The Artist: Difference between revisions

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'''''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.

 

 

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

* [[Almost Kiss]]: Happens once between Peppy and George. What's amazing is that they don't kiss even once in the film, despite being the [[Official Couple]]. This is, of course, a throwback to [[No Hugging, No Kissing]] rules enforced by censors back in those days.

** Also used in-universe as the sign that Peppy has made it big.

* [[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.

* [[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

** [[Malcolm McDowell]] as one of Peppy's fellow extras.

** [[Grimm (TV)|Bitsie Tulloch]] as Norma, George's female co-star in his last silent film.

* [[Canine Companion]]: George even takes his dog to the movies. And it saves his life twice. He even showed up in the Oscars!

* [[Career Resurrection]]: In-universe. {{spoiler|George seems to get one at the end of the film.}}

* [[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.

* [[Gray Rain of Depression]]: After George's film ''Tears of Love'' bombs.

* [[Grumpy Bear]]: Al Zimmer

* [[Happily-Failed Suicide]]: Bang!

* [[Hollywood California]]: Shot on location in buildings authentic to the time period. Peppy's mansion is Mary Pickford's mansion, and George wakes up in Pickford's bed.

* [[Hypercompetent Sidekick]]: Valentin's dog.

* [[It's All Junk]]: Although on second thought burning the items may have been a bad choice for other reasons.

* [[It Will Never Catch On]]: What George believes about talkie films.

* [[Jump Scare]]: {{spoiler|At the end of George's [[Dream Sequence]], a small feather is seen drifting lazily to the ground, with no other sounds playing... and it lands with the sound of a ten-ton weight. This is what [[Catapult Nightmare|wakes George up.]]}}

* [[Large and In Charge]]: John Goodman's studio boss.

* [[Large Ham]]: George in front of an audience. His costar, Constance Grey, is seen [[Bad Bad Acting|hamming it up to a painful extent]] when she's playing Juliet in a talkie.

* [[Laughing Mad]]: George setting his reels on fire.

* [[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.

** Valentin's career problems mirror those of romantic silent film star John Gilbert, who drank himself to death when his career tanked after the transition to talkies. George eventually becomes an expy of {{spoiler|[[Fred Astaire]]}} (complete with a set straight out of one of his films!), and bears a strong physical resemblance to [[Clark Gable]].

** Valentin's defiant effort to make a silent film with his own money with the rise of sound films is similar to [[Charlie Chaplin]]'s stubborn efforts in making the largely silent films, ''[[City Lights]]'' and ''[[Modern Times]]'', but Charlie's films were big hits. George... not so much.

** The policeman running to {{spoiler|save George's life from the fire}} is reminiscent of the next-to-last scene of ''[[The Adventures of Antoine Doinel|Les Quatre Cents Coups]]''

** Peppy gives a shout out to Greta Garbo's famous line in the 1932 film ''[[Grand Hotel]]'' by telling her date, "I want to be alone."

* [[Show Within a Show]]: We see a number of George's and Peppy's films.

* [[Silence Is Golden]]: Used to very great effect -- three scenes total use sound, and they're all jarring.

* [[Spinning Paper]]: Done as Peppy rises to the top of stardom.

* [[Suddenly Voiced]]: {{spoiler|The ending.}}

* [[Take That]]: In universe, ''Tears of Love'' is a thinly veiled rebuke to Peppy's success.

* [[Title Drop]]: In a newspaper headline.

* [[Trash the Set]]: George [[It's All Junk|destroying his projector and film collection]].

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Films of the 2010s]]