perfect and beautiful!
My Rating: A-
Will you…Run And Tell That?
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