Tweet The Artist (2011) a contemporary silent

And Jean Dujardin has just become the first actor to win a major US award for a performance in a silent film since Emil Jannings.

That is nice for him, though the status of the Golden Globe as a Major Award can be argued. Pia Zadora got "Newcomer of the year" in 1981.

I haven't read the entire thread, so please forgive me if this is territory already covered. I saw The Artist last night finally and listening to the audience as they walked out of the theater made me feel like a kid whose long time favorite band just had a hit single and now everybody loves them. I thought the movie was good, very good in fact, but after all the hype I was expecting something more than just a typical 1920's film. Hearing everyone say how refreshing the movie was made me feel very indignant and I had to stop myself from asking people what other silent films they had seen. Did anyone else feel the same way or am I just a jerk?

Ron

THE ARTIST won Best Picture, Musical or Comedy, at the Golden Globes.

I haven't read the entire thread, so please forgive me if this is territory already covered. I saw The Artist last night finally and listening to the audience as they walked out of the theater made me feel like a kid whose long time favorite band just had a hit single and now everybody loves them. I thought the movie was good, very good in fact, but after all the hype I was expecting something more than just a typical 1920's film. Hearing everyone say how refreshing the movie was made me feel very indignant and I had to stop myself from asking people what other silent films they had seen. Did anyone else feel the same way or am I just a jerk?

Ron

No you aren't the only one who feels this way Ron. I myself and a few others have expressed some let-down from the whole experience and I have said my opinion more than a few times. I think whenever someone says something negative about the film, there's always several people who start defending the film as if we're wrong for feeling that way about the movie.

[silentfilm]

No you aren't the only one who feels this way Ron. I myself and a few others have expressed some let-down from the whole experience and I have said my opinion more than a few times. I think whenever someone says something negative about the film, there's always several people who start defending the film as if we're wrong for feeling that way about the movie.

I think you are misunderstanding. When 90% of a group of people think that something is good, and the other 10% don't, you can bet that the majority will want to ask questions or be surprised that the minority didn't like it. And since the film has been rolled out slowly, the hype has really built up on this film. If you had seen this film without knowing for weeks that it was the first new silent in decades and the critics loved it, you might have thought better of it.

It's certainly OK to not like the film, but I think that is is a case of the film not meeting your expectations. For the majority of people who haven't seen a silent film outside of maybe in school or college, the film is a breath of fresh air. Nitratevillains have seen this stuff before, but it is great that at least somebody in Hollywood was willing to take a big risk and make a silent film.

I'm surprised that it was entered as a musical/comedy, as it is really neither. Maybe a light comedy/drama at best. Remember that the critics and Hollywood can use the awards to make a point with the current studio management.

I thought it was fun and sweet, but I wouldn't say that it was the "best" film of the year. I've only seen about 12 current features in a theater this year, and half of them feature talking and/or singing animals, so I can't really make an informed judgement anyway.

"The Artist" won three Golden Globes, including best picture, musical or comedy

The big acting awards went to this year's Oscar front-runners: Jean Dujardin, seeming as irrepressible as the fellow he played in "The Artist," accepted the best actor in musical or comedy prize and did a few dance steps

(I have to wait to mid Feb to see this picture!)

‘The Artist’: Golden Globe Winner Jean Dujardin on Its Surprise Ending from "The Daily Beast"
by Tracy McNicoll Jan 15, 2012 11:30 PM EST

The charming Artist cleaned up at the Globes Sunday night. The film's star, Dujardin, tells the story behind his un-silent moment in the Oscar front-runner.

Spoiler alert! The Hollywood awards season is upon us and if you haven’t seen The Artist, the silent black-and-white charmer that won the Golden Globe for Best Comedy or Musical on Sunday night, read no further: Get thee to a cinemaplex! We’ll wait!

