The introduction of sound into cinema was something of a bombshell. Today we take for granted an increasingly dense sound design, presented as if it were a natural part of the images, rather than the work of a Sound Designer and their team. However, for the first few decades of cinema this element was simply not present; music would accompany a show, with dialogue expressed via title cards. The Artist takes us back to the moment when sound was introduced into Hollywood and shows us what we now barely acknowledge, through the struggle of it’s silent film star George Valentin.
Valentin is introduced to us as one of Hollywood’s finest silent actors, a master of the craft of expressing and entertaining without the need for words. While working on a production he meets the charming Peppy Miller, a young dancer with a bright future. Just as she begins to make a name for herself sound revolutionises the film industry and she lands the lead role in a talkie. Valentin, being proud regards sound as a passing phase, but soon his career plummets leaving him without prospects, broke and bitter.
Director Michel Hazanavicius perfectly presents this story as if it were a classic Hollywood picture from the 1920s. The choice of film stock, the lighting, the sets and costumes, the cast, the music; everything entirely resembles a film from the silent era. The only give away that this film is a product of 2011 is Hazanavicius’s witty use of sound, which betrays the possibilities of a 1920s film in order to illustrate Valentin’s story, in which he struggles against an industry in transition.
With an utterly brilliant punchline and a completely convincing rendering of 1920s Hollywood, Hazanavicius has created a film which deserves to become a classic in it’s own right (like the silent films that inspired it). But what really makes The Artist so effective is it’s statement about the often bewildering nature of innovation. In the fast moving world we now live in, who’d have thought a silent film could seem so appropriate? Even if The Artist isn’t the most current film of the year, it still manages to be completely relevant.
You need to improve your reviews (firstly by looking up “it’s vs its”).
80% of this review was dedicated to telling us what was in the film, and your analysis when it came was shallow and undeveloped. WHY is it a classic? WHAT is its statement about innovation, and how is it the most effective thing in the film? People don’t read criticism for a synopsis, nor a pronouncement such as “modern classic” that they may see on a poster, but for the joy of seeing film discussed engagingly, something you failed to do here.
Hi Drew,
Thanks for your feedback – you will be glad to know I have indeed looked up “it’s vs its” and what I discovered was a revelation to me. I am also sorry that you did not find the review engaging. While i’m not in agreement with your statement that 80% of the review simply explains what was in the film, I understand with hindsight that the review would have benefited from more development.
With this said, I did not declare the film a “modern classic”, like you attributed in quotation marks. I did say the the film deserves to become a classic. The reason for this is because it successfully takes the conventions of the silent film and brings them into modern cinema with a tremendous sense of authenticity, while also utilising the technology of modern cinema (as well as our understanding of the conventions of modern cinema – as i pointed out at the start) to tell the main character’s story. It’s a clever juxtaposition.
The film’s statement about innovation is something I had hoped would be fairly evident from what I had to say about the main character, Georges Valentin. The film tells us that innovation can be daunting but we have to roll with the punches (as Valentin must learn) – while this statement may not seem new in any way, it is relevant and that is what I wanted to convey with my review.
Once again, I am sorry that the review did not engage you. I will post the next one I write here and I hope you will find more in it of interest.
Drew, following my previous post my Coriolanus review for your consideration: https://reflectionsonfilm.wordpress.com/2012/01/25/coriolanus-dir-ralph-fiennes-uk-2011/
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