Have you ever wondered what it was like for spectators watching their first sound film? Michel Haznavicius’ latest feature brings home just how strange it would have been. For the most part, The Artist (2011) is a close imitation of silent film from the late 1920s: black and white, the only sound a piano or orchestral accompaniment, with inter-titles to convey dialogue and essential information about place and story developments. During one scene halfway through the film, and at the film’s end, voices and sound effects are suddenly introduced: the effect, after so many minutes of silent cinema, is dramatic.
The Artist is a self-conscious film in many ways: a silent film set at the end of the silent era, its protagonist is silent film star George Valentin, who will see his career sink with the introduction of sound. Meanwhile, his beautiful former protégée, Peppy Miller, replaces him as the sweetheart of the talkies. The cleverest scene in the film is Valentin’s nightmare, in which the world around him becomes sonorised while he remains mute. It begins when he sets his glass down on the table, and it makes a noise. Sound effects and voices begin to crowd in unbearably, until a leaf hitting the ground sounds like a bomb. In this, and the film’s closing sound scene, a modern audience is suddenly able to appreciate that sound could initially have felt like intrusive noise, rather than an enhancement of the film experience.
Haznavicius’ previous two films were also period pieces: OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies (2006) and OSS 117 – Lost in Rio (2009) were both 1960s James Bond spoofs starring Jean Dujardin as the suave, unreconstructed secret agent who always manages to save the day (by accident). While The Artist is set some 30 years earlier, and in the world of Hollywood rather than international espionage, protagonist George Valentin is a similar character: a somewhat oblivious, old-fashioned charmer, again played with comic perfection by Jean Dujardin. As Peppy, Bérénice Bejo (who co-starred with Dujardin in Cairo, Nest of Spies) is less believable: there is a general lack of restraint in her movements and facial expressions which marks her as characteristically modern.
The Artist makes fun of silent film conventions (the style of acting, the dramatic exposition, the trusty dog), just as the OSS films made fun of the Bond franchise. But The Artist is neither as funny nor as exciting as the OSS films. There are a few innovative comic set pieces, such as Peppy’s use of Valentin’s blazer to act out a romantic fantasy about him (included in the film’s trailer). Much of the comedy in OSS relied on dialogue, though, which is necessarily restricted in a silent film. Plot-wise, The Artist is also limited: the audience must watch Valentin become increasingly depressed as he realises his career has ended, while Peppy expresses her love by trying to help him as he once helped her. While you do expect a certain level of predictability in genre films (whether a pre-sound romance or a spy film), there is an overall lack of surprise in The Artist that deadens its effect: unlike the OSS films, it’s not one that you could watch again and again.
The Artist was screened at the 2011 BFI London Film Festival.
