THE ARTIST (2011)

Genre: Drama/Musical
Director: Michel Hazanavicius 
Cast: Jean Dujardin, Berenice Bejo, John Goodman, James Cromwell, Penelope Ann Miller, Missi Pyle, Malcolm McDowell, Joel Murray
RunTime: 1 hr 40 mins
Released By:  Cathay-Keris Films
Rating: PG
Official Website: http://weinsteinco.com/sites/the-artist/

Opening Day: 22 December 2011

Synopsis:  Hollywood 1927. George Valentin is a very successful silent movie star. The arrival of talking pictures will mark the end of his career. Peppy Miller, a young woman extra, becomes a major movie star.

Movie Review:

At some inexplicable point in history, cinema became not an exercise in entertaining people but in terrifying them- presumably because the illusion of vicariously sharing in the peril of others was in itself a form of entertainment. But there was a time when going to the movies was a guaranteed feel-good experience, where you laughed, cried (sometimes because you laughed too hard) and swooned at the characters and their guffaws. Such was the experience when silent movies in the 1920s were still the rage, and ‘The Artist’, a black—and-white silent film, is a glorious throwback to the wonder of that age when the medium had just started working its magic into the hearts of people around the world. 

George Valentin (played by French actor Jean Dujardin) is a film idol of that era- think of him as a combination of Douglas Fairbanks, Rudolph Valentino and John Gilbert- and when we first meet Valentin, the year is 1927 and he is on top of the world. He’s waiting behind the wings of a huge opulent cinema (not the kind of small, sometimes even TV=sized, screen in many of our cineplexes today) as his latest hit ‘A Russian Affair’ is playing to a packed hall, the audience of which laps up every little crowd-pleasing antic he and his beloved onscreen and off-screen dog gets up to. 

Valentin is also a showoff, not in the arrogant sort of way many of our celebrities are today but rather someone basking in the public’s love and attention lavished on him- even if his co-star Constance (Missi Pyle) and his studio boss Al Zimmer (John Goodman) whom he hardly gives any time for the audience to cheer for after the screening would probably like to think otherwise. It is at the height of his popularity that he meets an aspiring young starlet Peppy Miller (Bejo), who breaks the line of fans outside the cinema and accidentally bumps into him. 

His false affront quickly melting into a golden smile, which she reciprocates with an equally radiant beam, finds its way to the front page of the next day’s Variety newspaper with the headline ‘Who’s That Girl?’. Turns out she’s also auditioning as an extra for his next movie, ‘A German Affair’, and an irresistibly charming on-set encounter where he imitates her dancing moves behind an opaque white screen blossoms into an immediate attraction between Valentin and Miller. He also practically hand-twists his boss Zimmer into giving her a bigger role in the movie, and soon the duo are seen shooting a scene in multiple takes while cracking each other up. 

By this time, we guarantee you that you would already be won over by their romance, charming and delightful even without the utterance of a single word. Sure, there are the occasional inter-titles to punctuate the music on the soundtrack, but by and large, director Michel Hazanavicius simply trusts in his actors’ movements and expressions to convey their characters’ feelings for each other- and you can trust us when we say that it is a fascinating lesson in mute performance. Till this point, the mood is light, buoyant and upbeat, but Hazanavicius isn’t content just with a fluffy silent-movie tribute. 

You’ve probably heard of the story of the silent film actor, who unable to make the transition to talkies (or movies with dialogue) fall into a sad state of booze and drugs and eventually to obscurity. So it is with Valentin, his star fast dimming as the studio embraces the meteoric growth of talking pictures while he stoically resists the transition. “I'm the one people come to see. They never needed to hear me,” he says, taking out his own movie to write and direct a big-budget silent picture that unfortunately few come to see. Meanwhile, Peppy’s celebrity marquee soars, with Zimmer embracing her as the studio’s future-, and her new picture, which opens alongside Valentin’s, easily trouncing the latter. 

Bankruptcy and divorce (his wife Doris played by Penelope Ann Miller) soon follow, and with the Great Depression of the 1930s, Valentin moves out of his mansion and into a small apartment accompanied by his dog and an endless supply of alcohol. It’s a sad tale, but one that is no less relevant then as it is now- look at the state of the North American box office in recent weeks, and you’ll realise how easily star power can count for little. To stay in favour means to pander if necessary to the demands of your audience, and the lesson Valentin learns in the film is also an admonishment to the fickleness of us the viewers. 

Besides his Jack Russell terrier, Valentin finds that only two people have stuck by him- one, his loyal butler Clifton (James Cromwell); and the other, Peppy. Yes, there’s a lot more heart to Peppy than what meets the eye, so don’t be too quick to rebuke her and what she represents for causing Valentin’s fall from grace. The age-old adage goes that pride comes before the fall, and indeed it is ultimately Valentin’s pride that causes him to resist the goodwill of his few remaining friends and descend even further into self-destruction. The ending here however is solidly Hollywood old-school, as befitting of the movies of that era ‘The Artist’ tries to emulate as well as a perfect panacea for these gloomy depressing times of late. 

Hazanavicius’ film is as much about the story it wants to tell as its method, and it excels as much in the former as it does in the latter. So much is conveyed using so little, amazing it is to realise how much can be told just through moving pictures, especially how much nuanced emotion can be expressed in close-ups- the sole scene with sound is a nightmare George has at the advent of the talkies where he loses his voice while suddenly perceiving the banal noises of daily life. There are also brilliant analogies here- in particular, one where Valentin is standing at the back of an almost empty cinema trying to gauge the reception to his latest movie, while the screen shows his character sliding slowly into quicksand stretching his hand out for help. The technique here is as rich as the emotions onscreen, and establishes Hazanavicius as a bona fide filmmaking talent. 

Of course, Hazanavicius has some generous help from his lead actor, Jean Dujardin, who also starred in both his earlier ‘OSS 117’ spy spoofs. Dujardin gives one of the best performances of the year, and it’ll be a true travesty if he were not recognised among the Best Actor nominees come Oscar season. He portrays with subtlety, grace and nuance the transformation of his character’s fate from adulation to apathy, an even greater achievement especially when you consider his comedic flair in the film’s first half-hour. This flair is well-matched by his co-star Bejo, sassy with a positively infectious vibe at first and then surprisingly affecting later on. Cromwell and Goodman are as good as you would expect of the two veterans, but the show clearly belongs to Dujardin, and also to a lesser but no less significant extent, Bejo. 

In ‘The Artist’, Hazanavicius has created a film to be loved by both cinephiles and casual audiences alike. Those with both love and knowledge for the medium will certainly appreciate his many references- we count ‘Singing in the Rain’, ‘A Star is Born’, ‘Citizen Kane’ and Bernard Hermann’s ‘Vertigo’ score among others; while those with less of the latter will still be taken by his panache for telling as much, and perhaps even more, of a story than many of today’s films without sound. At its heart is a touching love story, one drawn out of the ilk of the enduring love classics of old and infused with modern-day wit and zest. Mark our words- ‘The Artist’ could very well be next year’s Best Picture, so don’t let this work of cinematic tour de force slip you by. 

Movie Rating:

(A glorious tribute to the era of silent movies, ‘The Artist’ pairs a classic love story with brilliant filmmaking technique and is simply one of the best movies this year!)

Review by Gabriel Chong