The Artist is a 2011 French film emulating the style of cinema in the 1920's, and the Academy Award winner for Best Picture of the year. Directed by Michel Hazanavicius, it stars Jean Dujardin 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 Aspect Ratio, but being an almost completely silent film, possibly the first feature-length Silent Film to receive wide distribution since Mel Brooks put out Silent Movie 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.
This film provides examples of:
Actor Allusion: Jean Dujardin is best known for his spy parodies. The first film we see starring Valentin is a spy thriller. ("SPEAK!!!")
More of a movie debut allusion: James Cromwell played a driver in Murder By Death, just as he does in this film.
Almost Kiss: Happens once between Peppy and George. What's amazing is that they don't kiss even once in the film, despite being the Official Couple. This is, of course, a throwback to No Hugging, No Kissing rules enforced by censors back in those days.
"And Uggie — The Dog" in the closing credits. Really. (Uggie also gets an additional Easter Egg mention in the credits to one of Peppy's films.)
Also used in-universe as the sign that Peppy has made it big and continues to climb up the ladder.
Artistic License - Chemistry: The standard film stock of that time was nitrate, which is extremely flammable (seeInglourious Basterds). So when George sets his film on fire, it should have erupted into an unsurvivable mass of flames in seconds, though it does' reach near-lethal proportions very quickly.
Ascended Fangirl: Peppy is an In-Universe example, having caught the attention of the press by inadvertently getting on the other side of a police man blocking George's fans from him. Throughout the film it is very clear that she is a huge fan of George's movies.
Aspect Ratio: 4:3 was standard for all of Hollywood from the dawn of moviemaking, until widescreen caught on in the 1950s.
Beard of Sorrow: 1920's-style. George's mustache is still groomed, but it's not impeccably waxed like in his big-screen days.
Beauty Mark: 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.
Canine Companion: George even takes his dog to the movies. And it saves his life... twice. He even showed up in the Oscars!
Career Resurrection: In-universe. George seems to get one at the end of the film.
Chekhov's Gun: George's stuff getting sold at auction.
Chekhov's Skill: The Black Bottom Dance that George and Peppy do behind a scene curtain. There are several hints throughout the film that George is a born song and dance man.
The dog's ability to play dead whenever a gun is fired.
Couldn't Find a Pen: Peppy's lipstick on George's mirror, and again when she gives him her phone number.
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.
Creator Breakdown: In-universe, George suffers one of these after the jump to talkies and the failure of his silent films trashes his career.
Creator Killer: In-universe. The Epic Fail of Tears of Love, as well as his reluctance to adapt to sound films, destroys George's movie career.
Cruel to Be Kind: When Clifton won't take the hint and quit after George has been too broke to pay him for a year, George coldly tells him he's fired, throws him out the door and leaves him standing on the porch all day.
Dream Sequence: With a unique effect to get the unreality across when the lead character starts experiencing synchronized sound around him in ever more exaggerated forms while he is still silent.
Though for those who interpret The Artist as a metaphor for those who reject new technologies such as e-books and downloads, the ending in which George finally becomes a convert could be seen as a downer too. (See the Earn Your Happy Ending entry below.)
Earn Your Happy Ending: It takes a lot of convincing from Peppy, who is determined to help him, but she shows George that he has a future in sound films as a star of dance musicals.
George walking beneath a marquis reading, The Lonely Star.
An unhinged picture frame in the bar George gets sloshed in.
George catching Peppy in his dressing room, in front of a poster for the film The Thief of Her Heart.
Peppy starring in a film called Guardian Angel.
When the studio cancels George's contract and hires Peppy, the two meet on a stairwell. He is heading down the stairs while she's heading up. Mirroring the trajectories of their careers.
Fake American: Berenice Bejo as Peppy Miller. Averted by George Valentin, however, as revealed by the very last line (although his name gives away his nationality).
Flipping the Bird: George's co-star when he hogs the limelight from her during a film premier.
Foreshadowing: During the first Show Within a Show, George's character is being tortured, being commanded "SPEAK!" He refuses to speak, just like he later refuses to speak on any film.
Heroic Dog: Mostly entertaining but definitely becomes heroic considering a played straight Timmy in a Well moment. Later he tries desperately to dissuade George from his suicide attempt — it almost seems to be working at first, but ultimately it's Peppy who stops him.
Hollywood California: Shot on location in buildings authentic to the time period. Peppy's mansion is Mary Pickford's mansion, and George wakes up in Pickford's bed.