The brave, slim-budget French production, which also topped the Critics’ Choice Awards on Thursday with four prizes, including best picture and best director for Michel Hazanavicius, and has received nods from the Screen Actors’ and Directors’ Guilds, has become the Oscar favorite for Best Picture. The Artist’s story of love, fear, and reinvention is a tip of the hat to cinema past and yet manages an exhilarating freshness.

French star Jean Dujardin, who won the Globe for Best Actor in a Comedy on Sunday, has already taken top acting honors at Cannes for his portrayal of George Valentin, a late-1920s silent-film icon troubled by the dawn of the talkies. The swoonworthy Valentin—Errol Flynn moves, Clark Gable moustache, and irresistible screendog sidekick—suddenly falls out of favor when the studios opt for sound. Peppy Miller (Berenice Béjo) is the admiring ingénue who gets her big break on the soundstage. As George and Peppy’s careers crisscross, the rising young actress and the brooding fallen star find love. (Here comes the spoiler. You’ve been warned!) Dujardin has only one spoken line in the film, two little words at the end that seem to explain everything.

But! When Newsweek sat down with Dujardin for a profile interview ahead of the film’s U.S. release in November, the star revealed the surprising truth about his character’s only line.

The film closes on a George Valentin renascent, tap-dancing into the talkies with his beloved on his arm. The director asks, One more take? “With pleasure,” Valentin says, with all the relief of a star reborn. But the words come out “wiz pléjure”—no less charming for the thick French accent (au contraire) but a surprise that seems a pithy revelation, the mysterious weight on George Valentin’s shoulders suddenly apparent in the unexpected pronunciation. Fans have taken the closing phrase as confessional, reason enough for Valentin’s reluctance to accept change, reading his downfall into those two words: The heavy Hollywood burden of an unshakable accent.

Not so fast. Dujardin says that wasn’t the intention at all. “We never thought of that,” he told Newsweek at Paris’s vintage Harcourt photo studio steps from the Champs-Elysées. Indeed, Dujardin claims his interpretation differed with writer/director Hazanavicius’s own implicit backstory for his character.

Dujardin, a top draw in his native France, readily admits his English is shaky, for now. He told Newsweek, in French, that he would be traveling to Los Angeles with an English tutor by his side. And he let out a telltale nervous sigh when he explained that, after the interview, he would be taping new English making-of clips for The Artist. Asked whether Valentin’s “wizpléjure” is Dujardin’s genuine accent in English, he laughs. “It is my real accent,” he says. “I would have had to do it American-style. We tried to redo it later, in post-sync. But no one asked me, on the set, Michel [Hazanavicius] doesn’t at all ask me to go ‘with pleasure,’ to do it a bit American with the accent.”

The Artist is Dujardin’s third film written and directed by his compatriot Hazanavicius. He explains that the filmmaker wanted him to say the line “with acting that doesn’t fit the phrase, with really a desire to go, ‘Aw, yeah, OK, let’s go!’ And it doesn’t fit the length of the phrase,” he says. “It doesn’t fit. So I wind up French-ifying it a lot. And at the same time, I always saw the character as a Frenchman myself: Georges Valentin,” he says, with a soft “g” sound, à la française. “Whereas for [Hazanavicius], he’s an American. It’s ‘Djeorge.’”

Fans have taken the closing phrase as confessional, reason enough for Valentin's reluctance to accept change, reading his downfall into those two words.

Through his grueling weeks of tap lessons and 35-day Hollywood shoot, Dujardin says he always imagined that Valentin had come to America with his family in the 19th century. “And then, as they did in the era, it’s silent film, so there could be Italians, Irish people, French people. So it amused me to say ‘wiz pléjure,’” he says.

But the idea that Valentin’s accent was the reason he couldn’t make the leap to talking movies? “Ah, no. We never thought of that.” No? “No. That is coming up now, obviously, when folks hear ‘wiz pléjure’ they understand why he had trouble getting into the talkies,” he laughs. But that wasn’t the goal? “No, that wasn’t conscious at all. Not at all.”

