Tweet The Artist (2011) a contemporary silent

The New York Film Critics Circle has named The Artist the Best Picture of 2011!

I'm seeing this tomorrow evening and am so looking forward to it.

LUCKY! I can only find a one day showing the the Boston area and they want $20 a ticket.

I'm seeing this tomorrow evening and am so looking forward to it.

LUCKY! I can only find a one day showing the the Boston area and they want $20 a ticket.

Louie, if you can get out here by tomorrow at 7, I have an extra free pass.

I do have an extra free pass if there are any local Bay Area yokels who can get to SF Embarcadero 1, feel free to PM me.

I'm seeing this tomorrow evening and am so looking forward to it.

LUCKY! I can only find a one day showing the the Boston area and they want $20 a ticket.

Louie, if you can get out here by tomorrow at 7, I have an extra free pass.

I do have an extra free pass if there are any local Bay Area yokels who can get to SF Embarcadero 1, feel free to PM me.

Damn all of you. Nowhere to be found in the Philly area last weekend - and it doesn't look like it will be in Atlanta *this* weekend.

SO - how kiddy-city is the crowd for HUGO?

It hasn't opened widely yet... I'm expecting it to grow slowly, and I've heard rumors it may open around Christmas in backwaters like Denver.

As near as I can tell, it doesn't open in Columbus, OH until Christmas Day either - but Hugo is here and on my list!

I'm seeing this tomorrow evening and am so looking forward to it.

LUCKY! I can only find a one day showing the the Boston area and they want $20 a ticket.

Louie, if you can get out here by tomorrow at 7, I have an extra free pass.

I do have an extra free pass if there are any local Bay Area yokels who can get to SF Embarcadero 1, feel free to PM me.

Are ye buying the first drink and do you wanna hear more aboot Brendel than you could ever want to hear?

It hasn't opened widely yet... I'm expecting it to grow slowly, and I've heard rumors it may open around Christmas in backwaters like Denver.

According to one local theater (the one that actually gets the more limited releases) I'll get to see it by Christmas. Oh and this is no backwater area; this is flipping Albany, NY!

http://carpetbagger.blogs.nytimes.com/2 ... ist&st=cse" target="_blank

This was posted yesterday under the big THE ARTIST thread, along with stories about its nominations in the Indie Spirit Awards.

I have just received my CD of the musical accompaniment to "The Artist"

It sounds as though a 100 piece orchestra has played the picture. The sound is rich, the music is rhythmical and lyrical sometimes sounding like the "101 Strings".

As I am yet to view the picture I can't say that it fits in with what is thrown on the sheet - but I would say that being in the most part original compositions by Messr. Ludovic Bource it bears a certain familiarity; you feel you know the music without quite being able to put your finger on the name of the piece. There is a a charming waltz to accompany our heroine and there are a number of pieces whilst not being totally jazz era - do a nice job of evoking the period.

Whilst in the main, the accompaniment is orchestral - there are pieces that feature solos or ensembles with the orchestra and pieces that feature a piano alone. The piano incidentally is played with a number of glissandi and arpeggios which is also evocative of the era.

I think that there is part of a film within a film - "A Russian Affair" and this must be a dramatic feature as the music for this is full of dramatic agitatos and very reminiscent of what would have been played at cinemas at this time.

Some have criticsised the musical accompaniment - but let's face it - it will probably be a lot better than some of the scores that were cobbled together in the previous silent era.

My father used to say that if the picture was no good in the silent days, you could just put your head back, close your eyes and listen to the orchestra. I hope this will not be the case with "The Artist" - but the music to my mind is good enough to stand on its own.

CNN announced last night that THE ARTIST would open nationally on Christmas Day? Is that to soon?

Richard Schickel's review of the film is amusing insofar as the man betrays his utter lack of knowledge about film:

If the movies had not learned to speak, there is just the slightest chance that silent film might have developed into a unique form of symbolic and poetic expression. Be that as it may, this strange and lovely form does not deserve that vulgar and witless travesty that has so often been its fate, and which reaches a peak in this truly worthless film.

http://www.truthdig.com/arts_culture/item/movies_about_the_movies_marilyn_charms_the_artist_bombs_20111125/

The only book I've read of his was a biography of Douglas Fairbanks in which he refers to Coquette as Mary Pickford's last silent film, among other glaring factual errors.

