Better than classic

Rating: 10/10 (2 November 2009)

That film is one of these classics we all know about but we most of us have never seen, in full or in parts. And that was my case. That film of 1952 looks back at the great shift in the cinema from silent movies to talkies and the drama it may have represented for some artists who could not adapt. This film adds to that some nasty aspects of that change, of silent films (and that has not really changed), how everything is artificial and nothing but a glossy appearance. Those actors and actresses love one another in so bizarre ways at times, and they have to cope with producers and directors. But the film is funny because so many elements are shown as ironical, humorous or just plain hilarious, not to mention some cruelty here and there. Then the plot is sentimental and even romantic with a complete rift between a fake mediatic love affair and another secret and deep love that is no affair at all but a passion. The film amplifies that rift by giving to the mediatic mistress the voice of a goat and her impossibility or rather unwillingness to train herself into some kind of drinkable vocal sound, drinkable for the audience. So the studio invents dubbing and the actress is dumb enough to want to speak to her audience who liked the voice on the screen so much. The shock is so hard that they require a song and then the dubbing has to be revealed and that is the end of a career that gets silent and mute because it should have stayed silent and mute, but vanity requires adulation and worship and then a voice has to be put on the nice face and it is the discovery of the lie, of the illusion and the public never takes it with a grain of salt when they discover they have been fooled. That film is famous for one song though it is a singing and dancing treat from beginning to end, an allusion to the career of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, and some others, but with a touch of realism in the behavior of these Hollywood people. And that touch is the best fun of the film: vanity has no limits and vainer than I you die. A real treat of entertainment and an important page in the huge history book of the cinema.
Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne, University Paris 8 Saint Denis, University Paris 12 Créteil, CEGID