{"id":174,"date":"2012-01-18T11:58:49","date_gmt":"2012-01-18T16:58:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.drfilm.net\/blog\/?p=174"},"modified":"2020-12-06T21:33:39","modified_gmt":"2020-12-07T02:33:39","slug":"an-artist-is-born-singin-in-the-rain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.drfilm.net\/blog\/?p=174","title":{"rendered":"An Artist is Born Singin’ in the Rain"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>I\u2019ve been bombarded with questions about The Artist<\/em>.\u00a0 Everyone I see asks me about it.\u00a0 I felt that I had to give it a look, and a fair chance, before answering.<\/p>\n

Before I go on too far, let me say that I\u2019ve seen zillions of silent films.\u00a0 I know how they are supposed to look and feel.\u00a0 I am a harsh judge of movies that get history dreadfully wrong and don\u2019t seem to care about it.\u00a0 I have been a vocal critic of Singin\u2019 in the Rain <\/em>(1952) for many years.\u00a0 Sure, it has great singing and dancing in it, but it gets the feel of the era entirely wrong, and it puts \u201chistory\u201d out there that is completely and utterly bogus.\u00a0 I wince every time I see the movie.<\/p>\n

I went to see Hugo <\/em>a while back, in a nice theater, in 3D, and it underwhelmed me.\u00a0 This ties in with The Artist<\/em>, because Hugo <\/em>is another film that is set in that same period, the late 1920s and early 1930s.\u00a0 Hugo <\/em>did a delightful job recreating the period.\u00a0 Ben Kingsley is brilliant.\u00a0 The effects are great.\u00a0 Most of the history is fairly good, although it\u2019s been warped for ease of storytelling.\u00a0 Ultimately, for me, it didn\u2019t say enough about the magic of movies and had a tedious, predictable sub-plot with the station inspector.\u00a0 The sub-plot felt like it had been ripped from the film adaptation of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang<\/em>, and we all had to wait for this plot element\u2019s resolution before getting back to the main action.\u00a0 Mostly enjoyable, but not a film I\u2019d call a classic.<\/p>\n

Many films that are set in this period get the history so far wrong that I want to throw things at the screen.\u00a0 I generally don\u2019t have to do this, because some moron in the front row is already doing it by the time I find my motivation level rising.\u00a0 Public Enemies<\/em>, the Johnny Depp film from a couple of years ago, was particularly offensive.\u00a0 The filmmaking techniques were right out of Michael Bay: cut-cut-cut editing, mushy shot-on-video camerawork, never a tripod or steady shot.\u00a0 Depp\u2019s Dillinger robs palatial block-wide banks in rural Indiana\u2013located in towns that are still <\/em>just barely dots on the map.\u00a0 Not only does it get the facts wrong, but it gets the feel <\/em>wrong.\u00a0 Public Enemies <\/em>plays like teenager\u2019s first feature-length video on YouTube.\u00a0 We might have been impressed that a teen could pull off such a feat, but we\u2019re embarrassed that talented professionals would allow their names to be attached to such a lousy film.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m inclined to give a movie a break if it tends to get the feel right.\u00a0 Some are better than others.\u00a0 The Sting <\/em>is so accurate that it sometimes feels colorized.\u00a0 O Brother, Where Art Thou? <\/em>plays fast and loose with the facts, but when it gets down to brass tacks, the film feels authentically 1930s.\u00a0 I recommend both movies.\u00a0 I hesitantly recommend Hugo<\/em>, too, although with some reservations.<\/p>\n

And on to The Artist<\/em>.\u00a0 This film has pretensions you can cut with a butcher knife.\u00a0 Not only does it attempt to recreate the 1920s\/30s, but it is also presented in black and white, in the 1930s aspect ratio, and, most importantly, as a silent film<\/em>.\u00a0 It\u2019s tough to make a silent film these days.\u00a0 First, modern audiences aren\u2019t used to the dramatic techniques used in them, so sometimes they\u2019ll draw an unintentional laugh.\u00a0 Second, a lot of things have changed in the intervening years, so it becomes a technical challenge.<\/p>\n

