The Artist

So I said in my post about the Oscars that I might have been completely wrong about The Artist after I saw it. My conclusion is, I pretty much was. I wouldn't have gone to quite the extent that the awards did go to- for instance I don't think its a better film than Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. I think that the characters in The Artist were very clichéd and predictable, which is a drastic contrast to Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.

Talking of cliché's, this film did not sell itself short in terms of them. A silent film, with a dog, about a couple struggling to come together that has a massive climax, that live happily ever after? Please, give me a surprise in there somewhere. I am being harsh though, it was a cute story and a good insight for me into what silent films were like when they were made, and the characters in it were very entertaining in each of their own rights.

The first character to really catch my eye was the leading role- George Valentin, played by Jean Dujardin. I thought he really captured the essence of the character- the miserable home life (I'll get back to the wife shortly.), the doting fans and co-stars (and the flirting with said co-stars) and the general confidence and self awareness (masses of it) that I have been led to believe is detrimental to being an actor.

I was not very hopeful for Peppy Miller, played by Bérénice Bejo, at the start of the film but she did redeem herself... but then took another step backwards by buying all his possessions. I thought that was a bit creepy. But no, I expected her to be a pathetic young woman that doted on Valentin for the whole film, which she did do a little bit but she also became a massively successful star all on her own and she relaunched his career for him. So to conclude this character, I'm fairly unsure about her now.

I think it was the little characters that made this film so enjoyable. I thought the character of Valetin's wife was hilarious, although that was a negative portrayal of women (gold-digger!). I also thought Clifton was quite a cute and faithful character, I liked him. 

The music in the film is very good- considering the film is silent it has to be really- but it really does convey the action of whats going on to a massively high standard. Another high bar the film really hits is the parallelism between the stars in past cultures and those today- in relation to how quickly the film industry and how some stars can become completely obsolete.

All in all, I thought the film was endearing, interesting, cute and funny. Well done to Michel Hazanavicious, he certainly seemed to have reminded the academy of how good films used to be and he's most definitely given me an interest in silent films.