Still, the actor says he thinks it’s great that people do interpret it that way. “I mean, at the same time, I live the same thing as George Valentin in the United States. Since I don’t speak English very well, I find myself in a world with mouths, with people talking, and I don’t understand anything at all,” he jokes.

Surely viewers will forgive Jean Dujardin if he has to make any acceptance speeches with his now-famous foreign lilt. His new American fans will listen, wizpléjure.

I did enjoy the film, just not as much as I expected too. I'm also glad that it's doing well and winning awards. I let myself be affected by the hype that has been building since Cannes and believed that the critics I follow were familiar enough with film history to know if something is new/different or just a re-hash of the old. Like Kevin Brownlow has said, "Nothing is new except what has been forgotten."


Ron

Regarding the quote of Herrmann's Vertigo, I can shed a little light about it. This is a quote from Film Score Monthly:
"One such losing battle was the cue “My Suicide,” written to accompany the climax of the film in which George hits rock bottom. The final cut of the film was finished three weeks prior to the last recording date during the first week of April, as Bource was still trying to finish the cue. But “because the priority was to finish everything for Cannes [in May], Michel needed to present [the finished film] to the producers as soon as possible to reassure them of a project difficult to sell without music.” The climactic scene had been temped with Herrmann’s love theme from Vertigo for three months, “and every composer knows what that means,” says Bource. “Generally, you are condemned.” Vertigo remains in the final cut of the film, but Bource insists “Michel didn’t replace ‘My Suicide’ with Herrmann’s love theme. When the DVD comes out, you can put my music on that sequence.” Bource completed the cue on Hazanavicius’ birthday and dedicated it to him, “but we didn’t speak to each other during the last month. Why? Everything is in the title,” he adds, winking."

Good, now hopefully the people complaining about the "lazy" "theft" of Herrman's cue can give it a rest.

So glad to see this wonderful film clean up at the Globes. Not that these events normally matter much to me, but it just feels good to have a black-and-white silent film that also happens to be a great film in its own right be recognized like that, and to be appreciated by so many people besides us silent film snobs at Nitrateville. Silent film LIVES! And it's only gonna get better, 'cause the Oscars is comin' up...

So no one has posted yet that The Artist won Best Picture at the Critic's Choice Awards? Also best director, and get this, best costume design...

Costume design? But they were wearing incorrect underwear!!!

So no one has posted yet that The Artist won Best Picture at the Critic's Choice Awards? Also best director, and get this, best costume design...

Costume design? But they were wearing incorrect underwear!!!

And now you may know something about costume design that you didn't know before.

As long as you've learned how incorrect projection speeds can ruin silent comedies, we're good.

As long as you've learned how incorrect projection speeds can ruin silent comedies, we're good.

I have, I just don't consider it as critical as costume design.

Such skewed priorities...well, they say it takes all sorts to make a niche film message board.

Well, the framerate of The Artist seemed a little too high as well, but not as high as Juha (1999) which was even smoother. Was The Artist shot and projected at 24fps?

By the by, if Fred would like to post some historical photographic examples of correct period underwear, I'm sure that would be very helpful in the education of us undergarment Luddites...

By the by, if Fred would like to post some historical photographic examples of correct period underwear, I'm sure that would be very helpful in the education of us undergarment Luddites...

Or you could look at a few 20s-30s periodicals. Or even sewing patterns.

THE ARTIST was taken at 22 fps for projection at 25 (sound speed in Europe). Of course here it goes at only 24 because we all know how much better films look in slo-mo.

David S

Thought I'd weigh in since my wife (also a silent film fan) and I saw The Artist today.

We both enjoyed it, but not as much as we would have liked.

It was enjoyable; a lot of funny and clever moments. I loved the dog, James Cromwell and the B&W cinematography.

