REVIEWS
COMPETITION
Fr. 2011. 100mins Director/writer Michel Hazanavicius Production companies La Petite Reine, Studio 37, La Classe Américaine, JD Prod, France3 Cinema, Jouror Production, uFilms International sales Wild Bunch, www.
wildbunch.biz Producer Thomas Langmann Executive producers Daniel Delume, Antoine De Cazotte, Richard Middleton Cinematography Guillaume Schiffman Editors Anne-Sophie Bion, Michel Hazanavicius Production designer Laurence Bennett Music Ludovic Bource Main cast Jean Dujardin, Bérénice Bejo, John Goodman, James Cromwell, Penelope Ann Miller, Missi Pyle, Jack the dog
The Artist REVIEWED BY MARK ADAMS
Possibly one of the most joyously enjoyable films to screen in the Cannes Competition — especially for lovers of classic Hollywood cinema — The Artist is a real pleasure. Shot in black-and-white, silent (apart from a few brief moments of sound) and propelled forward elegantly by delightful performances from Jean Dujar- din and Bérénice Bejo, it is the most unlikely of feelgood films. The Weinstein Company picked up The Artist for the US at
the start of the festival and it could prove a popular draw for other distributors with a love of old-time Hollywood fare. Though French produced — the two leads are also French — the remainder of the key cast are recognisable US actors and the film’s intertitles are all in English. It will be a challenge to mar- ket, but strong critical response should aid releases. Writer/director Michel Hazanavicius has scored notable suc-
cesses with his two OSS:117 spoof spy films — both of which starred Dujardin, and with Bejo also starring in the first film — and has embraced the technical challenges of The Artist, con- structing an appropriately old-fashioned story packed with plenty of nods to Hollywood classics and bringing out the best of his talented cast. It is true the film is a pastiche, but it is lov- ingly made and extremely watchable all the same. And in Dujardin he has the perfect leading man. He is a
gifted physical performer, and the grace, style and easy charm that worked so well as the blundering spy in the OSS:117 films is harnessed perfectly as successful silent-movie star George Val- entin, whose career is blighted by the arrival of the talkies. Valentin is at the height of his powers in 1927 when he meets
the vivacious Peppy Miller (Bejo), who is trying to break into the movies through work as an extra. In a plot similar to A Star Is Born, while Miller’s star is in the ascendance as the studios look for fresh talent with nice voices, so George’s career dips. The film does feel a little sluggish towards the end of the first
third as the music is a little repetitive and the intertitles are infrequent, but Hazanavicius manages to give it a real sense of charm and warmth. The films of Murnau, Chaplin and Borzage are obvious visual influences, while Welles’ breakfast scene in Citizen Kane is delightfully referenced as George and his sullen wife (Miller) trudge through their marriage. The relationship between George and Peppy is nicely han-
Cinecittà Luce at Cannes 2011: Italian Pavilion International Village – Stand 1 32
dled. Dujardin has a ball playing a variation of Douglas Fair- banks, while Peppy’s grace and passionate personality is the perfect balance to George’s sophistication and charm. Sound does briefly dip into the film. In an amusing dream (or nightmare for him) scene, George imagines the arrival of sound in the studio, suddenly hearing voices and wincing as a feather falls to the floor. In the very final scene, meanwhile, there is also the briefest moment of dialogue.
SCREEN SCORE n 14 Screen International at the Cannes Film Festival May 16, 2011 ★★★★
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