The Artist
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The Artist.mp4 Size : 11697.572 Kb Type : mp4 |
Director/Screenwriter: Michel
Hazanavicius
Cast: Jean Dujardin, Berenice Bejo, James Cromwell, John Goodman, Penelope Ann Miller, Missi Pyle, Malcolm McDowell, Bitsie Tulloch, Beth Grant, Ed Lauter, Stuart Pankin, Ken Davitian
Running time: 100 mins.
Cast: Jean Dujardin, Berenice Bejo, James Cromwell, John Goodman, Penelope Ann Miller, Missi Pyle, Malcolm McDowell, Bitsie Tulloch, Beth Grant, Ed Lauter, Stuart Pankin, Ken Davitian
Running time: 100 mins.
Only rarely does such a delightful film as this arrive from nowhere to sweep you off your feet, The Artist is a tender, dazzling tribute to classic Hollywood that follows the time-honoured tradition of showbiz melodramas while injecting a healthy sense of fiction in its story. In effect, French writer/director Michel Hazanavicius' film quotes liberally from classic Hollywood tales such as A Star Is Born, Chaplin's Limelight and Donen & Kelly's Singin' in the Rain in its tale of a silent film star (a note-perfect Jean Dujardin, Best Actor at Cannes 2011 and now Golden Globe Winnner too), channeling Douglas Fairbanks by way of Gene Kelly) whose career falls on hard times when the advent of sound passes him by, as a young protegée he helped gain a foothold (Bérénice Béjo) becomes a runaway star.
So far so good, but the trick in Mr. Hazanavicius' project, set between 1927 and 1932, is that The Artist is actually a silent movie, with intertitles replacing the spoken dialogue and a continuous music score by Ludovic Bource, and shot in black and white in the 1:33 Academy ratio. It could very easily fall into the trap of a mannered ersatz silent, especially because it's impossible to perfectly duplicate the grain and tone of 1920s film, but it miraculously becomes a soulful elegy for a simpler, cleaner, classier way of filmmaking where everything was simultaneously more expressive and more sophisticated than most of what passes today as cinema.
That is where Mr. Hazanavicius wins: The Artist is never about the technical proficiency of the illusion, but about the use of that illusion in the service of the narrative and the emotion. Yes, the story is an array of references and the film isn't the only modern-day attempt at updating the silent movie (Mel Brooks and Aki Kaurismäki have done so amongst others). But this lovingly assembled throwback is a film with its heart in the right place - a love letter to cinema whose easy-going nostalgia never feels gratuitous and instead celebrates its transforming power. This hugely enjoyable film is already a classic. And whilst it's far from mainstream, it's also packed with more wit, passion and invention than any or all of the films in any given multiplex combined.
In 1927, George (Dujardin) is Hollywood's top star, swashbuckling through adventure blockbusters with his faithful sidekick dog Uggy (a real star is this adoorable little pooch). At one of his premieres he meets Peppy (Bejo), a mystery girl who gets her own shot at stardom as a dancing extra in one of George's films. His grumpy wife (Miller) isn't happy about this. There's more trouble when the studio boss (Goodman) decides to switch to talkies. So George walks out to make his own silent film, while Peppy becomes a sound-film star. But she doesn't forget that he gave her a break.
Filmmaker Hazanavicius tells the story in pristine black and white with an expressive musical score and title cards to convey the dialogue. There are constant visual sight gags that hark back to a very different time in the cinema, and yet the film also has a surprisingly realistic edge to it, as these characters also have off-screen lives that are complicated and rather messy. The clever direction is funny and sweet, continually taking our breath away with inspired moments of comedy or pathos.
And at the centre, Dujardin creates one of the year's finest film characters: a man who's knee-weakeningly dashing and knows it, but doesn't have a mean bone in his body. His first experience of the talkies is an unforgettable cinematic moment that he plays exquisitely, and he's just as effective when things escalate into a surreal Fellini-style dream or descend into a dark, lost weekend. Meanwhile, his chemistry with Bejo is wonderful. Her deep yearning is so beautifully played that she wins our hearts too.
Additionally, the film gets to us on other levels too, layering in thoughtful observations about progress, most notably the bittersweet fact that everyone gaining in age must make way for the younger generation.
As George struggles to overcome his pride, the film dips into some very dark places that are painfully real. His deep-seated fear is that no one wants to hear him speak, so we root for him to get the courage to dance into a whole new world, with a spellbinding finale.
The Descendants
Cast: George Clooney, Shailene Woodley, Amara Miller, Nick Krause, Beau Bridges, Robert Forster, Matthew Lillard, Judy Greer
Director: Alexander Payne
Running time: 115 minutes
Director: Alexander Payne
Running time: 115 minutes
Inter-family friction on top of marital problems and a wife on life support in hospital, plus teenage daughter attitude issues, all pile up to create a chaotic period in the life of husband, father and landowner Matt King (George Clooney), in this heartfelt and sometimes heartbreaking story about love, death, duty and responsibility.
Set in Hawaii, where Matt's part-indigenous family have lived for generations, the story about Matt's responsibilities as the last remaining Trustee over a huge piece of pristine beachside land intersects with the boating accident that leaves his wife in a coma.
These two issues give the film its cinematic scale. But they also represent some of the toughest challenges of living as human beings. Matt faces the agonising decision to unplug his wife's life support system, when he learns she's been unfaithful – which he hears about from his daughter. It's a mix of bad news that tests his resolve and judgement. Clooney portrays Matt King with just the right emotional range as the flawed husband and father; always too busy for his wife and daughters, now he is confronted with the resulting gap between them.
Both Shailene Woodley as 17 year old Alexandra and Amara Miller as 10 year old Scottie give marvellous performances as the daughters - each with her own set of buried pain. Nick Krause as Sid has a great time putting us off as a complete pillock when we first meet him, behaving badly, inappropriately and annoyingly and Robert Forster makes a welcome appearance as the girls' grandfather, who does to Sid what we all want to do at the time.
Also noteable are Matthew Lillard and Judy Greer as the husband and wife with a painful connection to Elizabeth.
The film begins with a single close up of Elizabeth (Patricia Hastie) speeding along on the water off a beach in Hawaii. It ends with a very different scene on a stretch of aquamarine water at another Hawaiian location. Between the two scenes, Elizabeth's (unseen) boating accident triggers a series of family ructions, both within her own family and within Matt's extended family.
It is the detail of how these events unfold that sweeps us along like a surfer on one of Hawaii's famous waves.
Alexander Payne (Sideways, About Schmidt, Election) has a talent for creating interest in his screen characters and evidently has a great way with actors. In this well adapted screenplay (from the novel by Kaui Hart Hemmings), there is a satisfying sense of authenticity about all the elements, from the tragic to the delightful.
