It’s that time of year again, awards season! Awards season usually begets wider distribution for films nominated for Oscars and BAFTAs, which ordinarily wouldn’t be shown to as wide an audience. Think ‘The King’s Speech’. This year the ‘Oscar Effect’ seems to be working its magic on ‘The Artist’. I popped along to a screening to see what all the fuss was about…
‘The Artist’ (written and directed by Michel Hazanavicius) is the story of Silent movie star George Valentin (Jean Dujardin) and young ingénue Peppy Miller (Bérénice Bejo) from their first meeting in the 1927 up to 1932. The film charts Peppy’s rise to fame and George’s fall from stardom as the medium he knows and loves becomes obsolete.
There is much to be said about this film but we’ll start with the performances. Dujardin looks like a shoo-in to walk away with Best Actor at the Academy awards and that’s fine by me. Silent films bring with them the added challenge of just that, silence. I don’t think a lot of actors could adapt their performances to the extent that Dujardin has and he makes a potentially unlikable character very sympathetic.
Likewise Bejo has enthused Peppy with an effervescence that springs from the screen despite the disadvantage of having no audible dialogue.
There’s also a really lovely supporting cast. John Goodman, James Cromwell and Malcolm McDowell all have little parts that were charming and lovely.
Speaking of charming and lovely, if you only go and see ‘The Artist’ for one thing, go and see it for the Dog. I’m sure there are campaigns to get Uggie the Dog nominated for a ‘Best Supporting Actor’ gong, I think that’s a bit much but still, I love that Dog!
I say this is a silent film, that’s not strictly true. I don’t want to ruin it for anyone by going into detail but there is some sound and the smallest snippet of dialogue. I was fine with it and actually thought both the silence and sound were used to great effect. What surprised me was the lack of Intertitles. I imagined a film where lots of dialogue would appear on Intertitles but that’s really not the case, for large portions of the film you are left to work out what the characters are saying to each other. That takes a little time to get used to but ultimately, you hardly notice it.
Thematically, it borrows from a lot of brilliant films, one of which is ‘Singin’ in the Rain’ which is absolutely fine by me. If there was less ‘Transformers’ and more ‘Singin’ in the Rain’, the world would be a better place. Not that ‘The Artist’ is all daisies and sunshine like ‘Singin’ in the Rain’, because it isn’t. There are moments of genuine sadness and shock that give the whole film a slight melodramatic edge whilst still being comedic and romantic in every sense of the word. I think the closeness in theme to things like ‘A Star is Born’ and ‘Singin’ in the Rain’ has created a bit of a backlash but in my opinion it’s not a bad thing.
I must doff my invisible cap to Mr Hazanavicius (this film is full of French names that are extremely fun to say…), he’s created something really rather wonderful. It would have been so easy to just throw it all together and not bother about the detail but he’s taken such care over everything. Not just costume and set design (which are gorgeous btw); the film was shot in 1.33:1 screen ratio and at the lower frame rate of 22 fps to make it look more authentic, he even took 4 months to write the screenplay… IN A FILM WITH TWO LINES OF AUIDABLE DIALOGUE! If that’s not commitment to quality I don’t know what is.
Cards on the table time; I like old movies (and not in an infuriating match.com advert kind of way) so I was always going to like this, what I didn’t realise was just how much I was going to like it. It is reverential to black and white silent cinema of the 20’s but it’s also beautifully shot, fantastically acted and at 100 minutes zips along at the perfect pace, I struggle to find anything bad to say about it. Please don’t be put off by the fact it’s a silent movie it is a delightful, joy of a film.
Now I think it's about time for some...
1. The BAFTAs were on Sunday! The aforementioned ‘Artist’ (unsurprisingly) OWNED the night and walked away with 7 awards (see here for the full list of Winners and Losers). I was pleased ‘Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy’ won best British film but really I wanted Gary Oldman to get best Actor, I’m not sad it went to Jean Dujardin because he’s great but because of the distinct lack of TTSS at the Oscars, it would’ve been nice. Also, this is my new favourite thing in the world :-)
2. HOBBIT NEWS! Billy Connolly has joined the cast of ‘The Hobbit’! I love this! I really like Billy Connolly and I’m sure you’ve gathered by now that I’m rather fond of ‘The Hobbit’. I approve!
That’s it for today!
Goodbye till next time :-)
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P.S I’ve been to see ‘The Muppets’, post is currently being written up… watch this space
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