The Artist

One of the most unusual and entertaining films in many a year. The Artist is essentially a silent movie. Yes, no dialogue, no sound effects, only (very beautiful) music. Of course, there’s a bit more to it than that. The Artist knows it’s a silent movie in 2012 and plays with the audience, introducing snippets of sound, in a dream sequence and right at the end, to great effect. The story seems quite well known, that of a silent movie star found to be on the out when sound is first introduced. It’s a similar theme, of course, to the wonderful Singing In The Rain. This time the luckless star is male, George Valentin, played by French actor Jean Dujardin. Both he, and the lead female character, Peppy Miller (Berenice Bejo) are delightful, so full of presence that you cannot take your eyes off them. The lack of colour (the film is, of course, in black and white) and dialogue, does nothing to stop them bringing the characters to full blooming life. In a world where there is such a dire lack of original ideas that we are about to grind our way through yet another Spiderman movie soon, The Artist is a very rare gem indeed. Its top of the pops in the current award season with six Oscar nominations. My money is on it taking Best Picture. I loved it. In that it’s another homage to the movies it makes a great companion piece to Hugo. Oh, and it made me seriously consider going out to get a Jack Russell pup.