The Artist

2012 • 100 minutes

About this movie

"Hollywood 1927. George Valentin (Jean Dujardin) is a silent movie superstar. The advent of the talkies will sound the death knell for his career and see him fall into oblivion. For young extra Peppy Miller (Berenice Bejo), it seems the sky's the limit - major movie stardom awaits. THE ARTIST tells the story of their interlinked destinies.
MPAA Rating: PG-13 Rated PG-13 for a disturbing image and a crude gesture. © 2011 Weinstein Company"

Ratings and reviews

This film was filled with pathos and heart. The superb acting reflects the French tradition of mime. Just like most Americans I am annoyed by the mere thought of being approached by a Mime in a park. However, the incorporation of mimicry into theatrical training really pays off in a project such as this. The smallest nuanced gesture contains both meaning and feeling helping to develop story in a visceral way thus bringing the viewer into the story space in ways that today's viewer may not have encountered heretofore. This may trouble some viewers who have been conditioned by today's storytelling technology to expect all of the bell's and whistles and thus might be too impatient to notice the subtleties involved in the storytelling techniques from film's inception. But for those who give it a fair chance the payoff will be a heartfelt cinematic experience that ultimately asks us to question whether the cinematic style of state of the art technology is more important than the substance of the story being conveyed.

Fascinatingly produced movie showing the story of a great actor failing to adapt to the technological advancement of "talking" movies. "Fascinating" however is only the case if one wants to study the period. As entertainment, I was unmoved, unentertained and frequently bored. Call me shallow, but I generally do not like movies from more than 20 years ago, and detest movies from more than 40 years ago. While this movie was made recently it emulates everything of movies made 80 years ago. The the film crowd and the industry insiders I say "have at it" but to the rest of us - don't be bothere'd. I do not enjoy self-refererential art. I do not enjoy movies about making a movie or radio shows about making a radio show or books about writing a book. When a producer or an artist generates such work I implore them and their ilk to consume it themselves and rather leave me out.

On the surface this may seem like some "artsy movie" but its a film where you really get engrossed. I went through so many emotions during it! It was a tad long at times but in retrospect I think it added to the overall story and mood. The fact that there are no words and it's in black and white is astonishing. There are so many subtleties that its easy to overlook. The metaphors and symbolism is pretty cool. Great insight how it must've been for Actors during this time... I don't want to spoil it but it does click at the end :-) And the whole story makes sense, the low star reviews are from people who just "didn't get it"