CAST
George Valentin: Jean Dujardin
Peppy Miller: Bérénice Bejo
Al Zimmer: John Goodman
Clifton: James Cromwell
AWARDS
Best Motion Picture; Best Director – Academy Awards (2012), Best Actor, Jean
Dujardin – Cannes Film Festival
(2011), Best Actress, Bérénice
Bejo – César Awards (2012)
GENRE
Comedy, Drama
DISTRIBUTOR
Swank
RUNNING TIME 100’
PRODUCTION Belgium,
France, 2011
RATING Rated PG-13
GAUGE 35mm, DCP, DVD
“The passing of the silent era from memory into myth is what “The Artist,” Michel
Hazanavicius’s dazzling cinematic objet d’art, is all about. This is not a work of
film history but rather a generous, touching and slightly daffy expression of
unbridled movie love. Though its protagonist mourns the arrival of sound, “The
Artist” itself is more interested in celebrating the range and power of a medium that
can sparkle, swoon and suffer so beautifully that it doesn’t really need to have
anything to say...”
A. O. Scott, The New York Times.
A delightful homage to silent-era Hollywood, Michel Hazanavicius’s mostly
silent film, opens in 1927, when preening matinee idol George Valentin, is
still the top draw at Kinograph Studios. Ignoring the increasingly icy glares
his wife aims at him across the breakfast table, George acts as a mentor
to Peppy Miller, a chorus girl with big ambitions. The Artist tracks both
Peppy’s ascent (through amusing montage) and George’s decline as he
refuses to acknowledge synchronized-sound as more than a passing fad.
By 1932, Peppy is attracting lines around the block for her latest, Beauty
Spot, while George spends his afternoons passed out on a barroom floor,
his Jack Russell terrier his sole remaining fan. Or so the fading star thinks:
Peppy’s never forgotten him, and the film’s concluding act is one of the
most buoyant in recent memory. The movie pivots on the spry connection
between Dujardin and Bejo, both nimble performers and elegantly turned
out in period finery and pomade. The Artist, which was shot at 22 frames
per second and utilizes the boxy 1:33 aspect ratio, also expertly deploys
many of the technical aspects of the silent period.
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