Starring:
Jean Dujardin (99 francs, OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies)
Bérénice Bejo (A Knight's Tale, OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies)
John Goodman (The Big Lebowski, Coyote Ugly, Monsters, Inc.)
My Rating: 4.5/5
The idea to produce a film about silent movies, as a silent movie was a stroke of genius which could have gone very wrong or, in the case of The Artist, astonishingly well. Winner of five academy awards, this French film was highly acclaimed and I was looking forward to seeing if it lived up to the hype.
The film is set in the late 1920s/early '30s during the transition between silent movies and talkies. It follows George Valentin (Dujardin), a silent movie star, as he struggles to cope with the cinematic revolution, and dancer Peppy Miller (Bejo), whose career takes a slightly different path.
The acting was flawless, particularly by Bejo, who would have indubitably shone as a black and white film star, and who we will hopefully be seeing a lot more of in the future.
It was fascinating to see how the atmosphere of a 'picture' is so different when styled in this way; romantic scenes seem more tender with no words; chaotic scenes have more energy injected into them by a fantastic musical score. It may have taken a little while for me to get used to the flow of it but by the brilliant dream sequence in the first half I was hooked.
It's great for a younger audience, such as myself, to have the chance to experience a silent film, especially when done as exquisitely as this masterpiece.
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