The Artist

Plot synopsis:
It's 1927 and we meet silent movie star George Valentin (Jean Dujardin) on top of the world. He's behind the screen; in front of it an ecstatic audience is enthralled by his latest starring role. As the credits roll, Valentin takes the stage for what a virtuosic display of bowing, his canine sidekick performing some cute tricks too.Outside the theatre, adoring fans and press push and surge to breathe the same air as their hero. A pretty young girl at the front of the crowd drops her wallet, and makes the most of picking it up to slip under the security cordon. There's silence as Valentin looks shocked, confused, angry even - but it's all his joke and, laughing at his own power to create such confusion, he gamely poses for photos with the young lady to the delight of the assembled press, and to the chagrin of his stern, world-weary wife who reads of the escapade in the papers the next day.The young girl - one Peppy Miller (Bérénice Bejo), we learn - having shared a moment with her hero is inspired to follow his path, and turns up at the studio to audition, successfully, as an extra. Valentin himself arrives at the same studio where he is again the star, this time of 'A German Affair'. On entering the studio the star is enthralled by a pair of legs he sees rehearsing on the other side of a screen. He joins the dance from his side of the screen, and beckons to the set builders to remove the screen, hoping to surprise the girl. It's he, though, who is surprised to discover the legs belong to the same Peppy Miller from last night's crowd and this morning's papers.Years pass, one presumes in a similar fashion. One day though, Al Zimmer, the immaculately stereotyped cigar-chomping, braces-pinging studio boss (John Goodman) calls Valentin in to see the latest technological innovation - a primitive attempt to record sound with motion pictures. Valentin scoffs at the footage, but is clearly ruffled by it. He dreams a nightmare where everyday sounds are exaggerated (for the first time here the film takes on a diegetic soundtrack) culminating in a confusing cacophony where a feather lands with a boom. Only his own voice is stifled; despite the soundscape around him, he is mute.Valentin's instinctive suspicion of the technology proves well-founded, when he - once the king of the silent movie - is quickly marginalised, and eventually fired by Zimmer. Audiences want change, he's told. It's time to move on.Devastated by his sudden fall to insignificance, Valentin takes to drink. Peppy, meanwhile, has done well out of the new 'talkies'. Now the doyenne of the Hollywood set and as wealthy a pin-up herself as her mentor once was, she gives a radio interview in a café in which she attributes her success to the simple truth that audiences want change. "Out with the old, in with the new," she quips. From an adjacent table, unseen, Valentin listens in before theatrically 'making way' for young Peppy, dramatically taking his leave.Valentin's circumstances go from bad to worse. A self-funded attempt to make a return to the era of silent film ("Tears of Love") flops, and the rest of his savings are wiped out by the 1929 stock market crash. When the whisky runs dry, the ex-star auctions off everything he owns. His dour wife leaves him (perhaps the one bit of good fortune he has enjoyed since the days of stardom) and he is forced to sack his loyal butler Clifton.He visits a bar and passes out after envisioning a hand-sized miniature of him dressed as his "Tears of Love" character scolding him and miniature savages attacking him with spears. Clifton finds him on the floor of the bar and takes him to Valentin's apartment.Valentin stands in a home film projector room and has a vison of his shadow moving by itself while the screen is blank, and then off the screen.Finally, in a climax of drunken rage, Valentin sets fire to his old film reels, and, with them, his apartment. Attempting to save one canister in a sudden moment of regret, he is overcome by fumes, and it is only thanks to the endeavours of his ever-loyal dog that he is rescued by a nearby fireman.Peppy has discreetly been following Valentin's fortunes and is shocked to learn of the fire from the newspaper. She leaves a shoot to visit him in hospital, and, stopping short of declaring her love for him, takes him to her grand villa to recover. Waking briefly, Valentin realises his luck and the pair embrace.However, while Peppy is out at