Movie #556 .........................."The Artist"

Movie #556 "The Artist" is, in my eyes, terribly over rated. For sure, if it was trying to prove just how necessary sound is in motion pictures, it definitely did that, but I don't think that was supposed to be the point. I think we were supposed to say things like: how creative, my isn't that original, how fitting that a movie about the time period SHOWS the time period by stripping the movie of sound ---- but wait. so the movie was trying to prove how unimportant sound was? see, we can still make movies without sound? Well, it didn't work with me --- because it didn't have sound there were sections I found annoying (like long sections where we are expected to read lips) , over acted, full of mugging for the camera. And when they finally have sound (which you need to know is like the last 10 minutes), and we see the lead tap dance, it was not that effective because he wasn't really that good of a dancer. So that indicated to me that maybe he should have found another job instead of wallowing in his apartment all of these years because the film industry left him behind. I had problems with the lead --- I didn't like him. To me, he was cocky and full of himself, patronizing to his audience, neglectful of his wife, unaware of people's feelings who are right next to him, neglectful of his driver, overly proud, etc. Are we to like him just because the dog likes him and another girl likes him? So bottom line: I didn't much care for him and really didn't care if film left him behind, unlike the Gene Kelly character in "Singin' in the Rain" --- which was so much better of a movie on the same topic. okay, perhaps I have reacted above too cerebrally to the film, and should just look at the artistry in the film --- after all, that is the title. Perhaps, the artist is the one MAKING the film. In that case, I applaud all the people involved who made this film look of the time period, playing with black and white, trying to continue to entertain us without sound in this modern age of film. One applause I'd like to especially dole out is to the set dressers, one of which is my nephew Zachary Uriah Kramer, who made the credits. I'm very proud of his (and his crew's) work on this film. I wish I would have liked it more.





I rated it a 3 out of 5
The Artist
(2011) PG-13
This modern-day silent film artfully recounts the poignant end of the silent-movie era in the late 1920s. The story contrasts the declining fortunes of a silent-screen superstar with his lover's rise to popularity as a darling of the "talkies."
Genre:Dramas, Foreign Movies, Independent Movies, Silent Movies, Foreign Dramas, Independent Dramas, Showbiz Dramas, French Movies, 20th Century Period Pieces