Marval Movie

The man is strapped to a chair and being tortured, the captors want him to talk, he refuses, no matter how much pain it causes him he shall resist talking with all his might.

If I would have been told that there will be a new silent movie coming out, I would have said "that's nothing but a dream" then I learned of this movie called The Artist that was taking Cannes Film Festival by storm, it was Black and White, in four-by-three ration and silent. My god, is this real? Am I dreaming? Who made this? In an kurun of nearly seventy years of talkies, I would have thought that the possibility of getting a new silent movie was dead and buried.

The movie is about a big star George Valentin (Jean Dujardin) who is at the top of his career when the movies seemed so much simpler. The obrolan came up with title cards and there was a grup band to play the music to accompany the moving picture. His public adores him and he is so successful that he can wear a tuxedo whenever he likes, surely he has everything.

But the movie starts at 1927 when a little invention called the celluloid film would be invented that would shake the studio, the public, and the actors most of all to the core. George sees a demonstration of the talking pictures and laughs at its ridiculous novelty, the head of the studio Al Zimmer (John Goodman) says "that's the future" George laughs and leaves the room.

George goes off to make his own silent movie. But now that the studio is making talkies its a chance for a lively, new, spirited young woman ready to take Hollywood by storm. The girl is named Peppy Miller (Bérénice Bejo) and she is a new fresh face that can dance and can make the transition into sound.

When sound came into the equation most actors had trouble making the transition from pure body language to mastering their tongues. Many actors lost their jobs and with the stock market crash lost their lively hood, it all came crashing down around them. What a genius decision to make the first silent movie in over half a century about the fall of the silent movies, the great Singin in the Rain does come to mind.

The Artist is so old-fashioned that it's refreshing, this kurun of movies there's a lot of extreme angles and sharp editing. It is almost new to see evenly angled shots that hold for over eight seconds.

Jean Dujardin is greatly cast as a silent film star, he both looks and has all the charisma of an old-fashioned star like Douglas Fairbanks. If he was alive and working in the kurun of silent movies I'm certain he would have been a big star, but I'm also certain that this wonderful performance will also make him a big star.

There are two moments that have fun with the idea of having a silent movie. The first is near the start when the actors await the audience response of their new film, the theme music fades to a close and we can hear nothing, and all we have is the actor's expressions and gestures to know that the audience is giving a grand applause. The other is when George learns that the studio is only making talkies and then the movie itself becomes sound filled when he puts down a glass it thumps and his footsteps make noise but he cannot produce a sound from his own mouth.

When I learned of The Artist I knew I would go see it and I thought that I would be the only one in the theater, to my surprise the theater was half full with an audience that seemed willing to sit through a movie that doesn't have dialog, they sat their, nobody left and there were quiet whispers of satisfaction.

Ow, its been a long time since I haven't had the distraction of pointless chatter and simply watched and appreciate the moving image that is in front of us and in the end is that not what a movie really is?

Rating 4 out of 4 stars