The Artist Review
By David Kempler
Enjoy the Silents
Silent films are coming back! Talkies are a thing of the past. Well, maybe not, but it is almost as unlikely that a silent film would be released in 2011 at all, let alone one that is generating awards buzz. "The Artist" was a big winner at Cannes and it has made its way to our shores. How America will receive it is at best up in the air. It is two films in one: it is an original, but it also honors the silent past of the cinema.
Director Michael Hazanavicius is the man behind it and he succeeds within its limited framework. However, the constraints on it are the same constraints that sent silents to the sidelines many years ago. It is dependent on mugging for the camera - and it makes fun of that practice in one of its scenes. While there were certainly some classic silents, this will not be remembered as one of them. What it is, is a feel-good reverie with some appropriately touching moments. Shot in black and white (as if there were a choice), it has some beautifully artsy shots and some truly funny and suspenseful moments, though not enough of either.
It's 1927, and silent movie star George Valentin (Jean Dujardin) is the king of the box office. He is dashing and everything you would expect from a male lead from that era, flashing his pearly-whites and sauntering through his screen appearances, as well as in-public moments. He steps out of the theater to his adoring public, mostly populated by pretty young things cooing away. Inadvertently, while he is posing and preening, Peppy Miller (Bérénice Bejo) drops something and, in attempt to pick it up, pops through the ring of security and finds herself face-to-face with George. She is a sweetie, but a determined one as it turns out. Soon she is working bit parts at his studio. She films one scene with George and there is true unspoken electricity flowing between the couple but George is married so that is effectively blocked.
The studio heads are in the midst of switching over to talkies and this puts George in a bad spot. Actors from the silent era did not fare well when silents disappeared and the same fate befalls George. Squeezed out of the studio, he puts up his own finances to make another silent. It doesn't work. The public has moved on. George plunges into obscurity and self-pity, but he has a real-life guardian angel. Maybe she can fashion a happy ending for him. At the same time, Peppy's career is solidly on the upswing. She is headed for the top.
I was alternately enthralled, admiring, and mildly amused by "The Artist". I wanted to love it. I really did, but I can't say that. I did, however, like it a lot. It absolutely flew by, to the point that I couldn't believe it was over when the credits ran. But it's a good time, and isn't that enough?