a shoot, Clifton arrives and reveals that he is now employed by Peppy, tosses a film script at the bed and what appears to be a Whitman Sampler on the nightstand, and gives a short speech about the drawbacks of being too prideful. But Valentin appears disdainful of the talkie script.After Clifton leaves, the convalescent Valentin roams the villa, and discovers to his horror a room full of the very possessions he himself had previously auctioned off. His pride deeply wounded by her having come to his rescue without his knowledge, he flees the house and returns to the embers of his burned-out apartment to root out his old pistol. Returning home and realising Valentin has left in anger, Peppy gives chase in her car, guessing his intention.Valentin sits in his chair with the gun in his mouth, while the dog frantically pulls at his trouser leg.The intertitle flashes up: "Bang!"But it is outside that we find the source of the noise; Peppy has crashed her car into a tree. She leaps from the wreckage and consoles Valentin just in time to avert catastrophe. She tells him she has secured a role for him in her next production. Valentin is sceptical, saying the audience doesn't want to hear him talk. Peppy tells him she has another idea, and the film ends with Al Zimmer toasting the next entertainment sensation as Valentin is back in the studio, and back to his ebullient self with Peppy as his tap dancing partner. The consummate artist, Valentin has found a way to use the new sound-recording technology without lowering himself to a speaking part.

Tags: dramatic, romantic, action, boring, sentimental

Review:
«We didn't need dialogs, we had faces» said the narcissistic Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson) in Billy Wilder' "Sunset Boulevard", referring to the Silent Era, when she used to be big  before the 'pictures got small'.The reason of this introduction is that after watching Michel Hazanavicius' critically acclaimed: "The Artist", I strongly felt this was the perfect illustration to Norma Desmond's iconic eulogy.
From beginning to end, my eyes never ceased to be amazed by the communicative smile of Jean Dujardin as George Valentin, the aging silent movie star and the sparkling eyes of Berenice Bejo as Peppy Miller, the young and flamboyant starlet.
I sincerely believe he deserves an Oscar nomination, because he just doesn't play an actor from the Silent Era, he embodies the Era with the same level of demented craziness as Norma Desmond, in a brighter and more light-hearted side.Valentin's self-absorption echoes Desmond's cynical ego while his gaudy 'Don Lockwood' mask (Gene Kelly in "Singin' in the Rain") hides the more poignant face of his insecurity.
A clever credit-billing montage depicts her consequent ascension to stardom until she finally dethrones George and makes a has-been out of him.If I mentioned the performance of Dujardin, Berenice Bejo also deserves some accolades because she succeeded in looking so "old" from our POV yet so fresh and modern in the film, with the appealing feel-good and optimistic attitude she constantly brings on screen.
Along with this conflict, the evolution of George and Peppy's romance never feels forced, quite an accomplishment when we consider how slightly over-the-top silent movie stars used to act.Both Dujardin and Bejo are indeed powerful in an Oscar-worthy level and at that moment, I can't continue without mentioning the third character of the film, George's dog.
Anyway, I applaud Hazanivicius for not having reduced "The Artist" to a flashy spectacle with no substance, with the word 'homage' as the director's convenient alibi, and make a touching romance about two people who met each other at a pivotal time in the history of film-making, each representing a side of cinema, the old-school silent generation: Chaplin, Keaton, Pickford and the exuberant talkers: Grant, Hepburn, Davis  And I'm glad he found the true note to reconcile between these two universes at the end  didn't I tell you Dujardin was the lost son of Gene Kelly?"The Artist" plays like a missing link between "Singin' in the Rain" and "Sunset Boulevard" and it's indeed one of the best films of 2011, with the absence of words as an endearing 'beauty spot'..
The lost art of the silent film is once again brought to life and that era is impressively recreated, whether it be the acting style, the sets, the locations (shot in Hollywood), the shimmering black and white photography.
