I
would never think to say that the best movie of the year 2011 would be coming
from a movie that's black and white, and is silent. There were many surprises
with the selection of movies this year. With Drive, the director got a clichéd movie idea and made it
thoughtfully unique. With The Tree of
Life, the movie gave a new breath of meaning despite having a very minimal
story. However, this movie had the biggest surprise for me as a moviegoer in
that, usually I can only be surprised at something new, while this movie has
old and traditional written all over it. There are plenty of great movies that
are black and white and/or silent; however, they are only often shown in
student films and is recognized as a waste of time to the mainstream world.
However, this movie is not mainstream. As described in its title, the movie is
artistic.
The
movie has a charm and style of Singin in
the Rain, plus they share the same storyline with the introduction of sound
in film. There is the wife character who resembles closely to Lina Lamont, and
there is also some tap dancing numbers that was once deceased but is now
resurrected by this movie. The movie also shares the consequences of Sunset Blvd., in which both movies talk
about the downfall of certain stars who never transitioned to the talkies,
except George Valentin doesn't fall in the same trap as Norma Desmond; however,
he does go broke instead of staying in a strange fantasy. Lastly, the movie
also has the basic idea that was shown in All
About Eve, in which one normal person becomes a star while the other star
goes into downfall. Also, the movie does contain some Vertigo reference through the music, and a dinner scene that was
copied from Citizen Kane. In effect,
this movie is a tribute and a culmination of the great past works that's
forgotten from the normal mainstream audience.
Like
any silent movie, there is no dialogue that can muck the screen up, In fact,
there is one scene in which Peppy speaks a statement and corrects herself, thus
showing two title cards. If she were actually speaking, there would be no punch
line. Also, because the movie is black and white, there is no distraction from
the performance for we are no forced to adhere to the characters, something I
wish I can do with all movies. Because the movie is a silent movie, there are
moments that are literally dead silent. Although awkward it might be, these
moments offer us some breathing room for uncertainty as well for us to emote in
a theater.
The
movie that responds in the opposite direction in that it's not technologically
advance nor does it contain the latest gadgetry of the modern age. Instead,
it's simply a silent black and white movie. The director, of whom I can't even
pronounce his name, has finally showed us something miraculous by going in
reverse, like a Salmon upstream. While everyone is trying to make their movies
better looking, Michel Hazanavicius does the opposite by reverting the movie
into its core beginnings.
However,
a great hero is nowhere without his trusty sidekick, and in this movie, the
right hand man is not even a man at all, but a simple dog who's extremely
talented in himself. Like Charlie Chaplin's The
Kid, there is a lovable charm between these two characters, especially when
there is a gestured gun involved. In theater, there was a flood of
"awe" every time the dog does a trick.
The
strange matter of this movie is that it represents itself in the context of the
real world. In the movie, George tries to open his own silent movie that's
great looking and artistic. However, the movie gets overshadowed by Peppy's
talkie that entertaining but not so great as Peppy herself thought George's
movie was brilliant despite having no dialogue. This illusion showed that no
matter how great The Artist was, it
will be overshadowed by a popular movie that's up to date with its technology.
I remember watching Mission Impossible:
Ghost Protocol and how it had great images from the IMAX camera; however,
it didn't have the strong resonance as this movie. In fact, this analogy can
also be shared with Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans and The Jazz Singer. The Jazz Singer was a
very popular movie at its time, but Sunrise
withstood the test of time as one of the greatest silent movies of all
time. Now this analogy is saying something. Hopefully this movie withholds the
test of time for its artistic quality.
Jean
Dujardin appears before the stage with a wonderful sense of charisma and a
loving smile that'll touch the same was with Walt Disney. He plays the main
character, George Valentin, an actor who labels himself as a artist, and like
all artists, he is full of pride. Because the world is ever changing, with the
new technical ability to talk in movies, George is falling behind. The movie
starts with a movie screening, starring the great George Valentin. Ironically,
the movie within the movie starts with George's character being interrogated to
talk, summing up the main focus of the plot of the movie.
The
music for once plays wall-to-wall, and there is that lavish try hard orchestra
that engulfs 50% of the movie instead of being muddled in noise and talk. With
this, there is a tremendous amount of showmanship involved, as well as a great
deal of risk taking involved in order to pull off one of the greatest movies of
the year.
Every
time I see footages of people watching silent movies, I see them having a good
time, laughing, crying, and emoting in extremities. A really good movie in this
day and age cannot even come close to that and this movie comes pretty close.
However, with most movies, there is a blank silence in the theaters. For once,
a movie in the 21st century actually got me emotionally invested as it did with
the audience watching a silent movie in the late twenties, and that's saying
something.
I've
never clapped in a theater, but this movie made me react differently. With
silent movies, there were always applause and I am always curious as to why the
reception in silent movies were much better than talkies. Perhaps there is a
larger caliber of work and dedication to silent films. Maybe it's because
silent movies are more character oriented rather than visually oriented. At the
end, there was an applauded clap that came as would a screening of a silent
movie. The only thing missing was when the artist came out and took a bow
before the audience.
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