The music seemed really lacking to me (especially after having recently seen Hugo twice - the score in that film is superlative). The Artist score seemed to lack a strong melodic theme and in many places seemed stitched together like a TCM silent screening using "library" music at hand. I about fell out of my seat when the Bernard Herrmann music came on; the scene was ruined for me because the music, possibly Herrmann's greatest score, is too closely linked to Vertigo. Using the music in The Artist seemed tacky and took me out of the story.

I think the movie could have benefited from a closer study of A Star is Born (Garland) and Borzage movies like Seventh Heaven. In those movies, the pace was leisurely and the films took the time to really tell the story and get to know the characters. In The Artist, the film had hardly started when the protagonist began his downhill climb. Also, I found it hard to believe that an actor so full of life and confidence wouldn't want to at least try the sound process and I found his loser state a little hard to believe.

I do hope the film instills in viewers who would otherwise never see a silent film the idea that maybe silent films aren't like taking medicine after all. The Artist was obviously made with a lot of love for films of the '20s and '30s. Again, I enjoyed it, but probably not as much as seeing the real thing.

Thought I'd weigh in since my wife (also a silent film fan) and I saw The Artist today.

We both enjoyed it, but not as much as we would have liked.

It was enjoyable; a lot of funny and clever moments. I loved the dog, James Cromwell and the B&W cinematography.

The music seemed really lacking to me (especially after having recently seen Hugo twice - the score in that film is superlative). The Artist score seemed to lack a strong melodic theme and in many places seemed stitched together like a TCM silent screening using "library" music at hand. I about fell out of my seat when the Bernard Herrmann music came on; the scene was ruined for me because the music, possibly Herrmann's greatest score, is too closely linked to Vertigo. Using the music in The Artist seemed tacky and took me out of the story.

I think the movie could have benefited from a closer study of A Star is Born (Garland) and Borzage movies like Seventh Heaven. In those movies, the pace was leisurely and the films took the time to really tell the story and get to know the characters. In The Artist, the film had hardly started when the protagonist began his downhill climb. Also, I found it hard to believe that an actor so full of life and confidence wouldn't want to at least try the sound process and I found his loser state a little hard to believe.

I do hope the film instills in viewers who would otherwise never see a silent film the idea that maybe silent films aren't like taking medicine after all. The Artist was obviously made with a lot of love for films of the '20s and '30s. Again, I enjoyed it, but probably not as much as seeing the real thing.

You put into words exactly what I felt way better than I did. Thank you.

I enjoyed it and would gladly see it again. I really liked the style - I thought it did a good job of approximating the look & feel of an average American silent. (Though in the dream sequence and other spots, it seemed more like an homage to '40s style...) The borrowings from famous movies, since intentional, were more cute to me than bothersome.
That said, as a movie it wasn't that great. As others have said, the story & characters are threadbare. (Of course, we don't see Fairbanks films for the in-depth characterization either!) I'd have liked to see more tidbits of period Hollywood history (like, say, a Chaplin cameo!) - the history it did use was pretty loose sometimes - but it focused entirely on this guy's story. The director might have taken more tips from Chaplin films, actually, and sprinkled in more jokes during Valentin's maudlin downfall; there was less comedy than I expected. It was rather slow-paced, and did get kind of tiresome when Valentin spends half the movie moping around, and it was rather lame for him to resort to the same plot device twice.... It's like the director felt, since the film was silent, it had to be as simple as possible. (Of course, most genuine American silents were pretty simple as well, so in many ways it was true to genre.) Nice ending, though, as it transitions into the '30s.
But I don't want to sound too harsh, as I left the film more impressed by its achievements than disappointed by its shortcomings.

It would be interesting if there were a new thread here: Anachronisms in THE ARTIST.... (There are some listed on IMDB, but I'm sure nitratevillians can find more obscure ones!)

Wasn't Fairbanks also someone who was confident and positive who didn't want to move out of silents as well, literally being dragged into sound?

Wasn't Fairbanks also someone who was confident and positive who didn't want to move out of silents as well, literally being dragged into sound?