For once I agree with Herr ( ) Schickel.
Though I would not go so far as to
call it worthless. If it inspires viewers
to seek out films from the silent era
then there is a measure of worth.

John Goodman is a proper choice since
he once played a cartoon character
(Fred Flintstone). It wouldn't be a
stretch to play a grey scale bigwig
minus spoken dialogue.

In fact American stars seem to be cast
based on supporting status.

The film adheres to the dance theory
put forth by Walter Kerr in The Silent
Clowns. The film appears to stay on
that level.

Besides, the whole French thing
in Hollywood
bothers me. Why would the French
director want to come to Hollywood
when Paris (land of a thousand silent
dreams) would have been far more
romantic? Are permits easier to get
on Hollywood Boulevard than Champs-
Elysees?

Good intentions aside, It will never escape
IMHO being a "silent film" (quotation marks
included).





"Bah humbug!"

"No securities. No stocks. No bonds. Nothing but
a miserable little five hundred dollar equity in a
life insurance policy. You're worth more dead than alive."

"Owwwww!"

Why would the French
director want to come to Hollywood
when Paris (land of a thousand silent
dreams) would have been far more
romantic? Are permits easier to get
on Hollywood Boulevard than Champs-
Elysees?

Why would Woody Allen go to Paris to film Midnight in Paris? Why did Scorsese set the film Hugo at the Gare Montparnasse?

Very sorry, but what a strange and unsupportable criticism. Havanavicius is a huge fan of American films. His film is a tribute to American films. American films were made in America. In America, in the 1920s and 1930s, they were made in Hollywood. I'm sure it would have been even cheaper and easier to get permits to film in North Africa, Topeka Kansas, or Toronto. But it's not a story that could have taken place in any of those places, especially not on the Champs Elysees.

Schickel lost me when he said he didn’t mourn silent film. I certainly do and I know I'm not alone in that.

I think Armond White’s review of the film comes from a better place with a more sincere feeling of frustration and disappointment from the film as I did. Mixed with bewilderment on the wild praise by other film critics.

A few excerpts to consider:
"Hazanavicius’ superficial imitation of silent movie style totally misrepresents the trenchancy that helped Charlie Chaplin charm the world. Chaplin believed in emotional sincerity but The Artist, typical of millennial culture, disrespects emotion and settles for being tongue-in-cheek."

"Hazanavicius adds sound to The Artist for cheap effects yet these gimmicks deliberately—faithlessly—break the movie’s silent spell. It never captures the sensuous depth of great silent film. Aggressively unsubtle, its over-emphatic music score keeps elbowing audiences to be pleased, rather than moved. The film’s deliberate, winking anachronisms are annoyingly inaccurate and insufficient—even Jean and Peppy’s peppy dancing, though energetic, is a third-rate imitation of American movie musical verve. "

complete review:
http://cityarts.info/2011/11/30/the-dis ... ovie-love/" target="_blank

The director does not play emotion tongue in cheek, it is very heartfelt and moving. His style is also not superficial, unless you call Douglas Fairbanks and his acting and style superficial. Hazavanicius underplays emotion, while Chaplin hammers you overhead the head with it. If that score is "aggressively unsubtle, then I guess we don't need to hear Carl Davis, Donald Sosin, Robert Israel, or Frederick Hodges. Um, hello, the sound effects have a point, which I won't give away hear. If there effects are winking anachronisms, what about FOUR SONS using costumes, music, cars of the late 1920s to stand in for WWI, and other films I could name which have several anachronisms as well. The two stars had never danced before, so of course the dance was more simple than that of Kelly, Astaire, etc., but I think it's pretty remarkable for only a few months' rehearsal. And I found the film very sensuous. I also cried during certain parts of the film, and Eve Golden writes on another site that she did as well, so yes, the emotion is moving.

I think Armond White’s review of the film comes from a better place with a more sincere feeling of frustration and disappointment from the film as I did. Mixed with bewilderment on the wild praise by other film critics.

A few excerpts to consider:
"Hazanavicius’ superficial imitation of silent movie style totally misrepresents the trenchancy that helped Charlie Chaplin charm the world. Chaplin believed in emotional sincerity but The Artist, typical of millennial culture, disrespects emotion and settles for being tongue-in-cheek."

