The Artist

The Artist is a silent, black and white French film written and directed by Michel Hazanavicius and released in 2011.

The Artist poster.

The film tells the story of the transition from silent films to 'talkies' and what impact this had on actors of the time. The main protagonist, George Valentin (Played by Jean Dujardin), begins the film as a hugely successful movie star of the silent era but as the film moves into the late 20s and early 30s he is quickly cast aside to make room for new actors who talk. Valentin cannot adjust to the new style of acting and attempts to direct his own independent silent film 'Tears of Love' which sadly goes down like a lead balloon, Valentin's life goes completely down hill and he becomes an alcoholic.

This film captures the mood of early Hollywood, with it's mean and unforgiving movie producers trying to make as much money as possible and ruthlessly laying people off along the way. From the period costume and sets, to the pompous sounding music score, this film does well in creating the illusion of a film from the 20s but with much better quality and smoother special effects.  

George Valentin and his dog.

  
Sound is used in this film very sparingly, one memorable instant is when George Valentin has a frightening anxiety dream about the switch over from silent films to films with sound. In the dream sequence everything around him is making a noise but he remains silent, this is very effective as by this point in the film the viewer is used to the absence of sound and so it comes as a shock to suddenly hear people laughing, doors slamming and busy traffic. The only other moment in which sound it used is at the end of the film when Valentin finally embraces the future and teams up with his old co-star Peppy Miller (Played by Berenice Bejo) to form a tap dancing duo. This is the first time we hear the character's voices and it makes the ending of the film interesting as well as representing the evolution of film making.

Valentin has a nightmare about a world of sound.

 
Valentin's love interest the sweet Peppy Miller, starts out as a big fan of Valentin and this is what inspires her to join the film industry. Valentin then breaks up with his wife and becomes depressed as a result of plummeting from number one star to nobody, meanwhile Peppy Miller becomes a huge star as the new face of talking films. There is something rather sad about this film as it is essentially about the death of an old art form and times changing so fast that people are left behind, we see audiences enjoying the silent films immensely but only to tire of them.

Peppy Miller being made up for camera.

The story is heart warming and emotional, the overall theme is interesting and imaginative but it is difficult to say whether this film deserved all the awards it got. 2011 wasn't an amazing year for films, although amidst Jack and Jill and Season of the Witch were some brilliant films such as Captain America, Sucker Punch, The Muppets etc. but The Artist is certainly one of the best, had this film been released in 2012 it would probably not have won as many award as it did. One thing's for sure, watching this movie has made me want to see some more silent films, 1920s here I come...

Valentine and Miller first meet.