The Artist

The Artist is a unique film in terms of societies view of what normal movies are these days. Director Michel Hazanavicius created a film where the actors play their characters without using voice as a medium, otherwise known as a silent film. The movie takes place in the late 20’s and early 30”s. The set is spectacular, It really makes you believe that this film has been collecting dust on a shelf for the past 80 years.  The clothing, hairstyles, mustaches and even down to the props are all perfectly dated. Even the tap moves that are performed, such as the Shim Sham Shimmy (the most popular tap dance in the early 30’s ) were historically correct. However the aspect that makes this movie so realistic is the old school font that is used on the blank shots with words written on them to move the story along. There are arguably 3 main characters in the film, George Valentin played by Jean Dujardin, whose character is a famous silent movie actor that looses his fame when hollywoodland starts producing voice movies. And there is Peppy Miller played by Berenice Bejo, who is a cute young lady who is trying everything she can to be an actress. Her Dresses in this film are stunning. Low wasted, sequined, fringed flapper dresses that look exactly like designer ones from the 20’s that can be found on EBay. If anybody deserves an award for this film, everybody in wardrobe deserves props for the magic they created on the screen. Even though The Artist is a black and white film, its hard not to watch this movie and see it in color. The costumes are so dazzling that colors are forced into the imagination. Both Dujardin and Bejo are what every actor should strive to be, since there is no talking in the film these actors have to literally make the audience believe their story by pantomime. Yes this means a little bit of over exaggeration through expressions, but Dujardin and Bejo know how to push their acting to such a great extent, and not go overboard to make their emotions comedic. Where the director gets really clever, is making the dog the third main character. The idea of silence being a barrier is a large concept in this film, and Hazanavicius breaks this barrier using an animal as a character. Since animals do not speak to begin with it was simple to make the animal a main role. When thinking of a silent movie being made in 2012 it sounds like it would be a novelty, However The Artist couldn’t be any further away from that idea.