Jerk with a Heart of Gold: The studio executive, Al Zimmer. He's willing to give George another chance, but George finds talkies idiotic and passes it up. Later, he effectively gives George a third and fourth chance first when Peppy convinces him to give George a part in a movie, and then when Peppy and George convince Al to make a musical.
Jump Scare: At the end of George's Dream Sequence, 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 wakes George up.
No Antagonist: The real problem is George's refusal to change with the times, and his downfall as a result.
No Hero to His Valet: Valentin actually is, apparently, a hero to his valet, but he is both a jerk to his costar and a neglectful husband.
No Name Given: George's dog is listed in the credits as "The Dog".
Offscreen Moment of Awesome: At the beginning of the movie, Valentin's character is locked in a cell very securely. The movie cuts to the audience reaction as they gasp at his escape and then the movie cuts back to him out of the cell.
Pink Elephants: While getting hammered in a bar George hallucinates a tiny vision of himself (and some of the African supporting players) from the Film Within A Film "Tears of Love".
Pornstache: George's pencil mustache is eventually replaced by this.
Post Modern: This film establishes very clear boundaries for its medium, then breaks them. Specifically, the scene in this otherwise silent movie that begins with George audibly placing his glass on the dresser, and then the entire scene spiraling out of control as he learns everything makes sound BUT him. It is, of course, a nightmare, but still. The end also violates the boundaries of silent film, indicating George's acceptance of talkies.
In addition, the way George is shown putting the gun in his mouth is another modern-day touch that would never be seen in a film of the era.
Peppy's "dialogue" scene with Al in which she says "it's either him or me" and then sputters though a few "what I meant to says" is a dialogue trope more common to modern-day cinema in part because silent films could not rely on such wordplay.
Precision F-Strike: A visual one: George's leading lady gives him the finger. It also serves as a clue to the audience that this film won't quite behave like an old silent-movie. Though if you pay attention to her lips, you can see she's also a silent Cluster F-Bomb...
Pride: George's biggest fault. Clifton even warns him against it when Peppy wants to give him another chance.
Rule of Cute: George toting his dog everywhere, including into a movie theater.
Rule of Symbolism: The crooked frame in the bar where George gets smashed. Also note that whenever there's a staircase in the movie, Peppy will no doubt be going up whilst George will only go down.
Running Gag: The dog plays dead whenever someone makes a motion like shooting a gun.
The score includes quite a lengthy sample of the love theme from, of all movies, Vertigo. George's nightmare about sound is also very Hitchcock-esque.
The old movie that George watches on a home projector just before his breakdown is an actual silent movie, The Mark of Zorro, with Jean Dujardin inserted in close-ups in place of Douglas Fairbanks. In fact, George's whole on-screen persona, as present in the Films Within The Film, pretty strongly resembles Fairbanks.
The solution to Valentin's career problems is straight out of Singin' in the Rain.
The basic plot of the film is also similar to that film, and the character of Constance in particular is very reminiscent of Jean Hagen's Lina Lamont in the earlier film.
Valentin's very name is a Shout Out to Rudolph Valentino, arguably the first and most famous silent movie star of the twenties.
Valentin's career problems mirror those of romantic silent film star John Gilbert, who drank himself to death when his career tanked after the transition to talkies. George eventually becomes an expy of Fred Astaire (complete with a set straight out of one of his films!), and bears a strong physical resemblance to Clark Gable.
Valentin's defiant effort to make a silent film with his own money with the rise of sound films is similar to Charlie Chaplin's stubborn efforts in making the largely silent films, City Lights and Modern Times, but Charlie's films were big hits. George... not so much.
The policeman running to save George's life from his self-inflicted fire is reminiscent of the next-to-last scene of Les Quatre Cents Coups
Peppy gives a shout out to Greta Garbo's famous line in the 1932 film Grand Hotel by telling her date, "I want to be alone."
George and Doris' simmering hostility at the dinner table recalls the same between Kane and his first wife in Citizen Kane.
The Trash the Set scene may also be a Citizen Kane reference.
Silence Is Golden: Used to very great effect — three scenes total use sound, and they're all jarring. A couple of scenes are completely silent, with no music.
Spinning Paper: Done as Peppy rises to the top of stardom.
Spiritual Antithesis: To Singin' in the Rain. Both movies take place in 20's era Hollywood during the time when studios were making a shift to "talkie films." While Singin was a light hearted movie about a studios attempt to adapt to these changes, The Artist was a darker movie, showing what happened to the actors who couldn't make the jump from Silent Films to films with sound.
Singin' in the Rain is virtually a spiritual predecessor regarding the transition to talkies, though focused as a character piece on the emotional trials of the time period.
5 reviews 