The Artist
(2011)

Warner Bros. Pictures

📢 Director: Michel Hazanavicius.
💰 Producer: Thomas Langmann.

👫 Cast: Jean Dujardin, Bérénice Bejo, James Cromwell, Penelope Ann Miller, Malcolm McDowell, Missi Pyle, Beth Grant, Ed Lauter, Joel Murray, Ken Davitian, John Goodman.

🏆 Awards ceremony:
-84th Academy Awards: February 26, 2012.
Hollywood and Highland Center Theatre, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California.

🎭 Other films nominated for Best Picture this year:
-The Descendants.
-Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close.
-The Help.
-Hugo.
-Midnight In Paris.
-Moneyball.
-The Tree Of Life.
-War Horse.


📕 Plot summary:
Leading silent movie star George Valentin (Best Actor Oscar winner JEAN DURJARDIN) suddenly finds himself unemployable with the advent of sound films at the end of the 1920s. A rising female star, Peppy Miller (BÉRÉNICE BEJO), whom he helped to stardom is torn between pursuing her own successful career and feeling sympathy for her mentor.

💥 Standout scene(s):
-When George is contemplating suicide and his faithful dog (who was probably the most loveable character in the film) is trying to catch his attention by persuading him not to go through with it.

🔑 Facts:
-The 84th Academy Awards.
-Nominated for 9 Academy Awards, it won 5: Best Picture, Director, Best Actor (Jean Dujardin), Music, Costume Design.
-Presented in the screen ratio of 4:3, black & white and predominantly silent throughout.
-This was supporting actress Beth Grant's third Best Picture appearance (Rain Man, No Country For Old Men).

🙂 Personal opinion:
Daring and bold move to shoot a modern-day movie in black & white, and in full frame AND to make it silent. Braver still, is the Academy's decision to award it the Best Picture!
So, going into this one I will openly confess I really, really, REALLY didn't want to sit through it, but I knew I had to in order to do the project. It wasn't the horrendously shit film I was expecting it to be, but at the same time it did little to arouse my interests either. To be fair to it, the film tries something quite unique and deserves credit for that. The acting wasn't particularly great though (despite the fact they awarded Jean Dujardin the Best Actor award - go figure!)
It's only 100 minutes, so it won't take long to get through it. I managed it and I'm a very restless person by nature, but I managed it. Not my thing, sorry.

Did it deserve the Oscar?
✅YES. For the sheer audacity of the film being made in the manner in which it was presented took some balls.

4½/10
Review date: 04 July 2025