The Artist

       Immediately after seeing THE ARTIST I was confused. I am less so now, but I still feel as if the film is ultimately disingenuous. For one thing, the film was marketed brilliantly to be some piece of high art, a treat, or a foray into high art for the layman that, hell, the whole family could enjoy. But THE ARTIST was made by Michel Hazanavicius, who, with Jean Dujardin, the star and Academy Award winning actor of this film, previously made spoof films. These films were called OSS 117, a spoof on 007, James Bond, twisting it all to fit 117 (Dujardin) who was a brash, prick of a spy. They're silly films. Good, but, really, silly. How would we all feel about Martin Scorsese and HUGO if, previous to that he'd just come off of Scary Movie 5? Now, OSS 117 is a hell of a lot better than the Scary Movie films, but they exist in the same realm, and Hazanavicius was no French auteur.
      Beyond this, I am confused by the style of THE ARTIST. Again, the film is marketed as being a silent movie. But this is no replica of a silent film. In fact, within THE ARTIST, we can view Dujardin's George Valentin viewing four or five different films. One of them actually resembles a silent film of the 20's, depicting Valentin running from a cast of jolty bandits. Then, there's the film that THE ARTIST starts with, establishing that Valentin is a star. The film looks like it was made circa 1961, now the turn of the silents to the talkies era. The lightning surrounding Dujardin's head as he's electrocuted resembles movie-lighting of '61 almost exactly. In other films that we see Valentin watching, there's even more confusing aesthetics. What, I ask, is THE ARTIST trying to do? Is it replicating silent films? Is it a tribute? Which is it?
      Dujardin, deserving of his Best Actor award, is admittedly pretty terrific as George Valentin. Despite Hazanavicius' directing and confusion over what movie he's making and from what era causing some of the scenes to resemble the parody of the OSS 117 movies, Dujardin brings real charm to his character, and every scene with him in it is a good one. Less amusing is Berenice Bejo (Hazanavicius' wife) as an up and coming actress with a ridiculous name, Peppy Miller, that a Frenchman would think Americans would like. But Valentin's artistic desire to stay with the silents is charming, even when he loses most of the spotlight to Peppy. The end of the film is good, and so are so many of the scenes, but I feel as if so much of the film is either ignorant of silent film, or is trying to convince us to like it by pretending to be something it's not. It's still entertaining, it's still fun, Dujardin is still great, the music is still good, the directing, although occasionally odd, is still overall good, but it's no great film, and it's not what it pretends to be.

★★★ out of Five