I think part of it was that the technology of early talkies was not going to make him look dashing and effortless. Another part of it was that he was aging and his health was going- he wasn't going to be able to do the stunts his audience wanted for much longer. He'd been on stage for years so there was no problem with him talking.

Yes, but he didn't want to really move out of silents, and that's why it's so obvious that the ending of THE IRON MASK is the valedictory to the silent period.

There are Chaplin homages in the film, if you know them. As John Bengston has pointed out, Peppy's home is Mary Pickford's old home in Fremont Place, along with George's home in the film. The Pickford home is seen in the background of shots from THE KID. The movie theatre where the woman wants to pet Uggie after George has seen the Peppy film is The Los Angeles Theatre, built specifically for CITY LIGHTS premiere. As Bengston has also pointed out, the Kinograph Studio is the location where Keaton shot ONE WEEK. The auction site and Goodman's office were shot at the Wilshire Ebell, an over 90 year old woman's club that many of the top silent actresses would have belonged to. The poster in Goodman's office promoting the New Faces had Anita Page's face in the center, and Irene Rich just below that to the right. One of the giant portraits on the wall was Billie Burke I believe, who would have been one of Goldwyn's top female stars in the late teens. The hospital is actually the American Film Institute now, and would have been the Sacred Heart private girls' school in the 1920s. Warner's and Paramount's backlots were used, where obviously many of the silents would have been filmed. The theatre at the beginning of the picture is the Orpheum Theatre, where many big premieres did occur in the 1920s, and many films played at. Mentioning THE IRON MASK above, George is playing an homage to Fairbanks there when he's pulled into Goodman's office. Obivously there's another Fairbanks' salute in the film as well.

Wasn't Fairbanks also someone who was confident and positive who didn't want to move out of silents as well, literally being dragged into sound?

I think part of it was that the technology of early talkies was not going to make him look dashing and effortless. Another part of it was that he was aging and his health was going- he wasn't going to be able to do the stunts his audience wanted for much longer. He'd been on stage for years so there was no problem with him talking.

I also think Fairbanks just didn't enjoy making talking pictures since it was such a completely different experience. Sound brought an element of strict discipline to the shooting of a picture and I think he just thought it just wasn't any fun anymore. He caught the travel bug and started wandering around the world, his marriage fell apart and the rest is history.

Just offering up a different perspective here...

I learned some years ago to not build up expectations about a movie. I don't go into the theater with the frame of mind that "I expect this, and this, and that, and I expect to have those expectations met." It saves me potential disappointments, and I'm able to enjoy the movie for what it is. Unless it's garbage.

I did see The Artist, and as with any movie, I didn't come home and begin comparing/contrasting it to other movies to see where it fell short. Nor did I pick apart little minute details that didn't seem to have an impact on the ACTUAL PLOT one way or the other in my opinion. I could do that, but that wouldn't be any fun for me.

I liked The Artist very much. I found some of the scenes to be somewhat moving. Particularly the last 10 minutes of the film. I thought the film was very well done. It was like a breath of fresh air to me in terms of what modern cinema is currently made up of... And I'm not new to silent cinema in the least.

Just offering up a different perspective here...

I learned some years ago to not build up expectations about a movie. I don't go into the theater with the frame of mind that "I expect this, and this, and that, and I expect to have those expectations met." It saves me potential disappointments, and I'm able to enjoy the movie for what it is. Unless it's garbage.

I did see The Artist, and as with any movie, I didn't come home and begin comparing/contrasting it to other movies to see where it fell short. Nor did I pick apart little minute details that didn't seem to have an impact on the ACTUAL PLOT one way or the other in my opinion. I could do that, but that wouldn't be any fun for me.

I liked The Artist very much. I found some of the scenes to be somewhat moving. Particularly the last 10 minutes of the film. I thought the film was very well done. It was like a breath of fresh air to me in terms of what modern cinema is currently made up of... And I'm not new to silent cinema in the least.

+1

Just a little funny about "The Artist" over in the UK

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/1 ... ertainment