This past Valentine's Day week, le boyfriend and I decided it was about damn time to go see "The Artist," written and directed by Michel Hazanavicius. (We had been putting it off for far too long.) I was a little apprehensive, and I couldn't tell you why. It may have been related to the whole silent-film deal, but I grew up with the classics, thanks to my father, so I'm not sure why that was intimidating me. Anyways, we were running a little late, thus didn't see the opening credits, but as soon as I turned my eyes to the screen while walking into the theater, I was captivated.
The story begins with a young actress, trying to find her way through "Hollywoodland," which refers to the old "Hollywood" sign in L.A., along with a narcissist, adored by the public, silent-film actor in his prime. According to the film, 1930 is the year that the first sound and voice film came out, putting many of the silent-film actors and actresses immediately out of work. They were either not cut for the job, lacking the talent and voice, or were too prideful to join the crowds. As the young actress' career is taking leaps and bounds, the main character, George, is not having the same luck. In fact, he falls into a deep depression and has no will to live or work.
At certain points of the film, my eyes scattered to the audience. There wasn't one minute that every viewers' eyes weren't glued to the screen. Glued. With no dialogue whatsoever, the incredible soundtrack was well used to suck everyone in. Needing and wanting to know what would happen next. The actors were perfectly picked, in my opinion. They had these incredibly beautiful smiles that made everyone in the audience want to smile with them, and could clearly use their body language just in itself, to engage the viewers. The first half was very logistically based on the traditional silent-film, with dancing, overly-compensated gestures and facial expressions, and the old, corny, comedic relief. As the film progressed, it dug deeper into the main character's psyche where darker tones and more modern techniques were used and beautifully incorporated into a silent film.
Please see it. You may not regret not seeing it if you don't know much about it, but you will seriously be missing out if you don't.
Let me know what you think!
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