"Hazanavicius adds sound to The Artist for cheap effects yet these gimmicks deliberately—faithlessly—break the movie’s silent spell. It never captures the sensuous depth of great silent film. Aggressively unsubtle, its over-emphatic music score keeps elbowing audiences to be pleased, rather than moved. —even Jean and Peppy’s peppy dancing, though energetic, is a third-rate imitation of American movie musical verve. "

complete review:
http://cityarts.info/2011/11/30/the-dis ... ovie-love/" target="_blank" target="_blank" target="_blank

Hard to believe anyone would defend Armand White, let alone recommend him.

Chaplin charmed the world with his "trenchancy"? White (or his spell checker) knows how words look, but he doesn't know how to use them, and probably doesn't know what they mean.

"Aggressively unsubtle"? Is there any other way to be unsubtle?

"The film’s deliberate, winking anachronisms are annoyingly inaccurate and insufficient"--I don't know what language this is, let alone what White is trying to say. What is an insufficient anachronism? What does that mean? Who talks like that?

I don't even want to start in on his sneering disdain, his condescension, his insulting attitude toward anyone who doesn't agree with him.

Well, THE ARTIST is not a silent film. It uses a lot more silent film techniques than most modern films, but it is a very knowing pastiche with a commentary of the silent film in context. These distinction, however, are subtleties that I would not expect more than a couple of thousand people worldwide to understand. I don't think it's a masterpiece, but it is a very engaging film on its own terms and I hope lots of people see it and grow a bit more curious about real silent films.

Some of us still see films for pleasure, you know.

Bob

Was leery about all of the critical hype, but saw it Saturday and absolutely loved it. Charming valentine to classic Hollywood.

Enjoyed it much more than the over-praised DESCENDANTS.

[silentfilm]

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/07/opini ... _LO_MST_FB

Op-Ed Columnist
Silence Is Golden
By MAUREEN DOWD
Published: December 6, 2011
Hello chatter, my old friend.

The sounds of silence are a dim recollection now, like mystery, privacy and paying attention to one thing — or one person — at a time.

As far back as half-a-century ago, the Swiss philosopher Max Picard warned: “Nothing has changed the nature of man so much as the loss of silence,” once as natural as the sky and air.

As fiendish little gadgets conspire to track our movements and record our activities wherever we go, producing a barrage of pictures of everything we’re doing and saying, our lives will unroll as one long instant replay.

There will be fewer and fewer of what Virginia Woolf called “moments of being,” intense sensations that stand apart from the “cotton wool of daily life.”

“In the future, not getting any imagery or story line or content is going to be the equivalent of silence because people are so filled up now with streaming video,” said Ed Schlossberg, the artist, author and designer who runs ESI Design. “Paying attention to anything will be the missing commodity in future life. You think you’ll miss nothing, but you’ll probably miss everything.”

Schlossberg said that, for a long time, art provided the boundary for silence, “but now art, in some cases, is so distracting and intense and faceted, it’s hard to step into a moment. Especially when you’re always carrying a microcamera and a screen all the time, both recording and playing back constantly rather than allowing moments of composition and stillness when your brain can go into a reverie.”

In an inspiring throwback, art once more offers a chance to step into a mute and vivid moment of being in “The Artist,” the new silent movie that hit the Cannes Film Festival like a thunderclap.

First, an American writer and director, Woody Allen, created a gorgeous homage to vintage Paris in “Midnight in Paris.” Now, a French writer and director, Michel Hazanavicius, has created a gorgeous homage to vintage Hollywood.

Not being a silent movie buff, I was trepidatious about “The Artist.” And a 23-year-old at the Motion Picture Association of America screening here puzzled over why it needed to be silent. But I loved the clever evocation of a primal fear featured in the many iterations of “A Star Is Born,” as well as “Singin’ in the Rain,” “Sunset Boulevard,” “Invasion of the Body Snatchers,” and “All About Eve”: Will you get to the top, only to be devoured by the hot new thing?

“More and more people have that fear because of the financial crisis and how fast the world is changing,” Hazanavicius told me. “You’re at the top one day and very quickly you can fall. In the generation of my parents and grandparents, people worked in the same factory all their lives. Now people work there two months and they put it in China. Now you’re born into one world and you die in a very different world.”

