The Artist Review- By Michael Carlisle

 Title: The Artist
Year: 2011
Director: Michael Hazanavicius

Country: France
Language: English

Right off the bat The Artist has a limited audience. Why? Because The Artist is a film that many of today’s film-goers hate; it is silent and black and white. I say too bad for them, to limit yourself and the films you watch is to miss out on a few of the best films of all time. If you object to black and white you’ve missed out on such brilliant films as Citizen Kane and Casablanca. If you object to silent films then you’ve missed out on the hilarity of most Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton films, not to mention the emotional intensity of classic silents such as Broken Blossoms and Passion of Joan of Arc. If you choose to limit yourself then you are a fool and I pity you’ve limited the amount of spiritual experiences you could have through film.

Well known French actor Jean Dujardin  plays a silent film star known as George Valentine that seems as beloved as Chaplin in his early days. If Dujardin was alive in the 20’s he likely would’ve been one of the greatest silent film stars of all time Valentine has a smile that dazzles the world and an ego big enough to fill any room. but a voice that is extremely lackluster for Hollywood during the transitional era from silence to sound.

 Indeed after  1927’s The Jazz Singer’s revolutionary success with using sound in film, the film industry decided to abandon  silence. Therefore anybody who was not able to speak in the proficiency needed or who refused to accept the change lost their career and in some cases became horribly broke. There are some exceptions, like Charlie Chaplin who was able to make silent films until the late thirties, but this was because of his enormous success and wealth, eventually he decided to transition into sound.  He has nightmares about this, in-fact a brilliant scene in this film is his nightmare. He dreams that everything is making a sound but him, he can hear some girls laughing in the distance but when he screams no words come out. George Valentine’s French accent made him unsuitable for American talkies, therefore he was cut. Left in a dumpy apartment with little money and only his dog Uggie to keep him company.

Peppy Miller (Berenice Bejo) meets George Valentine during an autograph signing. He takes a picture with her and she uses that to get a leg up in auditions. There seems to be a great romance between the two, the film shows a neat visual effect when Peppy is dancing with Valentine’s coat in his dressing room, it almost looks like Valentine is holding her.  While Valentine’s career is sinking from the transition of silent to sound, Peppy’s career  is rising. She is becoming the next big star, an almost Marilyn Monroe kind of figure. There is a neat shot in the film where both Valentine and Miller meet on a staircase, Valentine is going down the stairs while Peppy is going up, this is very symbolic of their status in their individual careers.

One of The Artist’s strengths is the simplistic story, its plot is somewhat similar to Singin in the Rain but different enough to make the film unique. There are many memorable shots and great edits, one of the edits which occurs later in the film (discussing it would spoil the film) is perhaps the greatest edit I have seen in any film ever made.  The score is beautiful, certainly adds comedic value as well as emotional intensity. I would argue that Bernard Herrmann’s noticeable Vertigo piece is better in The Artist for creating a certain mood that the film it was originally made for.

In conclusion, The Artist is a brilliant homage to silent era film. It’s incredibly refreshing to see a mainstream silent film made in 2011, it was astounding to see this silent film win the Best Picture Oscar at the Academy Awards. I hope that the success of The Artist brings a wave of silent films, or at least inspires a generation of people to watch films older than their grandmothers. I’ve seen it at least six times since it has been released and plan to see it much more. Praise it! 5/5