A Love Letter To The Silent Years

Rating: Null/10 (27 June 2012)

If you judge The Artist on its plot alone, the film does not seem special. An established actor and a newcomer meet slowly building up to a love story while each other's careers go in opposite directions. Sounds pretty cliché but The Artist is not the typical movie. It is a self – described love letter to cinema mixing different genres together to celebrate the movies rather than presenting itself as a movie.
The mixture of genres play a large part in The Artist. They are conveyed in a charming fashion which creates a sense of nostalgia for this period of cinema. From George and his dog Jack play acting on stage in a delightful manner, Peppy strutting her stuff in a brief musical dance number and Peppy later acting out her passion for George by improvising with his jacket in a tender moment. All these scenes combine different genres to show how cinema has made us laugh, love and cry. The Artist creates a blank canvas by having no language barrier in order for the audience to have strong embedded emotions. Yet it's the drama aspect of The Artist which plays the most vital role portraying George's downfall.
When sound screen test begin to happen at the studio George laughs it off naive to cinema's evolution. Soon it begins to haunt George, scared for his career. Sat in his dressing room, George begins to hear the sounds of objects touching the surface, Jack barking and people outside yet George cannot hear his own voice. Moving around in a confused state captured in tinted camera angles dazed at the realisation of his future. Although it was only a dream, it is a nightmare reality for himself and for many others whose careers collapsed by the coming of sound. The Artist is not only a pleasant look at cinema's past but also a sobering reminder of the destruction Hollywood left behind in a number of lives.
Although The Artist has its charm in its expressive love for silent cinema by using different genres, it does unfortunately start to drag. The years quickly go by as Peppy becomes a sensation while George sinks deeper into depression. All the while Peppy longs for him and watches George from a distance. Nothing much happens during this period of The Artist which flattens the viewing experience. It's only once George manages to break out of his depression and reunite with Peppy that The Artist picks back up with a blend of romance, melodrama and a happy climax.
The experience The Artist gives us is not only a mostly alluring storyline but a musical score which to perfection embodies all the emotions The Artist contains creating it a tremendous inner feeling for a spectator. It brilliantly inhabits the shifting mood of The Artist as well as personifying the multiple genres. From the light hearted tone of George and Peppy unexpectedly meeting to the fast and forceful tone of George destroying his film reels, the musical score draws us into the core of the story.
Despite The Artist somewhat lingering in its storyline it does not dent its tribute to the early years of cinema which is its most important aspect. It lets those who may have never experienced silent cinema appreciate its great dramatic and atmospheric qualities where everyone can feel and understand the characters emotions without a language barrier. In this sense The Artist flatters and should rightly be remembered as a loving tribute to cinema.