The acting is superb, the chemistry between all of the actors is sizzling, the comedy is absolutely hilarious, the storyline grips you and never lets go, the music is superb, and you feel emotionally connected with the characters and story.If you check my previous reviews, you will see that I am most often moved to write a review when a film was really bad, but this film caught me completely off guard and I just had to express my overwhelming satisfaction with this filmmaking experience.I can't imagine how difficult it must have been to try and finance a period film with two stars who were not well known outside of their own country.
My wife and I went to see The Artist this past Saturday and I was left with an overwhelming feeling of "meh." Which is really surprising, given the almost universal, glowing praise this film has been getting--what with Golden Globe awards and Oscar nominations, etc (not to mention all the 10-star reviews here on IMDb).I just didn't see anything special here.
(Note: the story borrows shamelessly from both SINGING IN THE RAIN and A STAR IS BORN and is fully consistent with the era's cornball aesthetic.) And even if you ARE familiar with silent cinema, "Oscar worthy" is going to seem like a stretch.
(By comparison, I saw AMELIE at the same theater ten years prior, and it received a ten-minute standing ovation at the end.) If I'd known at the time that I'd just seen the year's BEST movie, I would have been depressed over what this portended for the year-end releases.You simply can't help being aware of the limitations of silent movies -- and thankful for the quantum improvement that the introduction of sound made -- no matter how deft the filmmakers are in recreating the look and feel of a bygone era.
It's an interesting idea to try making a silent film (in fact, I thought the places where the film did use sound effects were rather silly), but I think they should have tried to make a more substantial movie instead of relying on the style as a gimmick.
It all started last Christmas when I, like many others started hearing a lot of hoo-ha about this new film coming out called The Artist which was silent, black and white, and up for all sorts of prestigious awards.
I had high hopes for THE ARTIST, a modern-day black and white silent movie that promised to be a charming celebration of movie-making in the silent era and a film which swept the board at the Oscars.
Unfortunately it's a movie that's not as good as it thinks it is, one which happily copies that which has come before rather than providing much in the way of originality.The story involves a famous silent film actor who finds his career in the doldrums after the arrival of 'talkies', sound films which effectively bankrupt him and end his career.
Ironically, the fact that it wasn't a color talkie with modern special effects actually helped me to pay attention to the wonderful film; the score/soundtrack (best soundtrack, in my opinion, since I saw "Fantasia" back in the seventies), the facial expressions and bodily movements, and the absence of speaking "spoke" to my emotions rather than to my intellect.
The acting in "The Artist" was superb (I especially enjoined the leading man's and leading lady's performances), the costumes were authentic (I loved the fact that men actually dressed up and wore ties to the movies), the vehicles were works of art (rather than the plastic bubbles we drive today); I felt nostalgic for a time when class and compassion reigned supreme..
Fabulous acting, superb score, great cinematography and look out for a star turn from a little performing dog which is quite amazing at times.With lots of classic touches woven throughout this movie, expect to laugh out loud, cry real tears and go through a roller-coaster of emotions as you will no doubt watch in fascination, the vivid recreation of an exceptional time in the history of cinema (the advent of talkies)and the history of the America (Wall St Crash/Great Depression).Though it is a silent film, sound is used in a very clever way.
Watching The Artist, feels like someone was clearing out an old Hollywood Studio and stumbled upon one of the greatest silents (if not films) of them all and suddenly the lost masterpiece is revealed to the world.Emerging from the Cinema and into the crisp night air of Leicester Square, my thoughts were on one thing...how many Oscars will this instant classic win come February?
The film has been nominated for 10 Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Performance by a Lead Actor (Jean Dujardin) and a Supporting Actress (Berenice Bejo).
Please don't be scared off because the movie is silent or in black and white because the story is really entertaining and despite being colorless it is brighter than any other film released this year.
This time, the nostalgic authors take us to 1927, the era of silent black-and-white movies and booming movie industry.The Artist is very different from the other two films mentioned.
