Hollywood's award season is in full swing and names and titles of nominees and winners are whirling around online and in print. One that is gaining speed leading up to the Academy Awards is The Artist--an artful and charming rendition of pride's destructive force and love's redeeming power.
The director, Michael Hazanavicius, builds on this archetypal storyboard with layer after layer of subtle metaphor, outstanding photography, brilliant use of motion, and a dazzling musical score, written by Ludovic Bource. Set in the Hollywood glory days of the late 1920s, the film tells the story of a silent movie star, George Valentin (Jean Dujardin), who refuses to recognize the technological ascendency of talking movies and pours his heart and fortune into a large production silent film.
Valentin's movie premiers just days after he loses everything in the infamous 1929 stock market crash and he hopes beyond reason that his film will be a box office hit. Also premiering that night is a highly billed "talkie," starring the dashing Peppy Miller (Bérénice Bejo), a plucky young actress who owes her success in the movies to a helping hand from Valentin, with whom she shares a few magnetic moments on film and an inappropriate flirtatious tête-à-tête . Peppy's talking film outshines Valentin's silent drama and her fame eventually eclipses his.
Valentin stumbles to the brink of despair, losing his fortune, his home, and his wife as a result of his pride and his refusal to talk. Peppy remains his secret and faithful admirer and it is her love and confidence that eventually restores him. With her help, he rehangs his star in the cinema firmament and shows the world a new side of George Valentin.
This story, though silent and in black and white is truly resonant. We have all experienced the results of pride and the redeeming power of love, and we, like Valentin, are living in tension between old and new technology and experiencing the rise and fall of careers and industries as a result. The Artist undoubtedly hits a vibrant chord.
Hats off to Mr. Hazanavicius who displayed a marvelous mastery of his medium, quietly drawing a 21st century audience, awash in 3D and surround sound into a black and white silent movie about the demise of silent movies and Everyman's tale of pride and redemption. He is truly The Artist.
1 comment:
Wow, sounds like "The Artist" truly is a shiny, new, comet in the shimmering firmament--a welcome
blaze of light in one of the darkest segments of our culture!
Hats off, dearest muse, to your enlightened view of the cinema!
Your very own, Mater
Post a Comment