The Artist (2011)

Terry's Grade: B+

I could not have seen this movie at a better time. About a month ago Rachel and I watched Modern Times, and then a couple weeks ago we watched Singin' in the Rain, both of which deal with the end of the silent film era (the former by being a part of it, the latter by being about it). I don't and haven't watched a lot of silent films, but those two films really helped me put The Artist in some kind of context.

Briefly, then, The Artist is the story of George Valentin (Jean Dujardin), a silent-film star who loses his job when talkies arrive, then loses his fortune in the stock market crash. As he descends into lonesomeness and drunkenness, he is forced to watch younger, talking actors take his place. Namely, he encounters Peppy Miller (Berenice Bejo) at every stage on her rise from fan, to extra, to actress, to star. The story gets very dark, and very bright, helped along by a wonderful score (in the sense that it does its job wonderfully and otherwise stays out of the way), and expressive, emotive performances from the entire cast. Dujardin and Bejo, playing silent film performers, really ham it up for the camera. James Cromwell and John Goodman, in supporting roles, turn in comparatively understated performances that work perfectly on the silent screen. It feels like Missi Pyle deserved more screen time, but maybe I couldn't have handled that much more of her.

Thematically, this movie borrows plenty from Singin' in the Rain. I'm not just saying that because I  saw that movie recently; others have noted it as well. The story of how Valentin bumps into Miller on the street, then again on the set, then she gets kicked off the set by the producer, before Valentin convinces the producer to let her stay... well, it's not a stretch to connect the two. The end of the movie also calls back to Singin'. Where the two movies diverge is that Don Lockwood remains entirely in control of his destiny throughout his film (only faltering ever so slightly with his unfortunate "I love you, I love you, I love you..." improv). Valentin finds himself losing control, and too proud to take the one step that would help him get back on track. The resulting downward spiral is what makes The Artist interesting.

Stylistically, The Artist echos Modern Times by being a 95% silent film. Like Modern Times, the majority of the film is silent, accompanied by music with dialogue cards. At the same time, also like Modern Times, sound effects are deployed sparingly for effect. Spoken dialogue only appears very briefly, at the end of the film, and sound effects are deployed for a kind of Cool World / Pleasantville reality shift that, fortunately, turns out to be temporary.

The main reason my family decided to see this movie is that my sister is deaf, and lacking any decent foreign movies out (with subtitles) at the time, this seemed like the best option for a movie everyone would have a chance to enjoy. I'm glad we did, because this is a movie any film lover should see. The very idea of making a silent film in 2011 is somewhat pretentious and entirely preposterous, but the resulting product is a thoroughly enjoyable, watchable film. It doesn't feel like a great film, partly because by being a silent, black-and-white film, it inevitably invites comparisons to truly great early films. But it's a worth watching, and it's a reminder, in our 3-D THX CGI modern cinema environment, that film in its most basic form can still tell involving, entertaining stories.