After waiting three months from the time I first learned
about the film The Artist I got around to seeing it this week. French director Michel Hazanavicius has
fashioned a wonderful period piece, set in the late 1920s, filmed in black and
white. Drama, comedy, and romance are
intertwined in this gorgeously photographed and brilliantly directed film with
a soaring score that is ideally suited to the material.
The 1920’s era is beautifully recreated as is the aura of
the Golden Age of Hollywood; that I felt like I stepped back in time. Had I been in an old revival movie house
instead of the bland box multiplex where I attended the screening along with an
orchestra– I would have been
transported.
Jean Dujardin plays George Valentin, a smoldering Rudolph
Valentino look-alike who we first meet at a lavish film premiere of his latest silent
movie in 1927, basking in the adulation of his audience. One of his fans, a wannabe starlet named Peppy Miller (Bérénice Bejo), through some creative
circumstances, breaks into showbiz and her talking pictures take off; as the
wave of the future, while Dujardin’s lose favor.
Despite that arc, this film doesn’t have any spoken dialogue–
except for a single scene that still has no talking but some sound effects –
it’s silent from start to finish with white-on-black title cards.
With only his Jack Russell terrier named Jack (Uggie in real
life) Valentin loses his fame and fortune, and spirals down into squalor.
Of course it’s up to Peppy to save George.
Of course it’s up to Peppy to save George.
Dujardin and Bejo are mesmerizing, both as masters of
physical comedy with exquisitely expressive faces. The supporting players are also very good; from the studio boss,
to the Chauffeur, and the passive aggressive wife– but if I could cast a vote,
it would be for Uggie the dog that steals the show, proving who man’s
best friend is.
It’s a very simple storyline; still the film is charming.
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