"This is how the cinema began"

Title: The Artist
Year: 2011
Genre: Comedy, Romance, Drama
Director: Michel Hazanavicius
Writer: Michel Hazanavicius
Runtime: 100min
Cast: Jean Dujardin, Bérénice Bejo, John Goodman, James Cromwell
Produc.: La Petite Reine, La Classe Américaine, JD Prod, France 3 Cinéma, Juror Productions, uFilm, Canal+, CinéCinéma, France Télévision, Le Tax Shelter du Gouvernement Féderal de Belgique
Budget: $15 million approx.

In The Artist we are located in the Hollywood of 1927, where George Valentin (Jean Dujardin) is an acclaimed silent film actor who meets Peppy Miller (Bérénice Bejo), a hitherto unknown young woman with whom he will share leadership on the big screen. However, when things seem to be going on track will be that suddenly emerge the talking pictures, wich threatens and then leads Valentin to failure, for, on the other hand, catapulting his partner to stardom in the new scheme of the industry.

If I was asked about, I would say that the reason why this film received such extraordinary welcome and acclaim from critics, has been the very good marketing with wich it was provided. There are, and I have no doubt, movies that are applauded by the world, and when one finally see them, ends up realizing that, or its director has had a moment of divine inspiration, or that he was neither more nor less than a genius. Now... has this been the case of Michel Hazanavicius? I think not. On the other hand, has this been the case of a very well laid out flick? I think so.

What happens to The Artist, is that without even wanting to would end up creating many detractors, for being almost completely soundless (with the exception of its soundtrack and its very brief dialogues), besides being in black and white in a society accustomed to pictures where the absence, either of one or the other, has not crossed no one´s mind.

Personally, I think the trap that so many have fallen into, has been to let themselves be amazed by something different from the daily. When we are used to seeing something in a certain way, and suddenly one day we are shows a version of that something that goes out of the rule, what can basically happen is that we are drawn and pleased with this new point of view, or by contrary, we flee away from it. To be more precise, in an era in which we are used to the sound and color movies, a picture that has allowed itself to break this code has meant for many the equivalent of something "revealing". What I mean is that for many, once they got into the argument and got adapted to its language, they have probably fallen into a somewhat romantic idea of ​​letting themselves to be carried, more by the beauty of its art and clothing, and more by the smiles, the friendliness of its characters and the score, than by the main plot.

In case this leads to any doubts, it is enough just to remember another of the candidates to the Oscar. Terrence Malick´s The Tree of Life (2011), also performed very differently than usual, would then be praised by many and rejected by others. The second group, for this movie not fitting to the to the more conventional and conservative cinematographic standard.

Following the analysis, it is singular for us to be against a film whose language is exactly the same as the Hollywood productions of the historical period being addressed.

The Artist opens with a huge theater full of people who enjoy the last minutes of a film by the legendary George Valentin, a sort of Clark Gable of the moment. To all this, the very Valentin himself awaits at the side of the stage with his pet Uggie (also a movie star) and the producer of the film, Al Zimmer (John Goodman), among others. When the function finishes and his character ends up victorious, celebrity and pet come out to set up their own show. Valentin greets his audience, the dog does his tricks and the sympathetic duo is applauded.

Later, Valentin sits smiling for fans and reporters when he meets Peppy Miller, who will soon get her ticket to the big studios after being chosen by audition. Starting from here, will begin to unfold the friendship and romance arising between them, until the crisis of silent films, quickly trampled by the sound, distance them. Valentin will be forgotten and instead, Miller will be consolidated with the new system.

The Artist, therefore, becomes a fictional drama that combines the problems between its two main characters with the historical reality that the film industry lived at the time. What happens in this way is that, although there are quite well made moments and very well musicalized, it is equally difficult to cope with the void left by the lack of sound of the spoken word, as we must be content with inter titles and with the language, purely and simply, gestural. This is why a film that was intended to pay homage to early cinema ends up failing, by bore many, because it is a language from other times applied to a story that perhaps deserved more strongly narrative.

My rating: 6/10

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