So It's that time that rolls around every year, Oscar season. Traditionally at the start of the year the studios begin to release the films that they are hoping will win them the most awards. Many of these films will have been doing the circuits at film festivals previously in order to build up the buzz, but this is the first time we actually get to watch them as the general public. In previous years gone by we've had fairly obvious Oscar bait (not to discount the films themselves, but they are very much the types of films that Oscar loves) such as The Kings Speech, Milk, Crash, The Pianist and so on. And then you get the films that aren't as obvious as frontrunners, but are definitely the studios prestige pictures, aimed more at critical attention than commercial success. Then you have The Artist.
The Artist is a Black & White film; it is a silent film, and it's not even in widescreen. Maybe because of last year being the year of 3D cinema (apparently the next big thing in how we view films.... or shit depending on who you ask) it was almost refreshing to see a film that wasn't looking forward, but was in fact looking back at what made cinema become as popular as it is today. After all, if all we wanted to see was things popping out of the screen at us, films with conventional plots would all but be dead. I believe Michel Hazanavicius (The Director of this film) said something about the reason why he wanted to make this picture silent was because, with modern films you have a screenplay, and you watch the film, you follow the story, but sometimes you fail to get truely involved in the story. With Silent films so much dialogue remains unspoken, so you are almost forced into the film in order to interpret and get your own readings into the film and the characters feelings and emotions. Personally I can see exactly what he means. It could be simply that he was a superb filmmaker, but whenever i watch a Charlie Chaplin film I find myself being tugged along with the characters, feeling more deeply with them than many characters In modern blockbusters.
Anyway; none of this would make a blind bit of difference if the film wasn't any good, thank goodness then that it is in fact an absolute joy to watch. The story is thus, George Valentin is a hugely successful silent film star, with an ego to match, after a screening of one such film he coincidentally meets Peppy Miller, a young aspiring actress, pictures of the two of them together spark discussion about who this mysterious woman is, and through this Peppy finally gets her big break. Then the era of silent cinema ends with the introduction of talking pictures. George Valentin is convinced it is a fad and ends up being left behind by the studios, sinking his money into an epic silent picture which is ultimately a commerical flop, whilst Peppy's career gets stronger and stronger. Eventually she helps George Valentin get back on his feet and back into the industry.
The story may sound a little familiar because it appears to draw heavily from Singin' In The Rain, a fact which whilst slightly off putting, isn't completely distracting as there are enough variants to warrant this film in its own right, plus I suspect when you are telling the story of the end of silent cinema there will be many similar stories to tell. Jean Dujardin won the best actor gong at Cannes last year, a decision which seemed to come out of nowhere, but not a decision that many people could argue with. Dujardin is completely transformed as Valentin, every look, every movement is George Valentin. With all the attention Dujardin's way though, overlooked is Berenice Bejo who made Peppy Miller live up to her name. Two stronger leads you couldn't have hoped for in this film.
The direction is well worthy of talking about too with some absolutely wonderful moments, most notably is the first time sound is introduced into the picture. Just after Valentin is told that sound is the way forward and he has refused to take part we see a scene where Valentine is sitting in front of a mirror taking a drink. When he puts the drink down we hear the sound of the cup hitting the table. After so long in silence this is a shocking moment, a moment which seems to shock Valentin too as he hears it also. We then see Valentin moving the chair, we also hear this, then as he moves more and more things around the noise becomes almost deafening, finally his dog entered and lets out a residing Bark. All the while Valentin is trying to talk, but no sound comes from his mouth. It's a remarkable sequence, and was also the moment when i realised just how clever the film was. This is the easiest to talk about, but the film is littered with moments like these.
This being a silent film I find that I must mention the soundtrack, as it dominates so much of the film. It is a wonderful mixture of music from the era, each track seemed to be written for the scene at hand, matching the imagery on screen perfectly, providing a soundtrack for the movements that we know we should be hearing. I was surprised to see at the end of the film that much of the music wasn't in fact written for the film, but instead was music from the era.
This film is hotly tipped to win the Best Picture Oscar this year, with lots of positive buzz, and a Weinstein endorsement I think it very well could do so, and whilst it is not my favourite film of the year, nor do I think it is the best, if it does win the Oscar, I wouldn't be disappointed, perhaps it will reinvigorate a passion in Hollywood for strong storytelling and inventive film-making instead of merely making stuff pop out of the screen at us and calling it advancement, advancement has to provide an improvement, rather than simply a gimmick.
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