The Artist (***)
Starring: Jean Dujardin, Bérénice Bejo, Uggie, John
Goodman, James Cromwell, Missi Pyle, Penelope Ann Miller
Seen: April 2nd 2012
*** Out of ****
The Artist is a beautifully nostalgic trip to a simpler, bygone era. It’s
very well made and if you didn’t know for a fact it was made in 2011, you would
most probably place it in the time of the story being told in the movie,
somewhere in the late 20’s/early 30’s. It is, in all but two scenes, a silent
movie in black and white with only inter-titles (akin to subtitles,
inter-titles or title cards are printed or filmed text edited into a movie) to elaborate
on story elements and provide a measure of dialogue; and features a non-diegetic
(coming from a source outside the story space) soundtrack. The performances are
great and filled to the brim with humorous and endearing moments.
George Valentin (Dujardin) is his era’s leading silent movie actor,
and at one of his premiere events a young woman (Bejo) innocently and
accidentally bumps into him. Being a nice guy George turns this into a joke and
the young woman, Peppy Miller, enters the public eye; first as an extra in
George’s films, but soon enough she starts rising to her own stardom. George
and Peppy, although never more than colleagues, share a bond and over the next
5 years their relationship goes through quite a lot due to events depicted in
this movie. As Peppy starts rising to fame, so does the advent of talkies, and
the inevitable end of silent movies. A prideful George puts it down as a fad,
and when studio boss Al Zimmer (Goodman) closes down production of silent
movies at Kinograph Studios, George starts producing his own silent movie out
of his own pocket. The release of his silent film coincides with the release of
Peppy Miller’s new sound film and George desperately needs his movie to be a
hit. When this doesn’t happen George implodes and his rescue comes from his dog
Jack (Uggie), his former chauffeur Clifton (Cromwell), and another, somewhat
hidden benefactor.
The Artist’s story would have failed miserably had it been told using
today’s techniques – the medium of silent film is required to communicate all
that this movie brings across. Jean Dujardin and Bérénice Bejo (wife to director
Hazanavicius) are fantastic in their portrayals of the main characters and the supporting
cast in John Goodman and James Cromwell upholds this movie through every silent
moment. This movie will definitely not fall within everyone’s taste, and I have
to say that while I truly enjoyed the movie, the enjoyment did start to fade a
little as the movie approached its ending, as the novelty slowly started to
wear off. The Artist is a beautiful and entertaining movie that also serves as
a stark reminder of how much the movie industry has changed, 80 years ago this was
as main-stream as you can get. Today The Artist will delight only a few and
will be overlooked by many. I’m glad I had the opportunity to see this lovely
little reminder that bigger and louder is not always better, quite the contrary
in fact…
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