The Artist, for those uninformed, is a new French movie that's carrying a lot of Oscar buzz. It's about Hollywood in the late '20s and early '30s, and the main character is a silent film star and apparently he won't survive the coming of the talkies. His love interest is an up and coming starlet who quickly makes the transition to the sound-filled projects. This film is shot on 72mm film, just like the silent films of the era it's depicting and, so, it looks like a full-frame television show. It's also shot in black and white. Both of those constructs, and storyline, make for a possibly artsy look at the dawn of the Hollywood era.
The Artist, though, goes beyond that in an attempt to transcend cinema and bring viewers back to the time period: it itself is a silent film.
There is a running music track just like a 20s silent film to help with the mood, and when it cuts out, the power is palpable. The lack of foley art is noticed specifically when it is used, during the single random moment when the sound barrier is broken. John Goodman has a large role as a studio executive, but the movie really belongs to it's two French leads, Jean Dujardin and Berenice Bejo.
It turns to melodrama in the middle, but it is beautifully executed. At times in the first act, I found myself growing weary of the lack of sound, then I got angry with myself (you knew it was going to be silent when you got on the train this morning), then I became reinvested, and more into it as the story unfolded.
It is a very fine movie, and shows the power of moving images by themselves. It proves that image alone can provoke and promote feeling in viewers. It also, ironically, proves the sheer power of sound in films, proves it by it's absence. That which you take for granted becomes clear when it's gone.
The showing I saw was at 1:05 pm, and the ticket cost $13.75. Really? Tron: Legacy in 3D might have been just $12 or $14 in Austin.
While walking back to the subway in a bad-idea-in-hindsight-shortcut, I took a couple of pictures. The first is an image of an LA icon I can get behind and believe in in an un-ironic way; the Observatory:
The second is a picture of an old theater, the Palladium. Apparently, Iggy and the Stooges are playing, but are sold out. Iggy Pop's still alive? I took the picture because our wedding rings are made of palladium, a metal in the platinum family that's less expensive. Because of palladium's ability to absorb hydrogen, it's currently being used in automobile capacitors (weird tidbit, huh?).
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