The Artist

 

It has been awhile, but Scott and I had some time to get another movie in and the next one was "The Artist".  This movie sat on our entertainment center for a few weeks cause one- we don't have a lot of time to watch movies and two- we knew we would need to be in the mood for this movie.  It is a very different movie than any either of us have really watched in awhile.  The only time there is any actual talking in the movie is about the last 10 seconds of it and there are about 5 words spoken at that time.

About 20 minutes into the movie, I said to Scott, "Ok, I'm bored with this."  But if you stick it out til the end of the movie, you get to watch a beautiful story unfold without the use of dialogue.  I think they did a great job bringing these characters to life without words.  I think sometimes the actual writing of a film can ruin it if not done properly, so they were able to avoid that and focus solely on the pure acting and making sure the story is portrayed accurately through movement, facial expressions, and body language.  I think the actors chosen for these roles fit them perfectly and you forget that there were no spoken words after awhile.  It is sort of what is like when you watch a foreign film with subtitles- at first it is annoying, but you don't realize it after awhile.  In addition, I felt a lot of times the extras looked like they were in a musical, which was also kind of fun.  The music is constant and welcome in this movie.  You aren't sitting there in complete uncomfortable silence, but accompanied by music to set the tone of the scene.

The premise of the film is one of complicated simplicity.  You get to watch George Valentin (played by Jean Dujardin) at the height of his career and his meeting with a young woman Peppy (played by Berenice Bejo) who he brings to stardom.  Because he is unable to adapt to the changing world around him, he finds that everyone else is leaving him behind including the young woman he helped become a star.  You watch him fall into destruction and as an audience of this you realize he must look deeper into himself and realize what he needs to do to recover the life he had.

At the end of the movie, I asked Scott, what do you think?  His opinion was that is was good and different.  Which is exactly how I felt.  I felt it was really good and actually quite funny at some moments.  And if you can be funny this day in age without using words, you are doing something right.  It is one of those movies that is great to see once, but maybe not one you would watch over and over again.

And don't get me started on John Goodman.  There are only a few actors where I will go see a movie just because they are in it.  And John Goodman is one of them.  I don't know what it is about him, but I love him.  His larger than life personality was perfect in Roseanne and I think he is one of the greatest actors out there right now.   I felt he really encompassed his role in this movie very well.  I'm anxious to see Argo and Flight as he is in both of those movies that are currently out/about ready to come out.  I'm just glad to see his success in general.

Here is a trailer for The Artist:

Photo courtesy of Wikipedia.