On Wednesday, October 12, Michel Hazanavicius’s film titled “The Artist” takes the stage on big screens: a black and white gamble with Jean Dujardin and Bérénice Béjo without sound.
” It’s comfortable not to use the sound of your voice during a film,” appreciates Jean Dujardin. It is true that when the voice “awakens” from these colorless moving images, the viewer is slightly puzzled and questions themselves. The voice then reminds them that it was just a film shot in Hollywood…
Through the magic of silent film that the director has so well illuminated, the viewer is “immersed” in a story of silence where emotions are doubled. Absorbed, they are transported to the cinema of the 1930s in Hollywood, where they meet a George Valentin, a silent film star at the peak of fame, chased by the amiable paparazzi of the time. Unfortunately, the arrival of talkies will soon send him to the annals of history, while the star of Peppy Miller, a young extra he once watched over with a paternal eye, rises.
Silent films… “A cinema where everything is conveyed through images, through the arrangement of signs you send to the viewer. And then it’s a very emotional, sensory cinema, the fact of not using text brings you back to a very essential way of storytelling, which only works on the sensations you create. It’s exciting to work on,” says Michel Hazanavicius.
In a film where only music accompanies the gestures, Jean Dujardin wonderfully plays the role of an actor who is falling… protected by an angel. The jury of the 64th Cannes Film Festival, chaired by a Hollywood legend, Robert De Niro, was not mistaken in including the film in its awards. For this, they chose the Best Actor Award, given to Jean Dujardin. But let’s not forget the splendid performance of Bérénice Béjo, who adds color to this black and white film with her beauty and charm.
In the 21st century, at a time when 3D leaps off the screen, The Artist invites you to discover or rediscover the genesis of cinema, where charm and emotions sparkle in all their splendor. The beauty of cinema, of an original film in 2011 that you might think was taken from a 1930s reel…
A must-see!
Here is the trailer: https://www.allocine.fr/video/player_gen_cmedia=19218564&cfilm=183070.html