It turns out that all the skeptics were wrong, and it was clever to do a silent movie in 2011, as an antidote to our modern plague of pointless chatter. It’s a weird paradox that the essential feature of technology is talkativeness, but usually without the sound of human voices attached.

In the case of “The Artist,” silence is not only golden, it’s a reminder of how much you can articulate without words. If you take away the language, green screens and 3-D glasses, the feelings — pride, vanity, envy, fear, love — can be more primary and fascinating.

Hollywood rarely makes great movies anymore. They make comics, phrases (“Friends With Benefits,” “He’s Just Not That Into You”) or holidays (“New Year’s Eve,” “Valentine’s Day”) and attach scripts that are often dreadful.

Hazanavicius has made a witty, moving and joyous romance about a dashing silent movie star, George Valentin — akin to John Gilbert and Douglas Fairbanks — who can’t accept talkies and a jazz-baby starlet who rises as he falls, and loves him as he crashes and literally burns.

The theme of silence is used ingeniously throughout, in Valentin’s relationship with his loyal Jack Russell terrier, in his “Citizen Kane” silent breakfast table tableau with his farbissina wife, and in the climactic Fred-and-Ginger tap dance that substitutes, as it did for Fred and Ginger, for a sex scene.

A moment where the starlet, Peppy Miller, luminously played by Bérénice Bejo, the real-life partner of Hazanavicius and the mother of his two children, sneaks into Valentin’s dressing room and role plays with his jacket is more romantic than anything Hollywood dreams up.

Hazanavicius recalled that at a French screening of the movie, a group of teenagers approached him. “They thanked me for letting them hear the silence,” he said. “It was touching to discover that these young people, always with their iPods, could like real silence.

“I compare it to the zero in mathematics. People think it’s nothing, but actually it’s not. It can be very powerful.”

A version of this op-ed appeared in print on December 7, 2011, on page A31 of the New York edition with the headline: Silence Is Golden

I teach at a film school that removed film history from its core curriculum, for one thing.

I can't believe I just read that. Dare I ask where you teach?

THE ARTIST leads the Critic Choice Awards with 11 nominations, its 3 nominations were second highest in SAG Awards, and per Indie Wire, is a lock for Best Picture, Director, Actor, Supporting Actress, Screenplay, Cinematography, etc.
http://www.indiewire.com/article/2012_oscar_predictions

THE ARTIST leads all films at the Golden Globes with 6 nominations, for Best Picture, Comedy or Musical, Best Director, Comedy or Musical, Best Actor, Comedy or Musical, Best Supporting Actress, Comedy or Musical, Best Screenplay, and Best Original Score.

Story about the Golden Globes nominations. Jean Dujardin is quoted.
http://enews.earthlink.net/article/top? ... 7dde3095b8

[silentfilm]

CNN and the Weinstein Company are running a contest to promote The Artist, with the prize being a trip to two to a Los Angeles resort, Terranea. There is even an incredibly easy (for us) two-question quiz about silent films.

Reuters interviewed director Michel Hazanavicius today after THE ARTIST won 6 Golden Globe nominations. Here's his great comment about why the film is so popular:

"The Artist," a silent movie shot in black and white and made in the same way films were before the "talkies," has earned numerous spots atop critics' lists and its director, Frenchman Michel Hazanavicius, thinks he knows why.

"Whether in Italy, the U.K., Spain or Germany, everywhere is the same kind of reaction, and I think that says something about the format. Silent used to be thought of as old. Now, it's no more old or new. It's ageless," he told Reuters.

"Whether in Italy, the U.K., Spain or Germany, everywhere is the same kind of reaction, and I think that says something about the format. Silent used to be thought of as old. Now, it's no more old or new. It's ageless," he told Reuters.

And yet I have still heard nothing of an Australian release date!

And yet I have still heard nothing of an Australian release date!

16th January, 2012 I am led to believe. I don't think this is a general release but a limited art house run.

THE ARTIST has jumped to the head of the pack as Best Picture Contender. Here are the odds at one site:

I see that Intrade, the online trading exchange, gives it a 36.5 percent chance of winning best picture, more than double what it was just three weeks ago. Again, hardly foolproof, but notable.