Robyn Sparkles

122. The Artist (Michel Hazanivicius, 2011)

It’s very cool that a movie made in 2011 that is black-and-white and mostly silent is getting so much positive press, but this mostly left me cold. I wish it had given me more insights into the nature of silent cinema and the difference between today’s movies and movies of old. Or, if wanted to be nothing more than a nostalgia exercise, I wish it had been more joyful, focusing more on a celebration of old movies than on the pain of technological transition. If I want to watch a movie about the transition to sound cinema, I would rather just watch Singin’ In The Rain  for the hundredth time (spoiler: I think it’s interesting that musicals are the solution to the woes of the transition in both movies).

Side-note: It was interesting to watch this right after Certified Copy, since one of the major concerns of that movie is the authenticity of copies and The Artist is a fairly straight copy of old movie styles.

Despite my disappointment, here are the things in The Artist I loved:

• The dog (I don’t even like dogs, but he was great)
• The hats
• Tap dancing. More movies (all movies?) should contain tap dancing.
• The dream sequence when the silent world gains sound