Joyful valentine to the Silent Era

Rating: 8/10 (29 February 2012)

When I heard there was a new, silent movie called "The Artist," I figured it would be one of these super-arty concept movies of the sort Guy Maddin makes, but it turned out to be pretty much the opposite, a fun, clever, sprightly valentine to the silent days.
The filmmakers are clearly in love with those old movies, and this is a joyfully movie-obsessed movie, with a story about movie makers and a lot of clever ideas that toy with or extend the tricks of the silent film. The movie is full of wonderfully ingenious scenes; a starlet making love to a coat, an audience reacting to an unseen film scene, a sound-driven dream sequence.
This is also a movie that simple wants to be a fun old-fashioned movie, hokey plot at all. The movie is French, and it's hard to imagine an American filmmaker creating something as un-ironic as this.
The stars are wonderful. The male lead has a Douglas Fairbanks meets William Powell quality. The female lead completely captures the quality of stars like "It girl" Clara Bow, although she's too skinny for the period.
The score is fantastic. The movie starts well and gets better and better as it progresses. Well worth seeing.