In a curious but pleasant development, a latecomer to the Cannes competition lineup, announced just a week before the festival began, has suddenly become a possible front-runner for the Palme d’Or. Michel Hazanavicius’ The Artist, a silent film shot in Hollywood in black-and-white, screened this morning, and its sly charms seemed to win over a sizable portion of the audience — including me.
The Artist opens in 1927, just as silent-film star George Valentin (a suave Jean Dujardin, channeling a little Douglas Fairbanks, a little Gene Kelly) is riding high. Two years later, with the advent of the talkies, he ends up broke and forgotten — though not completely forgotten: A young woman he met while he was riding high, a salty-sweet ingénue named Peppy Miller (played, with perfect sauciness, by the Argentina-born French actress Bérénice Bejo), has become a raging success, and she hasn’t forgotten the break Valentin gave her when she was struggling to break into the business.
The Artist harbors shades of Singin’ in the Rain and A Star Is Born, but in the end it’s its own distinctive creature. For the first half-hour I suspected The Artist would end up being nothing more than a flaky, if enjoyable, gewgaw. But by the end, I was struck by how disciplined it is. Shot by Guillame Schiffman, the picture throws off a satiny moonlight glow. Hazanavicius — best known for the French-made OSS spoof movies — keeps a sure grip on the picture’s tone. There’s gravity in the right places, but mostly,…
Jennifer ODell Jennifer Scholle Jennifer Sky Jenny McCarthy Jessica Alba Jessica Biel Jessica Cauffiel
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