The Artists

Rating: 7/10 (14 January 2017)

Damien Chazelle whose father is French has made a Gallic tinged song and dance musical set in Los Angeles. In some ways it is a modern variant of Singin in the Rain but without the overt optimism which modern life does not have. The film has wowed the critics at the awards season but I think like the film 'The Artist' it might not stand up to scrutiny a few years later.
This is a bittersweet love story between Sebastian (Ryan Gosling), a jazz pianist passionate about the golden age of jazz and wanting to open his own club to play the type of jazz he wants before it really does go to obscurity. He keeps on bumping into Mia (Emma Stone) an aspiring actress who works in a coffee shop on the Warner Bros studio lot and goes to endless auditions looking for that big break but only to find disinterested casting agents.
Both of them are looking for that big break but find each other slowly at first, but love may not be enough when these people also crave success. Sebastian finds it first, recording and touring with a successful group which puts their relationship under a strain.
Director Damien Chazelle dazzles with a big opening musical number in a traffic jam on the highway but the energy of that number cannot be sustained. Like many modern musicals these days the songs are anaemic and unmemorable not helped with some of the jazz numbers. The film is right, much of the audience will be put off by the jazz music.
The dance numbers between the pair is meant to be easy going than emulate Fred n Ginger and in some ways it works. Chazelle as in in his previous film Whiplash has found a rhythm to his film. It has a sentiment that individual pursuit for your dreams may be the price worth paying for true love. The story although at times tender as well as abrasive is not strong enough and the film really did feel stretched.