The Artist (2011, Michel Hazanavicius)

[Mysterious Dude]

Two things to say:

1. I was surprised how many people were in the theater on a Wednesday afternoon. I've seen silent movies in theaters before, but never a new silent film. The last was Metropolis, and I suspect most people in the theater had seen versions of that film before. But The Artist is new and offered genuine surprises. It was a great pleasure to hear someone gasp at a title card.

2. I've heard people say that the main actor, Jean Dujardin, resembles either Sean Connery or Gene Kelley, while I've been saying he's clearly meant to look like Douglas Fairbanks. After seeing the movie, I feel some vindication, because there is a scene where George Valentin is sitting in his apartment watching the 1920 film The Mark of Zorro, and I'm pretty sure we're meant to see Douglas Fairbanks as George Valenin.

[Pop Trash]

I haven't seen this, and it might be just as good as people say, but I'm surprised there aren't more Guy Maddin fans mentioning Brand Upon the Brain! and Cowards Bend the Knees (among others?) as modern silent fair.

[Spinal]

I enjoyed this a lot. It's a really well done love story, potent in its simplicity, but also specific enough to not feel tired and familiar. While it is nostalgic, it does not feel maudlin because it brings new life and energy to an old mode of storytelling. It doesn't feel like an essay (Midnight in Paris) or a museum lecture (Hugo). It feels like a vibrant new film. It demonstrates what we've lost from the silent era not through words, but through its form. We experience the visual creativity and the focus on basic, powerful human emotions, which is the best argument anyone could make.

[elixir]

I got to ask. Was anyone else irked by the use of the Vertigo score at the film's emotional climax? It really bothered me.

[Spinal]

I got to ask. Was anyone else irked by the use of the Vertigo score at the film's emotional climax? It really bothered me.

Didn't recognize it.

[Ezee E]

Didn't recognize it either.

[Watashi]

I got to ask. Was anyone else irked by the use of the Vertigo score at the film's emotional climax? It really bothered me.

I recognized it immediately. Then again, I listen to the Vertigo score constantly.

I was kinda irked by it.

[Watashi]

How do you not recognize one of the most famous pieces of film music?

[Ezee E]

Guess I don't find it very recognizable to begin with.

[EyesWideOpen]

I didn't recognize it either although Vertigo is one of my least favorite Hitchcock's.

[eternity]

My mom told me that she's seen a few dozen silent films in her life, and this was easily one of the lesser ones. I was happy to hear her say that, because I thought this was a shamelessly derivative meta gimmick that amounts to nothing more than a few really lazy jokes and a dog doing cute shit.

The two groups that seem to appreciate this, film critics and Academy voters, are the two groups I would have thought would be offended. Guess not.

[Watashi]

What's offensive about this film?

[Derek]

Vertigo is one of my least favorite Hitchcock's.

:crazy:

[Watashi]

This movie isn't a silent film. The director wasn't trying to replicate 20's silent cinema where this movie would be indistinguishable from films of that era. It's a simply a modern example of how sound changed the industry. The gimmick is just a homage. I find it interesting that the two leads are both foreign actors while the rest of the cast were American.

I don't love the movie, but I respect it enough to get people out there watching a movie like this. Certainly better than The King's Speech or Slumdog Millionaire whose films are only trying to be "crowd-pleasers".

[Ezee E]

I said it somewhere, but I basically think of this as something on par as to what Kill Bill is to kung fu movies or Death Proof to Grindhouse movies.

[eternity]

What's offensive about this film?

The meta in-jokes are so obvious and cloying that the tribute it is paying almost seems mocking.

[Watashi]

The meta in-jokes are so obvious and cloying that the tribute it is paying almost seems mocking.

How is that offensive? I have no idea what "meta in-jokes" you are referring to.

[Spinal]

The meta in-jokes are so obvious and cloying that the tribute it is paying almost seems mocking.

This was not my experience at all. I don't think this is a film about gimmicks. I think this is a film about two very specific and very rich characters, first of all. And then the director has selected appropriate and engaging conventions through which to tell this story. Far from mocking, I think the film successfully captures the elements that make silent film an enjoyable experience. I think it also addresses a difficult reality of life: that we can find someone or something both beautiful and obsolete. Simultaneously. This is true of silent film, but it's true of so many other things.

[Morris Schæffer]

Just got back from it and the first thing I did was google actor Jean Dujardin because I wanted to know what he looks like in casual photographs. I was a little stunned to be honest. I mean, crap, he really looks a star from yesteryear, absolutely remarkable and it's a fine performance. I also want to echo what Isaac touched upon and that is that I never though that a single word could convey so much horror and drama, but that is exactly what happened at the end.

I have to say this transcended its slightly gimmicky conceit effortlessly and once I surrendered to its charms & poignant, timeless story, time flew by remarkably fast. The greatest compliment I can give it is that at the end, when [

Show Spoiler

the actors finally start talking, it felt a little jarring to me, disrupting the old skool "magic" The Artist had shot forth from its imaginary wand.

]

All right, so the dog lives, but for once that is entirely acceptable for this is no ordinary pooch.

[Watashi]

http://blog.moviefone.com/2012/01/09...core-violated/

She says that hearing Bernard Herrmann's score for "Vertigo," as used in "The Artist," has left her in a "state of shock" that she compared to being raped.

LOL wut?

[Spinal]

That's not an appropriate use of the word 'rape'.

[number8]

I can't believe she actually took out a full page ad on Variety to say that.

[Ivan Drago]

As a lover of silent film, I am excited for it, especially after seeing the fantastic trailer. But I really hope it being a silent film isn't all it has going for it.

[Adam]

When I was home for Christmas, I more or less dragged my family kicking and screaming to see this "stupid, obscure silent movie" instead of We Bought A Zoo. And then they all wound up loving and I though it was just okay. I did at least get to see it at the Paris Theater in Manhattan, which is probably the best kind of setting to see this film

And I have three words for you Berenice Bejo - Ooh, La, and La

[ledfloyd]

i pretty much agree with wats here. i didn't love the film, but it's a lot better than your typical oscar frontrunner. there isn't a whole lot to it, but it's competently made and if it gets people talking about silent movies, more power to them. it's a bit hammy, and the dawn of the talkies story has been done before and better, but so what?

the one thing that is kind of a sticking point for me it's the score. it's pretty much a shoe-in for the oscar, but aside from the infectious piece that closes out the film i didn't think it was all that good. there were several times when the emotion conveyed by the music was just not matching the feeling i was getting from the images on the screen.