I liked Hugo pretty much, but I think The Artist is a highly superior movie, because its overflowing charm fascinated me from the very beginning and provoked a constant smile on me, until leading to a magnificent ending.The first thing which draws the attention in The Artist is the fact that it was filmed like if it was really done in the late 20s or early 30s, in black and white, without sound and with a musical accompaniment in order to accentuate the emotions from the scenes (oh, and I also have to mention the interstitial banners with selected dialogs from the characters).
So, The Artist could be grouped into the modern tendency of "retro" cinema; however, the truth is that the anachronistic style of The Artist is not a gimmick (like it has been in many movies), but an essential part of the narrative, so as a consequence, the shape enriches the substance, and vice-versa, telling the story with a big ingenuity and an obvious love for that incipient period of cinema, when the formulas we can find nowadays were forged.Director and screenwriter Michel Hazanavicius made a brilliant work at capturing the atmosphere, rhythm and texture of mute cinema.
We tend to watch old films almost like involuntary comedies, full of apparatus expressions and excessive melodrama, but the actors were testing the limits of the new medium, and their best exponents (such as Buster Keaton, Lillian Gish and Lon Chaney) discovered the balance which was perfectly captured by Dujardin and Bejo.The screenplay from The Artist is perfectly written, and it even includes some ingenious implementations of clichés which end up taking an unexpected twist.
Movie extra Peppy Miller (Bérénice Bejo) is a star on the rise who's admiration for George's work runs much deeper than the film's they share.
Directing was decent, although I do believe in order to make a film more interesting, the cinematography (or the way it is shot), could have been a lot more innovative, but since the filmmaker resorted to attempting to "copy" silent films, the entire cache of the picture got lost.**** WARNING - SPOILER BELOW ****But the story.....well here it goes: The film basically shows our protagonist who is on top of his acting game and is a "superstar", who then "bumps into", or rather she "bumps into him"....an "extra" or an onlooker on set, whom he is charmed by....of course our film's leading lady, and our film director's wife in real life.
He does not "give her a start" in the movie industry...just because he adds a "birthmark" above her lip in the beginning (clever Cindy Crawford copycat citation there by the way....) does not mean she should be rescuing him.In the end...everyone's happy....the wimp is rescued by a "strong" lady who was always obsessed with him, she didn't actually love him, she loved "the image" of this successful man....in today's real life example for instance, it would be the same as a regular girl obsessed with George Clooney or Brad Pitt, but the story in this film wants to make us believe that she loves him, when she actually does not, but only in a movie can they attempt to get away with something like this.
I don't think so....nice try though.Of course, for people that go to movies in a movie theater "on a date", when they are all "into each other" and are concentrating more on each other's lips and are boiling with emotions because they can't wait to finish the movie and go home and shag....add a little popcorn and soda and smiling characters on screen with somewhat existent story line in today's day and age will pass for today's average viewer, but for someone that understands what makes a real film work, I would say....pass....or see it only for Dujardin's acting.To close....I was not disappointed to be honest after I completed watching this because after getting used to so much garbage that comes out on screen during the course of the last 10- 15 years, finding a truly unique picture with a profound storyline these days is a surprise, therefore I did not expect much...but was curious why George Clooney lost the Oscar to Dujardin.
Hey prominent Hollywood producers, forget the noise, forget the color, forget the high resolution, certainly forget the 3D (wait maybe if I do a silent movie in black and white with 3D effect, I might win an Oscar!!!), do something ancestral colorless, oh, and resuscitated this daguerreotype and your favorite nearest museum, then you could create a masterpiece!!!!Si Cadaver.
While the latter depicted an ageing former silent star verging on madness, and the latter a production company making the difficult transition from silent movies to musicals, what The Artist has going for it is that it's shot and acted exactly like a silent movie, and does so with such dedication and love that it transports you back to the time where you feel as if you're witnessing this change first hand.It would be easy to make a mockery of silent movies.
I think Hollywood has lost it's collective mind by giving a best picture Oscar to a black and white mostly silent movie in the 1.33 to 1 format.
