The Artist: Michel Hazanavicius

Michel Hazanavicius' The Artist is a loving, intelligent homage to Hollywood silent cinema. Every frame drips with pure affection for the cinema as an art form and for its ability to change lives. It follows the careers of two Hollywood stars during the rise of the "talkies." The first is George Valentin (Jean Dujardin), a dashing leading man in the same vein as Rudolph Valentino (obviously the character's namesake) and Clark Gable. Valentin is the king of Hollywood whose films dominate the box office. But one day his studio announces that they will no longer make silent films. This enrages Valentin who refuses to make the leap to sound cinema. At this same moment, a young woman named Peppy Miller quickly becomes Hollywood's next big thing. How tragic it must be for Valentin to watch his life collapse as Miller's takes off, especially considering the fact that Valentin was responsible for her big break in Hollywood. From there, the film takes its cues from silent melodramas. Valentin goes broke, tries to commit suicide, and Miller saves him, revealing that she has always been his biggest fan. There's more to the plot than that, but that should give the general gist of the film. But where this film shines is in its references to classic films (using Vertigo's music), actors (the aforementioned Valentino reference), directors (one of the director's names is a homage to Otto Preminger), and studios ("Kinograph"). But The Artist does more than just pay tribute to silent films. It also manages to utilize techniques from silent films and integrate them into modern day film language. Is it a perfect copy of a classic silent film? No. But I don't think it was ever supposed to be. And you know what? That's quite alright with me.

8/10