Fiction
THE ARTIST
Michel Hazanavicius
FRA 2011
100 min
V'11
He sparks with Peppy Miller, a young dancer set for a big break. Playing on modern audiences’ nostalgia for the aesthetics of early Hollywood (lusciously rendered black-and-white, a squared Academy ratio and almost entirely no sound beyond Ludovic Bource’s period-evoking score), Michel Hazanavicius’ irresistibly delightful tribute to silent cinema has more to offer than just smirkingly clever novelty and the cold appeal of formal rigor. This imaginative love letter stands apart by speaking through a bygone era to today’s age of the soulless blockbuster. Even if all its dialogue is written on English intertitles, The Artist sings to life, maintaining a brisk rhythm and too much heart to be dismissed as kitsch. (Aaron Hillis)
Credits
- Jean Dujardin - George Valentin
- Bérénice Béjo - Peppy Miller
- John Goodman - Al Zimmer
- James Cromwell - Clifton
- Penelope Ann Miller - Doris
- Missi Pyle - Constance
- Malcolm McDowell
- Michel Hazanavicius
- Guillaume Schiffman
- Anne-Sophie Bion
- Michel Hazanavicius
- Ludovic Bource
- Laurence Bennett
- Mark Bridges
La Petite Reine, Studio 37, La Classe Américaine, JD Prod, France 3 Cinéma, Jouror Productions, uFilm
Wild Bunch
Filmladen Filmverleih
DCP
bw
