The Artist: Difference between revisions

'''''The Artist''''' is a 2011 French film emulating the style of cinema in the 1920's, and the Academy Award winner for Best Picture of the year. Directed by Michel Hazanavicius, it stars Jean Dujardin as George Valentin, a silent movie star in 1920s Hollywood whose career goes into decline with the Great Depression and the advent of talking pictures. He falls in love with a young ingenue named Peppy Miller, played by Berenice Bejo, whose Hollywood career arc is the exact opposite of Dujardin's.

 

 

* [[Academy Award]]: Nominated for ten Oscars, won five, including Best Picture, Best Director (Michael Hazanavicius), and Best Actor (Jean Dujardin). It's the first silent film to be nominated for Best Picture since ''The Patriot'' (no, not [[The Patriot|that one]], [[wikipedia:The Patriot (1928 film)|this one]]) 83 years prior, and the first to actually ''win'' Best Picture since ''[[Wings (film)|Wings]]'' won the ''very first'' Best Picture Oscar 84 years prior.

* [[Alan Smithee]]: One of the [[Easter Egg|Easter Eggs]] during the various credits Peppy is in.

* [[Artistic License Physics]]: The standard film stock of that time was nitrate, which is extremely flammable. So when George sets his film on fire, it should have erupted into an unsurvivable mass of flames in seconds.

* [[Ascended Fangirl]]: Peppy is an [[In-Universe]] example, having caught the attention of the press by inadvertently getting on the other side of a police man blocking George's fans from him. Throughout the film it is very clear that she is a huge fan of George's movies.

* [[Attention Whore]]: Constance, George's costar, is ''livid'' when he keeps forcing her off the stage at the first film showing.

* [[Awful Wedded Life]]: Doris

* [[Chekhov's Gun]]: George's stuff getting sold at auction.

* [[Chekhov's Skill]]: The dancing that George and Peppy do behind a scene curtain.

* [[Corpsing]]: In-universe, Peppy and George's first interaction, when she's still an extra and they can't keep straight faces in a dance scene.

* [[Creator Killer]]: In-universe. The [[Epic Fail]] of ''Tears of Love'', as well as his reluctance to adapt to sound films, destroys George's movie career.

* [[Cruel to Be Kind]]: When Clifton won't take the hint and quit {{spoiler|after George has been too broke to pay him for a year, George coldly tells him he's fired, throws him out the door and leaves him standing on the porch all day.}}

* [[Deliberately Monochrome]]

* [[Domino Mask]]: George's screen persona.

* [[Downer Ending]]: Don't worry! It's in-universe! The ending to the [[Film Within a Film]] ''Tears of Love'' ends with [[The Hero Dies|George's character sinking into quicksand]], and telling the female co-star that he never loved her.

* [[Drives Like Crazy]]: There's a reason Peppy needs a chauffeur.

* [[Drowning My Sorrows]]: Poor George.

* [[Electric Torture]]: Complete with [[Torture Technician]] and [[Mad Scientist]] in the first [[Film Within a Film]].

* [[End of an Age]]: The film set during the twilight of mute cinema and the emergence of sound films.

* [[Environmental Symbolism]]

** George walking beneath a marquis reading, ''The Lonely Star.''

** An unhinged picture frame in the bar George gets sloshed in.

* [[Fake Kill Scare]]: BANG!

* [[Fascinating Eyebrow]]: During the ''German Affair'' shoot, George keeps deploying this in take after take.

* [[Living Shadow]]: Possibly related to a [[Pink Elephants]] type moment.

* [[Meaningful Background Event]]: The movie names, all over the place.

* [[Medium Awareness]]: George's [[Dream Sequence]] -- he's visibly shocked when events around him come with sound effects.

* [[Mirror Monologue]]: George has an argument with his shadow projected against a wall.

* [[Monochrome Casting]]: Yes, there were few performers of color in the silent film era. But that certainly didn't extend to the ''audiences''.

* [[Precision F-Strike]]: A visual one: George's leading lady gives him [[Flipping the Bird|the finger]]. It also serves as a clue to the audience that this film won't [[Darker and Edgier|quite behave]] like an old silent-movie. Though if you pay attention to her lips, you can see she's also a silent [[Cluster F-Bomb]]...

* [[Pride]]: George's biggest fault. Clifton even warns him against it when Peppy wants to give him another chance.

* [[Rage Against the Reflection]]: George tipping his drink over his reflection in a table.

* [[Reality Subtext]]: In-universe, the final scene of ''Tears of Love'' where George's character sinks in quicksand.

* [[Rule of Symbolism]]: The crooked frame in the bar where George gets smashed. Also note that whenever there's a staircase in the movie, Peppy will no doubt be going up whilst George will only go down.

* [[Running Gag]]: The dog plays dead whenever someone makes a motion like shooting a gun.

** The score includes quite a lengthy sample of the love theme from, of all movies, ''[[Vertigo]]''. George's nightmare about sound is also very Hitchcock-esque.

** The old movie that George watches on a home projector just before his breakdown is an actual silent movie, ''The Mark of [[Zorro]]'', with Jean Dujardin inserted in close-ups in place of Douglas Fairbanks. In fact, George's whole on-screen persona, as present in the Films Within The Film, pretty strongly resembles Fairbanks.

 

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[[Category:Film]]