Marc Chevalier
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Going to see it tonight.
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The Artist
- Thread starter AmateisGal
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Marc Chevalier
Gone Home
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- Los Feliz, Los Angeles, California
.
I saw this movie last night ... and it puts the lie to every defense of Baz Luhrmann's upcoming "Great Gatsby" flick. "The Artist" brilliantly captures the time (1927 to 1931), place (Los Angeles), and venue (Hollywood filmmaking) it's set in. Not by being 'period-perfect' (it isn't), but by taking all the right steps to evoke the heart of the period and milieu. A wonderful, wondrous film ... and a lesson to all doubters: yes, it can be done, and you don't need the biggest budget to do it. Fitzgerald's "Gatsby" deserves (but won't get) "The Artist" treatment.
Imagine ... a feature-length silent film, made in 2011, that got last night's packed theater audience to give it a standing ovation. Was I in the twilight zone?
I saw this movie last night ... and it puts the lie to every defense of Baz Luhrmann's upcoming "Great Gatsby" flick. "The Artist" brilliantly captures the time (1927 to 1931), place (Los Angeles), and venue (Hollywood filmmaking) it's set in. Not by being 'period-perfect' (it isn't), but by taking all the right steps to evoke the heart of the period and milieu. A wonderful, wondrous film ... and a lesson to all doubters: yes, it can be done, and you don't need the biggest budget to do it. Fitzgerald's "Gatsby" deserves (but won't get) "The Artist" treatment.
Imagine ... a feature-length silent film, made in 2011, that got last night's packed theater audience to give it a standing ovation. Was I in the twilight zone?
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Nope, not the Twilight Zone. I think we're seeing a shift in movies. Sure, the big-bucks "blockbusters" are still being made, but I think the last 1-2 years I've seen more "story" films than ever before. And good ones too. I hope it's a trend, but I'm sure the big-star money-wasters are always going to be made.
Marc Chevalier
Gone Home
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Here's something extraordinary, IMO.
The film's makers based everything on the premise that American silent cinema of the late '20s was not an obsolete 'lower step' on the Ladder of Cinematic Progress ... but rather, a high art in itself. "The Artist" is a work entirely steeped in that art. Not a parody, not an adaptation, not a filtered look: it (deftly) wields the most sophisticated tools from silent cinema's toolkit, and the result is a masterwork.
Here's something extraordinary, IMO.
The film's makers based everything on the premise that American silent cinema of the late '20s was not an obsolete 'lower step' on the Ladder of Cinematic Progress ... but rather, a high art in itself. "The Artist" is a work entirely steeped in that art. Not a parody, not an adaptation, not a filtered look: it (deftly) wields the most sophisticated tools from silent cinema's toolkit, and the result is a masterwork.
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LizzieMaine
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That's the main reason I'm looking forward to it. Too many people's ideas of silent film are based on what they picked up watching "Fractured Flickers" as a kid. Anything that disperses that sort of notion and presents silent pictures as an art form to be respected, and not mocked, is worth supporting.
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Well, I agree. Telling a story without words is very difficult, and yes, art. I was skeptical, and honestly, didn't enjoy a lot of the original silent films. Maybe I've just changed, but I appreciate these story-telling films more every day...
OTOH, I loved Hugo and other films this year too.
OTOH, I loved Hugo and other films this year too.
The Wiser Hatter
I'll Lock Up
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Can not wait to see the film I love silent movies. I remember going to see Able Gance's Napoleon a great movie one of the great Movie classic's.
Napoléon_(1927_film)
Napoléon_(1927_film)
AmateisGal
I'll Lock Up
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Brilliant review. I cannot wait to see it.
The Wiser Hatter
I'll Lock Up
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tour-planned-for-the-artist-with-screenings-accompanied-by-a-live-orchestra
I know I will never see this but for those in the big cities.
I know I will never see this but for those in the big cities.
LizzieMaine
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We're now running the trailer for this one --hoping to get it in January. It *looks* spectacular -- but jeez, did they need to use a Goodmanesque "Sing Sing Sing" pastiche as part of the trailer score? That style of music has no more to do with 1927 than Madonna. If they wanted something snappy-peppy, they should have brought in Vince Giordano to do proper twenties music.
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Just saw it last night. Loved it, loved it! What I thought was a great contemporary twist was the emotion range and progression we got from the characters, the lead in particular. He was amazing! Utterly amazing.
My FAVORITE scene was his nightmare sound scene. Fantastic.
I do wish the score of the movie (when it played) was a bit more in tune with what characters we actually doing, but that is a very minor quibble. It was also a bit slow in some areas, but again, super minor.
Everyone and their grandmother was in this movie! James Cromwell was my favorite supporting character. It was just so fun and light and dynamic and entertaining.
I want to see it a couple more times just to soak everything in.
LD
My FAVORITE scene was his nightmare sound scene. Fantastic.
I do wish the score of the movie (when it played) was a bit more in tune with what characters we actually doing, but that is a very minor quibble. It was also a bit slow in some areas, but again, super minor.
Everyone and their grandmother was in this movie! James Cromwell was my favorite supporting character. It was just so fun and light and dynamic and entertaining.
I want to see it a couple more times just to soak everything in.
