History Film / TheArtist

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* GrumpyBear: Al Zimmer

* {{Corpsing}}: In-universe, Peppy and George's first interaction, when she's still an extra and they can't keep straight faces in a dance scene.

* HandsOnApproach: George and Peppy dancing together in a scene. At first, the pair erupt into some harmless {{corpsing}}. With each take, though...

%% Please don't put any critical reception or box office data into the description. See Administrivia/HowToCreateAWorksPage under "Things not to include"

The movie stars Creator/JeanDujardin as George Valentin, a silent movie star in 1920s Hollywood whose career goes into decline with the Great Depression and the advent of talking pictures. He falls in love with a young ingenue named Peppy Miller, played by Berenice Bejo, whose Hollywood career arc is the exact opposite of Valentin's. Creator/JohnGoodman appears as Al Zimmer, the studio producer who tries to convince George to get over himself and make a talking film.

* DistiguishingMark: Peppy's trademark mole, although it's artificial (it was also George's idea, as she needed something to make her stand out from other actresses). It's even the name of one of her films -- the one that really hammers home George's downfall.

* BeautyMark: Peppy's trademark, although it's artificial (it was also George's idea, as she needed something to make her stand out from other actresses). It's even the name of one of her films -- the one that really hammers home George's downfall.

** The premise is more than a little bit similar to the first two incarnations of ''''Film/{{A Star Is Born|1937}}''''.

The movie stars Creator/JeanDujardin as George Valentin, a silent movie star in 1920s Hollywood whose career goes into decline with the Great Depression and the advent of talking pictures. He falls in love with a young ingenue named Peppy Miller, played by Berenice Bejo, whose Hollywood career arc is the exact opposite of Valentin's. Creator/JohnGoodman appears as Al Zimmer, the studio producer who tries to get George to get over himself and make a talking film.

* StylisticSuck: Subverted. ''Tears of Love'' is set-up to be a terrible movie in the hands of a seeming PrimaDonnaDirector like George... but it comes off as a surprisingly competent, powerful film. [[RealityEnsues It doesn't stop the crowds from going to see the talkies instead.]]

** [[{{Series/Grimm}} Bitsie Tulloch]] as Norma, George's female co-star in his last silent film.

** The old movie that George watches on a home projector just before his breakdown is an actual silent movie, ''Film/TheMarkOfZorro'', with Jean Dujardin inserted in close-ups in place of Creator/DouglasFairbanks. In fact, George's whole on-screen persona, as present in the Films Within the Film, pretty strongly resembles Fairbanks.

* SuddenlyVoiced: [[spoiler:The ending.]] Also doubles up as SuddenlyEthnicity, [[spoiler:because George's accent reveals he's French]].

''The Artist'' is a 2011 French film emulating the style of cinema in the [[TheRoaringTwenties 1920s]] written and directed by Michel Hazanavicius and produced by Thomas Langmann.

''The Artist'' is a 2011 French film emulating the style of cinema in the [[TheRoaringTwenties 1920s]], and the UsefulNotes/AcademyAward winner for Best Picture of the year. Written and directed by Michel Hazanavicius and produced by Thomas Langmann, it stars Creator/JeanDujardin as George Valentin, a silent movie star in 1920s Hollywood whose career goes into decline with the Great Depression and the advent of talking pictures. He falls in love with a young ingenue named Peppy Miller, played by Berenice Bejo, whose Hollywood career arc is the exact opposite of Valentin's.

''The Artist'' is unique not just for being shot in black-and-white, and in the old 4:3 AspectRatio, but being an almost completely '''silent film''', possibly the first feature-length SilentMovie to receive wide distribution since Creator/MelBrooks put out ''Film/SilentMovie'' in 1976. It should also be noted that this was one of the first Best Picture Oscar winners in years to be filmed entirely in Hollywood, the first black and white film to win Best Picture since 1993's ''Film/SchindlersList'' (and only the second since 1960's ''Film/TheApartment''), the first film from a non-English-speaking country ever to win Best Picture (but being a silent film, not the first one ''in'' a non-English language; that would have to wait until 2019's ''Film/{{Parasite|2019}}'') and the first silent movie to win Best Picture since the very ''first'' Best Picture winner, ''Film/{{Wings}}'', way back in 1929. It also won four other Oscars, including Best Director for Michel Hazanavicius and Best Actor for Jean Dujardin.

Creator/JohnGoodman appears as Al Zimmer, the studio producer who tries to get George to get over himself and make a talking film.

''The Artist'' is unique not just for being shot in black-and-white, and in the old 4:3 AspectRatio, but being an almost completely '''silent film''', possibly the first feature-length SilentMovie to receive wide distribution since Creator/MelBrooks put out ''Film/SilentMovie'' in 1976. It should also be noted that this was one of the first Best Picture Oscar winners in years to be filmed entirely in Hollywood, the first black and white film to win Best Picture since 1993's ''Film/SchindlersList'' (and only the second since 1960's ''Film/TheApartment''), and the first silent movie to win Best Picture since the very ''first'' Best Picture winner, ''Film/{{Wings}}'', way back in 1929. It also won four other Oscars, including Best Director for Michel Hazanavicius and Best Actor for Jean Dujardin.

* AlanSmithee: One of the {{Easter Egg}}s during the various credits Peppy is in.

** The premise is more than a little bit similar to the first two incarnations of ''Film/AStarIsBorn''.

* StylisticSuck: Subverted. ''Tears of Love'' is set-up to be a terrible movie in the hands of a seeming PrimaDonna Director like George... but it comes off as a surprisingly competent, powerful film. [[RealityEnsues It doesn't stop the crowds from going to see the talkies instead.]]

* AwfulWeddedLife: Doris

* DreamSequence: With a unique effect to get the unreality across when [[spoiler:the lead character starts experiencing synchronized sound around him in ever more exaggerated forms while he is still silent]].

* DrivesLikeCrazy: There's a reason Peppy needs a chauffeur. Justified in that in the 1920s and 1930s female drivers were relatively rare, and by most accounts the vehicles of the day were pigs to drive, even by experienced motorists.

** Peppy starring in a film called [[spoiler:''Guardian Angel'']].

* JumpScare:
** [[spoiler:At the end of George's DreamSequence, a small feather is seen drifting lazily to the ground, with no other sounds playing... and it lands with the sound of a ten-ton weight. This is what [[CatapultNightmare wakes George up.]]]]
** BANG! qualifies too.

''The Artist'' is unique not just for being shot in black-and-white, and in the old 4:3 AspectRatio, but being an almost completely '''silent film''', possibly the first feature-length SilentMovie to receive wide distribution since Creator/MelBrooks put out ''Film/SilentMovie'' in 1976. It should also be noted that this is one of the first Best Picture Oscar winners in years to be filmed entirely in Hollywood, the first black and white film to win Best Picture since 1993's ''Film/SchindlersList'', and the first silent movie to win Best Picture since the very ''first'' Best Picture winner, ''Film/{{Wings}}'', way back in 1929. It also won four other Oscars, including Best Director for Michel Hazanavicius and Best Actor for Jean Dujardin.