In 2011 a film was released that showed audiences an older side to Hollywood. The movie was later nominated for a total of six Golden Globes, twelve BAFTA’s (British Academy of Film and Television Arts), and ten Academy Awards. That film, titled The Artist, directed by Michel Hazanavicius, starring French actors Jean Dujardin as the lead George Valentin, Berenice Bejo as the lovely Peppy Miller, and John Goodman as the studio boss Al Zimmer. The Artist takes place in Hollywood in 1927, “George Valentin (Jean Dujardin) is a silent movie superstar. The advent of the talkies will sound the death knell for his career and see him fall into oblivion. For young extra Peppy Miller (Berenice Bejo), it seems the sky is the limit - major movie stardom awaits. The Artist tells the story of their interlinked destinies” [(C) Weinstein]. Overall, The Artist is considered one of the best films to come in a long time. The reason being that the film is so different then what has come out of Hollywood in recent years and what makes this film unlike others is that the acting style is so different from the standard Hollywood acting style and it shows a historical period of the film industry.
For starters The Artist (partially playing on the film being set in the late 20’s, and early 30’s) is a black and white, silent film. Already that puts this film in a different category from most movies coming out today. So, in relation to that, the acting is in a different category as well. The film has no diegetic sound and is almost completely image-driven; so the actors had to, no pun intended, act accordingly. In a silent film the acting style needs to be more unique and stylized/theatrical. However, there are many people in America and the world who have never seen a silent film before and most modern day film has invisible acting, which looks completely natural. So, what is so great about The Artist is that the film incorporates both old and new styles to acting.
The characters in the film are actors, and the film takes place in the 1920s when silent films were extremely popular. The audience gets to see a historical period of the film industry and things that were actually happening in real life. There were many actors and actresses who were thrown out of work once “talkies” started to become the major hits. We see the actors during their silent films and we see how they start acting in films with talking.
The audience, in respect, then watches the characters go from a very theatrical and stylized way of acting, which we see in the clips of their movies, to a semi-modern style of acting when they are the characters in their every day lives. I am using the term semi-modern because the actors had to, at least in my opinion, do more acting then is required in most modern films.
Yes The Artist is a silent film, but what made the actors do so much more than most is the movies lack of inter-titles. A lot of full-length silent films had inter-titles through out conversations between two characters. However, The Artist did not seem to do that. In fact there were full conversations that happened in the film where only one inter-title came up. This meant that in order for the audience to understand what was going on, they had to highly rely on the actors’ expressions and the music. Making the audience think for themselves and creates a sort of connection to the characters.
Through out this film all of the actors gave tremendous performances and as a whole the film was directed beautifully. I loved how the film represents a historical era in the film industry. It shows the struggle of certain actors when the times and technology started to change. Anything that brings a classical sense to modern day audiences is usually pretty awesome in my book and trust me when I say; overall, The Artist is a fantastic film. It is clever, different, and in many ways a refreshing change from the modern Hollywood films we see everyday. The acting style is unique because of its mixture of old and new styles when it comes to acting and the historical content makes the film a feel fresh and different then most films. Even if to just re-watch the expressions the actors have through out, this film is definitively something to see again.
