The Artist

[MacGuffin]

Trailer

Release date: November 23, 2011

Starring: Jean Dujardin,  Bérénice Bejo,  John Goodman, James Cromwell

Directed by: Michel Hazanavicius

Premise: Hollywood, 1927: As silent movie star George Valentin wonders if the arrival of talking pictures will cause him to fade into oblivion, he sparks with Peppy Miller, a young dancer set for a big break.

[Pubrick]

Trailer shows you the whole movie, but I just couldn't stop watching.

Though I'm assuming there's more to it than the initial gimmick (which is that it's silent right? That's not just the style of the trailer is it?)

I hope the ending is not that they say something to each other and we can't hear it, only hacks do that.

[bigperm]

Saw this last night, really enjoyed it. It was fitting to see this in the Paramount here in Austin, the old theater setting certainly added a level to the screening I wish all could experience.

[Pubrick]

Saw this last night, really enjoyed it. It was fitting to see this in the Paramount here in Austin, the old theater setting certainly added a level to the screening I wish all could experience.

care to say anything about the actual movie?

also welcome back.

[matt35mm]

I was there, too! I didn't know all these XIXAXers were in Austin.

The Paramount is a big movie palace, so it was perfect for this movie. It's kind of difficult to think of much to say about the movie beyond it being very charming and entertaining. It doesn't feel gimmicky. It's not as great as the old classic silent films, just because, while the actors here are able to get a lot across with their faces and movements, there's not that genius ability for physical comedy that actual silent film stars had. And, they dance fine but they don't dance GREAT in the way that they did in the old films.

But the film still works as this love letter to that era, and it feels sincere in that love, which I think is what audiences are connecting to. It's very nice but it is missing that element of the spectacular talent of that era.

It's very similar to Singin' in the Rain, with the added layer of being a silent film itself, and it gets a lot of mileage out of that. But it doesn't have folks like Gene Kelly, Debbie Reynolds, and Donald O'Connor, though Jean Dujardin certainly does his best Gene Kelly for this film.

Audiences will eat this up when it opens, though, because there's nothing like it out there right now and I think people are ready to embrace this bit of nostalgia.

[Sleepless]

Glad to hear it was good. I know it's a novelty, but I'm excited to see it.

[bigperm]

care to say anything about the actual movie?
also welcome back.

I think the paper thin plot of the film, which some folks have felt a fault, is the only way a plot to this type of film could be, as the case with many silent films of that time. Didn't bother me one bit, the movie swept by at ease and it's pretty funny as well. I absolutely fell in love with Bérénice Bejo who stole the show, she was incredible and a joy to watch and now has my heart in a chest that drifts at sea.

matt35mm - I had short in the festival that preceded the feature "You hurt my feelings" but I live in Austin. Because of XIXAX that's how RegularKarate & I met.

[RegularKarate]

matt35mm - I had short in the festival that preceded the feature "You hurt my feelings" but I live in Austin. Because of XIXAX that's how RegularKarate & I met.

XIXAUSTINX!!

[Pubrick]

matt35mm - I had short in the festival that preceded the feature "You hurt my feelings"

yo what up bigperm! you made a short? is this short online? cool anyway!

[©brad]

Is Austin (or sorry, Xixaustinx) now the biggest Xixax conglomerate? Or has it been for a while and I just haven't paid enough attention?

[matt35mm]

It's Austin, NYC, LA, and maybe the Bay Area. Each of those places has somewhere around 3 to 5 XIXAXers. They're just the major cities, especially for film nerds.

[MacGuffin]

'The Artist' Eyes Concert Tour
The Weinstein Co. wants to screen the Golden Globe-nominated film with a live orchestra accompanying the silent movie.
Source: Playlist

The Artist,  the mostly silent film that has acquired numerous award nominations in recent weeks and is considered an Oscar front-runner, is being positioned as a concert attraction.

William Morris Endeavor, which represents composer Ludovic Bource, and the film's distributor the Weinstein Co. are exploring opportunities to screen the film with a live orchestra accompanying the picture. Performances in New York, Los Angeles, Paris, Brussels, London and Geneva are on the short list of stops; a performance in Australia is also being solicited. The composer says he has passed on three projects while preparing for the potential tour.

The Artist, directed by Michel Hazanavicius and starring Jean Dujardin, Berenice Bejo and John Goodman, opened in the United States Nov. 25 and is playing in limited release (17 theaters). Having played France, Italy, Belgium and the Netherlands, it has a worldwide gross of nearly $15 million, according to figures compiled by boxofficemojo.com.

While featuring French talent, the story is set in Hollywood as the silent movies were giving way to the talkies. Besides three recordings from the '20s, the only sound heard in most of the film is the score from Bource, who also scored Hazanavicius' OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies and  OSS 117 - Lost in Rio.

Bource's score, which won a European Film Award,  is nominated for a Golden Globe and Broadcast Film Critics Award. New York Film Critics Circle, New York Film Critics Online and the Boston Society of Film Critics have named The Artist best picture of the year.

Inspired by F.W. Murnau's Tabu: A Story of the South Seas and Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans, movies by Ernst Lubistch and scores by Alfred Newman, Bource turned to Brahms and an 19th century text for his initial inspiration.

"What was missing," Bource told billboard.biz through a translator, "was a thread, an emotional throughline in the screenplay. I went looking for a text that expressed the dignity, love and simplicity that (the characters) George and Peppy express. By chance --- by miracle - I found (German poet) Hans von Schmidt's 'Sapphisce Ode,' which was set to music by Brahms. By listening to words, the principal theme emerged. The last words in the text are 'shed the dew of tears.' We used that for a title on a track in the film, The Sound of Tears."

[pete]

started out solid but then the hero spent most of the film sulking.

[picolas]

yup. the first half hour or so is magical, and sets this wonderful pace where every few seconds something inventive or funny or beautiful happens. then it slows the fuck down and treads water for so long. the ending is... nothing. overall it doesn't justify its runtime or existence. it should've become about failure to evolve as an artist or.. some kind of genuine artistic conflict. why make this movie now? it's not very well thought out.

[Ravi]

I got restless during Valentin's decline. From then on the film largely lost the charm it began with, and we're left with the kind of story that wouldn't have been out of place in the silent era. I just don't get what we're supposed to get from a throwback recreation of a silent melodrama that doesn't have much going for it besides its throwbackness. Still, I'd recommend seeing it on the strength of the first 30-40 minutes. The rest isn't terrible, but it turns this film, which could have been something special, into merely a light, enjoyable curio.

it should've become about failure to evolve as an artist or.. some kind of genuine artistic conflict.

That or they should have changed the title.