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Globoscope
A homage to the black and white films
of the silent era, the sets of Michel Hazanavicius’ The Artist are
authentic and capture the ambience of the early 1930s well
They say in life one must be good to the
folks on your way up the ladder because they may be of help on your
way down. In a similar way, when sound came to cinema, many silent
movie stars became redundant, or they had to adapt themselves to the
changing scenario. The Artist is about one such star George
Valentine (Jean Dujardin), who was too proud to accept the change and
preferred penury to changing or reinventing his art. It is also the
story of Peggy Miller (Bérénice Bejo), a sassy young woman who was
first given a break by Valentine and was later able to adapt to the
changing setup to become a famous star. The beauty spot he plants on
her upper lip later becomes the title of one of her later films. How
their two lives run parallel to each other is what the film is all
about. It is Valentine’s dog Uggie that corners much of the glory
with its cute tricks.
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Director Michel Hazanavicius uses the black and
white format and most of the film is silent except for the non-diagetic
soundtrack. It is a sort of homage to the silent era but also deals
with change which is inevitable and how to minimise one’s ego.
Hazanavicius, who has also written this imaginative screenplay, delves
too long on Valentine’s slide and so the first half tends to drag
but it picks up in the latter half. Ludovic Bource’s music is
especially lively here and when Jean Dujardin does even Fred Astaire
proud as he tap-dances his way to glory accompanied by the
twinkle-toed Bérénice Bejo. It is a daring subject to attempt and
most of the recognition and accolades accrue because it that. The sets
are authentic and the early 1930s ambience is graphically captured by
the costumes and automobiles.
