"With pleasure..."

Rating: 8/10 (5 February 2012)

Writer-director Michel Hazanavicius' valentine to silent-era Hollywoodland, circa 1927, wherein bright young women who were fast-on-their-feet could find movie-work as extras, perhaps even meet a genuine film star along the way. Filmed in flat black-and-white at the "Academy ratio" of 1.33:1--with a modicum of sound and vocal effects, but with a smashing score--"The Artist" is a genuine oddity for modern audiences, and may put some viewers off before the simple-but-sweet plot unfolds. Hazanavicius himself is a bit hesitant in getting things started, and an early scene with movie mogul John Goodman ordering aspiring starlet Bérénice Bejo off the lot is just a series of cuts back and forth without a grip on the narrative. Ludovic Bource's score (with an enormous tip of the hat to Bernard Herrmann) and Guillaume Schiffman's cinematography come to the rescue on several occasions, yet it is the performances of the dashing Jean Dujardin as George Valentin and the delightful Bejo as Peppy Miller which take the picture from an anomaly to a must-see (most especially for film-buffs). Embodying the never-say-die qualities of early Hollywood before the stock market crash, Dujardin pops off the screen like a cross between Fredric March and John Gilbert (with the voice of Charles Boyer!). It is nearly inconceivable that heretofore-unknowns, regardless of their talent, could pull off an honest-to-God silent movie (presented in the correct time and place) in the year 2011 and come up with results this lovely. "The Artist" is a black-and-white rose; it blossoms slowly, and in virtual silence, but the bloom is unique and beautiful to behold. ***1/2 from ****