A Real Peppy Movie: Bringing back the Art of the Silent Film in the 21st century

Rating: Null/10 (16 September 2012)

Suphie Wesner 9/16/2012
My Film Review of Berenice Bejo/Jean duJardin/certain other stars in Michel Hazanavicius' Oscar-winning film, The Artist..
Among the blockbuster stars in this film include fat-faced, sarcastic-personad, of Roseann's ex-husband in their comedy, Roseanne, as John Goodman, and Uggie, the dog...In general, this cast is so good because they are all extremely talented; also, Monsieur Hazanavicius is excellent as director, told by his award that he won for best director of the 2012 Oscar nominations, and Du Jardin won as best actor, a first- time event for any French actor crossing over into the American movie industry. The film is basically self-explanatory, the dog is really cute, du Jardin and Berenice Bejo (Peppy Miller in the movie), excel as dancers, and even John Goodman is really good as the film's casting- call, director within the film, who calls du Jardin a has-been, namely because he can only do "silent movies" while the industry is heading into the direction of eliminating silent, calling them old-fashioned, and instead wholly doing "sound-based" films. "Uggie," the dog, knows a million well-rehearsed tricks, which is why he was chosen for the role, I suppose, and he must be a springer spaniel, or some sort of a Jack Russell Terrier, or, something. The charming aspect of this film is that most of the characters don't talk, they use their gestures, their faces, their eyes, instead, to relay the message they want to relay. At one point, Du Jardin puts a revolver in his mouth because he chooses to commit suicide, feeling so bad about the fact that he is no longer in demand. Fortunately, or for whatever reason, the revolver doesn't work, or, he no longer has the will to do it; the dog, for one thing, starts barking his head off when he sees his master in distress. Also, the film makes a point to show that Bejo cares about him and loves him, as they formerly were lovers, and she wants to prove the point that she is willing to follow through for him now; indeed, the movie shows that she has him in mind when she drives like mad, tongue literally in cheek, on her way to come save the day. It turns out, that, though she fails to rescue him in the end (it is he who saves himself), she had a thought-process that was correct, that he was in harm's way, and that she herself would make the effort to save him. . . Indeed the film is a lot about "saving grace," about people coming through for others when nobody else will; about faith; about working together to create something bigger, about, well, getting along. It is appallingly long for short-tempered modern-day audiences who might balk at going without sound for over an hour; I myself thought that the film would go on for 27 chapters, but I guess I was wrong. The charming smile of Du Jardin, or, rightfully, George Valentin, and Peppy Miller's dance moves more than make up for that. The uniqueness and the creativity that went into the film, I think, the fact that modern-day actors and actresses can make such a sparkling revival of silent film is this movie's "lucky star." Uggie, the dog, who is able to play dead, seek help (like Lassie), and even, when ashamed or abashed, put his head between his front paws, is also a remedy for people seeking something new out of today's modern-day cinema. But when George Valentin (pronounced to rhyme with Valentino, I believe) suffers smoke-inhalation, I don't believe that he was severely burned, honestly, from a house fire started by his desire to burn off his own collection of personal movie reels he regrets having made with Peppy; things go to Hell and the film winds down. There may be a little bit of professional jealousy within the couple itself; he may have been hurt by the fact that she started winning all the roles with the skills and the talents imbued in her by him. But, all, in all, one has to admit that they work well together as a team on screen, and even come across as your modern-day Bonnie and Clyde, or, alternately, Fred and Ginger. A lot of time and efforts went into hair- dressing and special-makeup effects, too; Peppy herself lands a role in a film entitled, "Peppy's Beauty Spot" or something like that. France 24 also had a hand in this film, and it is clear that a lot of acting parts were used. Johnnie Burke and Arthur Johnston wrote a cute number entitled, "Pennies from Heaven," and Ludovic Bource wrote the musical score. Indeed, Jon-Paul was the gang-leader, so, as you can see, there are many parts in this movie which are technical and skilled, and those often went to the French workers, it is just reality to say, and the parts that were more involved with acting, even small roles/bit parts, went to the Americans. One of the most sinister parts in the film, when Peppy arrive at Jean's mansion only to be hinted at by his maid that he is "occupied" is when it looks like it might be over for them. It is a cute film, rather slow-moving and wholesome, and rated pg-13 and produced by French studios in conjunction with American distributors ( in fact, there is one film studio in the whole thing entitled, "La Class Americaine," but that isn't really a real American studio). It is the most-awarded French film in history, apparently, as said by internet researchers; it came out in 2011, but officially had a 2012 release date in America. It has English inter-titles on it, as well as, it is the first feature-length black-and-white film since the dawning of Schindler's List in 1993, by Spielberg. James Cromwell also plays a bit role as the butler of Jean. It is a great, jazzy little film with a lot of good musical numbers. The End.