Academy Award Nominations: The Artist

SPOILER ALERT: There may be spoilers within this review. We believe the spoilers to be minor, but readers who haven’t yet seen The Artist and wish to remain unspoiled are advised to return to this review after seeing the film.

If the Golden Globes and the BAFTAs are reasonably accurate predictors, The Artist is the favorite to win the Oscar for Best Picture. This charming movie takes the risk of using black and white and, for the most part, limiting its audio to the score.

Best Actor nominee Jean Dujardin plays George Valentin, a big star in early films who faces a crisis when movies start using sound. He thinks sound is a fad that won’t last, but when talkies take off, he finds himself financing his own silent films and losing money. Starlet Peppy Miller (Best Supporting Actress nominee Bérénice Bejo) plays a role in both his downfall and his revival.

The filmmakers did an excellent job of mimicking silent-era film style while still taking modern sensibilities into account. Some of the music is anachronistic to the story—Bernard Herrmann’s Love Scene from Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo especially can be jarring for those who know well the great composer’s iconic score. Allusions to other films, such as Citizen Kane, are less of a distraction but come across more as an admiring homage.

The Artist is also up for Best Adapted Screenplay (Michel Hazanvicius, also nominated for Director). Silent films challenge modern writers to restrict themselves to visual storytelling, and they demonstrate to modern viewers that movies don’t have to spell things out in order to get the point across. You don’t need to hear George laugh to know that he’s laughing. You don’t need to hear the individual bids at an auction to understand who’s winning all the items. Hazanavicius keeps ambient sound out of every scene until a dream/nightmare sequence, and the sounds, though what one would expect in the scene, seem oppressive and almost unreal. When ambient sound returns, it comes with a transitional scene and thus seems more natural and inviting. These technical aspects of storytelling aside, the plot itself has few unpredictable turns.

The Artist may not be the best picture of the year, but it is probably the most-loved movie of the year. I personally would include it with The Princess Bride and Harold and Maude as a movie that I can watch repeatedly without diminishing any of the affection I have for it.

WATCH:
Trailer for The Artist
Charlie Rose interview with Michel Hazanavicius, Jean Dujardin, Bérénice Bejo

This review, by LR Simon, is part of our ongoing series on the 84th Academy Awards. The Artist is nominated for ten Oscars, including Best Picture.