The Artist
Hollywood, 1927: As silent movie star George Valentin wonders if the arrival of talking pictures will cause him to fade into oblivion, he sparks with Peppy Miller, a young dancer set for a big break.
What can I say? The Artist... after so much hype... I enjoyed it. Quite a bit, actually. The film truly is silent - so don't do as the ill-informed and ask for your money back because you "didn't know". It's black and white, and instead of dialogue it's title cards with the lines on. But this isn't every time the characters speak.
Let's start from the top. The story is, luckily, easy to follow. A silent film star, who is quite cocky and famous for what he does is all of a sudden out of favour when the production company want to start making 'talkies' instead. This isn't his niche, and unwilling to change he stands by his genre but with terrible consequences on his life. Simultaneously, a woman launches her career and surpasses his fame, eventually making the films he refuses to make himself.
Their relationship is what carries the film, because they, at first, flirt and it's apparent they have feelings for one another, but as he career explodes and his fizzles out it all goes quite wrong for them, in many ways.
Like I say, the story is good because you can keep up, the dog, who belongs to the main protagonist, steals the show every shot he's in. You've probably seen or heard of him already though because everyone seems to have fallen in love with him - the new 'eddy' (oh, come on, Fraiser reference... anybody).
When the characters talk you feel quite clever being able to figure out what they are saying without the use of title cards (which are used sparingly), but I couldn't help but feel confused in parts - as though maybe I should have been able to tell what was being said, but I didn't... was that just me?
Overall, I actually really enjoyed it, yet it did drag a bit, but the ending more than made up for it. I loved the ending.
Final verdict:
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