The Artist takes us back to a time when cinema was about entertainment, when new technology was used to improve things rather than swamp the product with an 'aren't we clever with computers?' attitude.It has moments of great humour and great poignancy, many of these moments enhanced by a mere facial expression from the fantastic Jean Dujardin (Best Actor Oscar with any luck), ably supported by Berenice Bejo and ....Uggy the Jack Russell in a scene-stealing performance.
Unfortunately, as is usually the case with the Weinstein movies, it falls short of expectations.On its own, "The Artist" is a fun experiment: let's shoot a silent black and white film, using many of the mechanisms of that film era, from cinematography to screenplay.
The film is getting a lot of attention and appreciation for this unique style, but it also excels in the very basic ideas of what makes a film work.The Artist is built around the story of George Valentin (Jean Dujardin), a silent film star whose light begins to fade as talking pictures arrival in Hollywood and what begins as this charming love letter to silent cinema becomes a fascinating and emotional journey with a complex character.
Who would have thought that the trio of writer-director Michel Hazanavicius, his wife actress Berenice Bejo and actor Jean Dujardin, all probably better known for their comical spoof of the spy genre with the OSS 117 movies, could have pull out all the stops and made such an affecting romantic film that epitomizes all things great about an era of cinema long gone, providing that pitch perfect nostalgic feel and homage to the black and white greats of the old days where films meant dressing up, the acting almost always exaggerated, the reading of inter-titles, with a live orchestra at the front of the hall playing the soundtrack and providing the emotional cues of the film.
While watching The Artist it brought back to mind some memories of the good old days where I took on a course module just so to watch Pulp Fiction, but got enthralled by the fascinating silent, black and white classic films such as King Vidor's The Crowd, and The Son of the Sheik starring Rudolph Valentino, amongst other greats.Technically Hazanavicius' film can't get any better than this, and his meticulous research during pre-production shows in the delicate touches put in the film, from costumes and dressing, to set and art direction, right down to the technical details of framing, camera, and transitional scene techniques used to tell the silent film story right.
The support cast of James Cromwell, John Goodman and Penelope Ann Miller were great, but none stood out other than Uggie the Jack Russell Terrier who single handedly stole the limelight each time it's on screen!Ask anyone these days to watch a black and white, silent film and you'll probably be scoffed at, but to anyone who has not watched The Artist, it is truly their loss.
There can be a lot of potential in this rising/falling star plot, but the story didn't mine any of that territory.The only time the plot sparkled was when the director did something interesting with sound and sight about 30 minutes in (don't want to give it away for the victims of this scam who might watch it) - at that point I thought the story and perceptual experience was finally going to be interesting, but the director abandoned that promising approach.Two weeks ago I saw Hugo, and the silent film excerpts and shooting scenes in that movie were interesting and enthralling, and the ones in this one were not.
George Valentin (Jean Dujardin) is one of the most successful and beloved silent movie stars, and along with his canine companion and sidekick, Uggie, charms his ways through Hollywood.
When his next movie, "Tears of Love" opens alongside Peppy's newest Talkie, and proceeds to bomb, he slumps into a deep depression that leads him to fire his butler and closest friend, Clifton (James Cromwell), and on two occasions, attempts to commit suicide, until Peppy comes to his rescue, and saves not only his life, but also his career.What makes "The Artist" so terrific is the director and cinematographer's decision to shoot the film in black and white, and make it silent, to add to the authenticity of the time period and the subject.
As George Valentin, Jean Dujardin plays a famous but ageing silent movie star when he literally bumps into Peppy Miller (Bérénice Bejo).
the end of the silent movies era.As I am writing, "The Artist" is one of the major contenders for the Best Picture of the year Oscar having received already the awards from many prestigious organizations and made the countless critics lists.
If you really fancy silent movies from long long ago en do not mind the lack of sounds in general en lack of voices from people talking to each other and you like the thin story's from 80 years back you must see this film.