LD
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GoldenEraFan
One Too Many
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I saw it at the Paris Theater on Wednesday and absolutely loved it! I hope they consider making more films like this. I'd love a silent picture depicting a Fleischer-esque cartoon studio!
Blackthorn
I'll Lock Up
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You are all whetting my appetite to see this one!
Marc Chevalier
Gone Home
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Luckily, it only appears in the trailer, not in the movie itself.
As Lady Day said, the film's flaws are very minor. (For instance, in one scene that takes place in the early '30s, a hospital office has a framed portrait photo of Calvin Coolidge hanging on the wall. By then, it should have been Herbert Hoover. I reckon that the scene, when shot, was supposed to have taken place in 1928 ... and in post-production, the year was changed. Coolidge's image, however, remained in place.)
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There has been hub-bub that this film was shot with modern conventions (Digital then filtered B&W) and not on film in B&W. My rebuttal to that is this film is not a recreation of the time, but an homage to the time. The acting styles, the narrative of the story, the direction, are all contemporary compared to the films it emulates.
I find this makes it more digestible to a modern audiences, subconsciously at least because I felt in older films the audience knew the actors were preforming. They were playing a character and we followed that artificial hero around. Here, we are told this is a real person, and we are following this person around in this artificial late 20s Hollywood. I find that is a stark difference between the eras and something that could not be altered and I feel that makes the movie stand apart from the genera/time period/ etc it is 'emulating'.
LD
I find this makes it more digestible to a modern audiences, subconsciously at least because I felt in older films the audience knew the actors were preforming. They were playing a character and we followed that artificial hero around. Here, we are told this is a real person, and we are following this person around in this artificial late 20s Hollywood. I find that is a stark difference between the eras and something that could not be altered and I feel that makes the movie stand apart from the genera/time period/ etc it is 'emulating'.
LD
Marc Chevalier
Gone Home
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I agree with Lady Day.
Okay, one thing did bug me: inhaling smoke from burning nitrate film stock would probably be fatal. I'll say no more.
I agree with Lady Day.
Okay, one thing did bug me: inhaling smoke from burning nitrate film stock would probably be fatal. I'll say no more.
LizzieMaine
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Okay, one thing did bug me: inhaling smoke from burning nitrate film stock would probably be fatal. I'll say no more.
Yup. Unless your lungs are somehow impervious to nitric acid.
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- Messages
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I agree with Lady Day.
Okay, one thing did bug me: inhaling smoke from burning nitrate film stock would probably be fatal. I'll say no more.
Yeah, we were in the theader thinking, "That film would go up like kindeling and he'd die from the fumes before he ever got out!"
LD
Doctor Strange
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I saw it yesterday and pretty much loved it.
I noticed the inaccurate nitrate fire thing too, but I let it pass. The one thing that bothered me was the use of the love scene music from Bernard Herrmann's Vertigo score at the climax of the film. I understand that this was one of a series of loving callbacks to later, non-silent films (like the marriage-fails-over-breakfast-newspapers montage a la Citizen Kane). But besides having seen Vertigo probably ten times, I have owned recordings of this music since the 1970s (though not the particular 1992 Elmer Bernstein-conducted version used here) and I know every note: it pulled me right out of the story. Of course, most folks just won't notice this...
The only other thing that vaguely bothers me is what we're supposed to take away from seeing the film. It does a remarkably good job of replicating a silent melodrama and classic Hollywood looks and tropes, and it makes the audience work their imaginations in the old manner... but apart from its stunt value and sheer fun, what's the point? There's no implied now vs. then commentary about movies or society, except for audiences discovering (or rediscovering) that black and white and silence have their own unique, dreamlike artistry. Of course, there's nothing wrong with just having done it for love of the form - and thankfully for once, there's no modern irony in evidence. But I wish it had just a touch more depth...
Otherwise, it was tremendous fun, and boy, the two leads displayed some stunning old-school movie charisma. Bérénice Bejo is the new It Girl!
I noticed the inaccurate nitrate fire thing too, but I let it pass. The one thing that bothered me was the use of the love scene music from Bernard Herrmann's Vertigo score at the climax of the film. I understand that this was one of a series of loving callbacks to later, non-silent films (like the marriage-fails-over-breakfast-newspapers montage a la Citizen Kane). But besides having seen Vertigo probably ten times, I have owned recordings of this music since the 1970s (though not the particular 1992 Elmer Bernstein-conducted version used here) and I know every note: it pulled me right out of the story. Of course, most folks just won't notice this...
The only other thing that vaguely bothers me is what we're supposed to take away from seeing the film. It does a remarkably good job of replicating a silent melodrama and classic Hollywood looks and tropes, and it makes the audience work their imaginations in the old manner... but apart from its stunt value and sheer fun, what's the point? There's no implied now vs. then commentary about movies or society, except for audiences discovering (or rediscovering) that black and white and silence have their own unique, dreamlike artistry. Of course, there's nothing wrong with just having done it for love of the form - and thankfully for once, there's no modern irony in evidence. But I wish it had just a touch more depth...
Otherwise, it was tremendous fun, and boy, the two leads displayed some stunning old-school movie charisma. Bérénice Bejo is the new It Girl!
