The Artist

Oddly enough, after watching Michel Hazanavicius’ superlative The Artist, a modern silent black and white picture no less, the over-riding feeling I had was one of normality. Just think about that for a moment though. If someone told you a new film was being released in said format, even if you did believe it, you’d never had believed it would turn a profit at the cinema. The Artist has made good at the box office though and there’s a simple reason why; Forget the novelty value (which will be a draw to some), this is just a damn fine film. In it we have George Valentin (Jean Dujardin), a huge star of silent movies in the 1920’s who finds his career under threat when the introduction of talking pictures soon begin to grab the public imagination. Valentin’s pride is too much for him to swallow though and, refusing to conform to the changing methods of the day, soon finds himself forgotten and destitute. Redemption comes in the shape of Peppy Miller (Bérénice Bejo) the bright new star of talking pictures who, ironically, Valentin himself set on the way to fame and fortune. There’s also the flickering buds of romance between the two, but what with Valentin already being hitched and the two moving in different social circles, can it ever blossom into anything more? In effect it’s actually a pretty simple and unoriginal plot (i.e. man loses everything), but the USP is watching it like an audience itself would have back in the day. The reason it works is quite simple. I’m sure you’ve all seen those studies which show that most communication is non-verbal and this film proves it to the hilt. In fact, along with the silence, there are actually very few title cards containing the actors speech. The majority of the film is told via expressions and the soundtrack. For this Hazanavicius needed to get the two main stars to convincingly portray what is going on. Dujardin (arguably best known for the OSS 117 films) is superb, acting like a bounder for a lot of the film he gains many laughs thanks to his range of facial expressions and mannerisms. Bejo has the lesser role, but also does what is required and, along with Dujardin, shows some fancy fleet of foot during a few impressive dancing scenes. It’s not surprising that Hazanavicius gets a good return from either of them though as he’s worked with both before and Bejo is also his wife. Hazanavicius’ direction is sharp and the film is excellently edited. The black and white also looks fantastic on digital. The only real drawback is that at times it does come across as too staged and Valentin’s sudden loss of everything happens a bit too conveniently. Let’s keep looking at the positives though which also include the hilarious, and beyond cute, cameo by Uggie (a Jack Russell Terrier) and a high level of comedy throughout, culminating in a rug pulling moment at the films most crucial scene. So, clever, charming, funny, thoughtful, romantic and tragic. To say that for any film would be great, but to be achieved in a genre that died out almost 100 years ago is something else indeed.

The OC Film Sting Final Verdict
Who’d have seen this coming at the start of the year? Compelling from start to finish. Rating: 8/10.