Silence Is Golden

Rating: 10/10 (15 March 2015)

In 1927 Hollywood, dashing silent film superstar Jean Dujardin (as George Valentin) celebrates his latest premiere amid crowds of fans at the theater. After a chance meeting, Mr. Dujardin gives pretty, star-struck actress Berenice Bejo (as Peppy Miller) her first big break. Dujardin even provides Ms. Bejo with her trademark "beauty spot" by taking a make-up pencil to mark her otherwise perfect face with a distinctive mole. Neither know it, but "talkies" are poised to take over Hollywood and stamp out the "silents". Dujardin's fame and fortune will crash with the stock market while Bejo becomes the next big thing...
Michel Hazanavicius' ode to silent films won a lot of awards, deservedly. This film successfully takes us back to that time when movies began to talk. Much has been said about how certain actors had the wrong look or "accent" for the new medium; here, we have something much closer to the truth. Moviegoers accepted Greta Garbo and Maurice Chevalier with their accents. Stars like Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford were unsuccessful because they were perceived as too old and/or could not develop their acting skills...
Dujardin as "The Artist" looks very much like Mr. Fairbanks. He also mirrors the popular star's manners. Although this story is supposed to take place behind the scenes, we mostly remain in a silent film mode. In total, it is a visual beauty that presents as a nightmare. This is evident in the opening, when "The Artist" refuses to talk; his refusal is so adamant, it carries on after the scene ends. Later, Dujardin suffers a nightmare with sound. The sound effects and music, by Ludovic Bource, are brilliant. In the late 1920s, an art form froze in time. That era's synchronized sound effects and film beauty are here, again...
Still, you know it isn't real...
They give you "Vertigo" (1958) and a happy dance, which just seems wrong...
Then, you remember this only the stuff that dreams are made of...
********** The Artist (5/15/11) Michel Hazanavicius ~ Jean Dujardin, Berenice Bejo, James Cromwell, John Goodman