Great Homage to Silent Cinema

Rating: Null/10 (16 January 2012)

Artist, The (2011)
**** (out of 4)
Silent film star George Valentin (Jean Dujardin) wonders what the invent of sound movies is going to have on his career and he quickly finds out when he's out of money and can't get a job. While he's career is going down the drain, a young woman (Berenice Bejo) he helped get into the business has her career take off. As a silent film buff I was a little cautious when a heard that someone was attempting to make another in today's time but those fears were put to rest because THE ARIST is a tremendous success as not only a film but also as a love letter to cinema. It's funny to think that this movie as well as Martin Scorsese's HUGO would be released so closely together and give the silent films such a boom but both movies have their hearts in the right place and it's the viewers who are going to be treated. Shot in the 1.33:1 aspect ratio and in black and white, director Michel Hazanavicius does a masterful job at pulling off all the glamor with the style. The movie is a very good replica of what silent movies are all about as we get some great laughs, good melodrama and of course a couple chase/action scenes. I thought the screenplay was so simple yet the director took what he had and did as much with it as he possibly could. I always say a familiar story can be told countless times as long as you have talent telling it. The film is obviously influenced by and borrows elements from A STAR IS BORN and SINGIN' IN THE RAIN but the story is catchy, it pulls you in and it's a lot of fun. Much credit has to also go to both Dujardin and Bejo. Both actors do a marvelous job in their silent roles. There are some insults about mugging at the camera, which play an important part in the story but both of these actors give it their all and you really do get a feel that they are giving what a silent performance should. Dujardin speaks so easily without words because you never have a problem knowing and feeling what's going on inside him. Bejo is just so charming and sweet that you can see why an actress like her would have boomed back in the early talkie era. The supporting cast includes strong work by John Goodman, James Cromwell, Malcolm McDowell and Penelope Ann Miller. THE ARTIST works on just about every level but I think it's strongest cord is the fact that it pays homage to a great age in movies. People complain about certain movies today and I always tell them that there are great movies out there but sometimes you have to search for them because they're not playing on three- thousand screens. THE ARIST not only breaks that tradition but it pays respect to the great movies that came before it.