Director Michel Hazanavicius proved his ability to pastiche old movies with his spy spoofs OSS 117: Cairo Nest of Spies (2006) and OSS 117: Lost in Rio (2009). Hazanavicius lovingly recreated the look and feel of the sixties spy movie, while also mercilessly sending them up. Bérénice Bejo starred as the ‘Bond girl’ in Cairo Nest of Spies and has a nice rapport with leading man Jean Dujardin. All three have reunited for The Artist, which has had film critics swooning on the festival circuit and won Dujardin Best Actor at Cannes.
Jean Dujardin is George Valentin
The Artist follows silent movie star George Valentin (Dujardin) fall from grace as the sound era begins. Just as Valentin’s star is fading, starlet Peppy Miller (Bejo) begins her own ascent. Valentin is charming and charismatic, but like OSS 117 he is arrogant and a fool. Dujardin excels at playing these kinds of mercurial characters, making them likeable and funny despite their flaws.
The film takes place over a five year period. It begins with Valentin is at the height of his fame and showboating at the premiere for his latest film ‘The Russian Affair.’ Peppy inadvertently stumbles from the crowd and into Valentin who graciously lets her have moment in the limelight. They meet again as Peppy auditions for a part, then onset where the chemistry between them is obvious.
Valentin Resembles Douglas Fairbanks
Valentin strongly resembles Douglas Fairbanks. There is even footage from Fred Niblo’s great swashbuckler The Mark of Zorro (1920) intercut with scenes of Dujardin as Zorro. Fairbanks is one of the great lost movie stars. Silent movies rarely get much attention these days so Fairbanks is largely forgotten but he was one of the most charismatic and physically agile performers ever to grace the screen.
Valentin shares Fairbanks delight in his own athleticism, his easy amusement, and his considerable charm. Yet the resemblance between Fairbanks and Valentin only goes so far. Fairbanks was a clever man and ahead of his time. Fairbanks experimented with sound on The Iron Mask (1929), was one of the founders of the studio United Artists, and helped set up the film programme at UCLA.
Valentin is a buffoon and brings about the end of his own career by not taking sound movies seriously. When his boss Zimmer, played brilliantly by John Goodman, stops making silent movies at his studio, Valentin leaves his contract and directs an expensive flop ‘Tears of Love’ which leaves him destitute. Peppy is now Hollywood’s new ‘it girl’ and though she watches over Valentin she knows he is too proud to accept help from her.
Harvey Weinstein Fights for the The Artist
Attempts by modern filmmakers to recreate scenes from silent movies are not unusual. Jane Campion and Pedro Almodovar have silent pastiches in their films In the Cut (2003) and Talk to Her (2002) respectively, but these are just short sequences. Guy Maddin regularly makes full length silent movies, the most notable being Dracula: Pages from a Virgin’s Diary (2002) but his work only really appeals to cinephiles.
What sets The Artist apart is its ambition in seeking out as wide an audience as possible. It is an unashamed crowdpleaser; warm, funny and with an ending that will have you cheering. A black and white movie perfectly mimicking the silent form may be a hard sell but The Artist has the backing of Harvey Weinstein, the man who turned a film about an IRA terrorist romancing a transvestite into a box-office hit. Expect The Artist to feature prominently during awards season.
Rating 4/5
- The Artist
- Starring Jean Dujardin, Berenice Bejo, John Goodman
- Written by Michel Hazanavicius
- Directed by Michel Hazanavicius
- Running time 100 mins
- Year 2011
Kevin Sturton - Kevin is a graduate of the 2005 Post-Grad course in Film Journalism run by the BFI and writes mainly about film.
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