It’s Oscar and awards season, so you may be hearing the buzz about silent film, The Artist. It is unusual for a number of reasons, having no sound is just one of them. To help you understand what all the buzz is about, we thought you might enjoy this review from sister site, Classic Movie Man.
The 2011 release,
The Artist is one-part
A Star Is Born, one part
Singing in the Rain, and another part
The Jazz Singer.
French director Michel Hazanavicius has managed to capture the look and
feel of Hollywood when the movie studios were making the transition
from silent films to “talkies.” During this transition, some movie stars
managed to stay on top, while others faded into obscurity.
A Falling Idol
The Artist
is the story of silent movie idol George Valentin (Jean Dujardin) who
finds his career on the skids with the advent of sound. In contrast,
young starlet Peppy Miller (Bérénice Bejo) finds her career soaring as
talkies gain acceptance with the movie-going public. The film spans the
years 1927 (the year of
The Jazz Singer) through 1932, the year Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s all-star (and all-talking) blockbuster
Grand Hotel won the Academy Award for Best Picture.
A Star is Born
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| Jean Dujardin as matinee idol George Valentin |
The movie opens at the premier of Valentin’s latest action film
A Russian Affair.
While posing for photographs outside the theater, Valentin bumps into a
pretty fan, Miller. A photographer snaps a picture of them together,
which ends up on the cover of
Variety with the headline “Who’s
That Girl?” Miller uses her newfound fame and auditions for Valentin’s
movie studio. Over the objections of studio boss Al Zimmer (John
Goodman), she is given a bit role in Valentin’s next film at the star’s
insistence. Once it’s clear that talking pictures are the future, Zimmer
fires all his silent film stars, including Valentin who is convinced
talkies are just a fad. In the meantime, Miller has progressed from bit
roles to leads and is quickly promoted by the studio as one of its
brightest new stars.
Using all his own resources,
Valentin produces, directs, and stars in a silent epic that has the
misfortune of opening on the same night as Miller’s latest talking
picture. Miller’s film is a smash and Valentin’s is a bomb. Shortly
thereafter Valentin’s wife (Penelope Ann Miller) leaves him, he goes
broke, and he ends up living in a small apartment with his pet dog and
faithful butler (James Cromwell). Miller, who has never forgotten his
kindness toward her, buys all his possessions at an auction and keeps
them in her home, unbeknownst to Valentin. In a fit of depression over
his fall from grace, Valentin sets his films on fire and he almost dies.
If not for his faithful dog (a cross between Lassie, Rin TinTin, and
Asta) alerting a police officer, Valentin would have been lost.
 |
| Bérénice Bejo as future star Peppy Miller |
Dancing Into Our Hearts
Miller takes
Valentin into her home to nurse him back to health and for a time it
looks like things will be alright. When Valentin discovers his
possessions in storage in Miller’s Hollywood mansion, he returns to his
burned out apartment and attempts to commit suicide. Miller suspecting
the worst goes in search of Valentin. Finding him just in time, she
convinces him all is not lost and that she loves him. Since she’s a
major movie star, she insists on having Valentin costar with her in her
next film, threatening to quit if Zimmer doesn’t relent.
A Plan Emerges
Remembering
what a good dancer Valentin is, Miller comes up with a plan. The two
perform a tap dance number for Zimmer and the movie production crew.
During their number, we hear the music play and the sound from their tap
shoes. Their performance is a smash and they get the go-ahead to make a
movie together. Zimmer asks for one more performance and Valentin says
“with pleasure,” revealing a heavy French accent.
Clever Use of Sound
 |
| Valentin at his lowest |
Most of the film is silent with an accompanying sound
track, but there are occasions where sound is cleverly employed. When
sound movies begin to gain popularity, Valentin dreams “in sound.” The
score borrows from other musical pieces and soundtracks, including a
large part of Bernard Herrmann’s
Vertigo score during the film’s climax. Hazanavicius reportedly did a lot of research for
The Artist, including viewing many silent films so he could copy the best techniques. The research seems to have paid off.
The Artist
captures the look and feel of early Hollywood and Valentin and Bejo
(Hazanavicius’s wife) are enormously appealing. Valentin is a cross
between Douglas Fairbanks Sr. and John Barrymore, having a profile
rivaling the latter. Bejo resembles Natalie Wood and Leslie Caron. But
she seems to have Wood’s camera instincts; she’s always framed just
right.
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| Look out Fred and Ginger! |
Fictional History of the Movies
In an
entertaining way, Hazanavicius has given us a fictional account of the
history of the movies. There were many stars like Valentin who had
foreign accents and/or a poor command of the English language whose
careers ended with the advent of sound. Executives at M-G-M were
extremely nervous when Greta Garbo spoke her first words in
Anna Christie
(1930). “Garbo Talks” they announced in pre-publicity for the film, but
studio heads weren’t sure how audiences would react to her Swedish
accent. They loved Garbo, of course, but not all silent film stars were
so fortunate. When Valentin reveals his French accent, it’s clear he
understood it could work against him in the new world of talking
pictures. But just like in the movies, with the love and support of a
woman like Peppy Miller, George Valentin’s career lives once again. For
classic movie fans,
The Artist is a rare treat in today’s motion picture landscape. Give it a try!
