Saturday, January 28, 2012

My Review: The Artist/ Best Picture Nominee #1

Making a silent film in 2012 is such an odd thing to do, but I'm really glad that they did it. I really enjoyed this movie! I thought it was funny and entertaining, but there were also times where it was sad and heartbreaking. There were a couple times where I got a little choked up. Jean Dujardin is great as George Valentin, a silent film star whose career comes to an end with the advent of sound. He just has a great face for silent film. It is really expressive and he has that great Gene Kelly-esque smile. The plot of this movie was even similar to Gene Kelly's Singin in the Rain. It is about the rise of talkie pictures and the fall of silent films, except in this film, the silent movie star doesn't want to adapt to the changes. He is stubborn and proud and lets his career fall away because he doesn't want to face the facts that people don't want to see silent films anymore. So while he is fading away, a new star is rising named Peppy Miller, who got her start with the help of Valentin. I thought that this movie would be more of a love story, but it is more about her helping him out than falling in love with him. The two of them don't even kiss in this movie. What I really loved about this movie was how they did have the little bits of sound. I loved the dream sequence when Valentin was having the nightmare after finding out about talkie pictures. He starts hearing everything make noise, but can't make himself speak. This movie also had a great ending. I don't know what it is about tap dancing, but whenever people tap dance in movies it just always makes me happy. My rating: 9/10

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