Does it work?\u00a0 Yes, it mostly does.\u00a0 The plot is fairly pedestrian, basically a retooling of A Star is Born<\/em>, but that plot was old in 1937.\u00a0 George Valentin, a major silent star, played by Jean Dujardin, is a little careless in his personal life, has an alienated wife, and meets Peppy Miller, a rising young flapper, played by B\u00e9r\u00e9nice Bejo.\u00a0 As sound comes in, he is increasingly unable to maintain his status, while Peppy goes on to major success.<\/p>\n

The film progresses and we see Valentin\u2019s downfall as we see Peppy rise to greater and greater heights, up until, well, you oughta see the movie.<\/p>\n

Dujardin turns in an excellent performance.\u00a0 He manages to capture the swagger of Douglas Fairbanks with a bit of the continental charm of Ricardo Cortez.\u00a0 It works well within the context of the film.\u00a0 Bejo is not quite as good, although still commendable.\u00a0 She just seems a bit too <\/em>bubbly at times.\u00a0 Also at hand are reliables like James Cromwell as the long-suffering chauffeur\/butler, and John Goodman as the studio chief.\u00a0 They are nothing short of great, but then I would expect nothing else from them.<\/p>\n

Director Michel Hazanavicius does a great job recreating the style of the times.\u00a0 Not too many closeups, which we love to use today, slower editing pace, and he even undercranks the film just a hair to give it that late 20s feel.\u00a0 It works.\u00a0 He matches the style of intertitles and even recreates the 1920s fonts very well.\u00a0 (You knew I was picky.)<\/p>\n

I just wish it had been more, somehow.\u00a0 I suppose that it should be enough that Hazanavicius has recreated the period well enough that he\u2019s made a run-of-the-mill late silent picture.\u00a0 If you\u2019re hoping for a truly great silent picture, a drama like Sunrise<\/em>, a love story like Lonesome<\/em>, then, well, it isn\u2019t here.\u00a0 This isn\u2019t necessarily bad, but I can tell you that I\u2019ve been to conventions to watch day-long silent film marathons, and The Artist <\/em>would not be a huge standout.\u00a0 It would get good reviews, a few smiles, and we\u2019d move on.<\/p>\n

There are myriad little nitpicks, from the unblimped Mitchell cameras to the 2000\u2019 film cans, to the way the nitrate doesn\u2019t burn fast enough, to… well, OK, you get the point.\u00a0 More severe are problems later in the picture.\u00a0 Peppy Miller seems to be in 1920s flapper attire, short skirts and all, way <\/em>too far into the 1930s.\u00a0 The climactic sequence uses a music style that almost sounds like big band music from the early 1940s, which isn\u2019t right, either.\u00a0 The cutting is actually too <\/em>slow, and there is a tendency to dwell on to actors speaking without cutting to an intertitle, which would not have been done at the time.\u00a0 But I nitpick.<\/p>\n

The single greatest failure of the film, to my mind, is a plot point.\u00a0 Goodman\u2019s studio boss calls Dujardin into his office and basically fires him, saying that the movies need to flush out all the old silent actors and replace them all with new ones.<\/p>\n

WHAT?<\/p>\n

Sure, there were silent actors who didn\u2019t make it far into the sound era.\u00a0 A lot of leading ladies got older, were married and retired.\u00a0 Lon Chaney died.\u00a0 John Gilbert was an alcoholic and was probably blackballed by Louis Mayer.\u00a0 Douglas Fairbanks found sound films dull to make.\u00a0 Chaplin took time to adapt to sound.\u00a0 But there were so many others who starred both in silent and sound films, many who didn\u2019t even seem to notice the bump…<\/p>\n

Laurel and Hardy, Charley Chase, WC Fields, Ronald Colman, Ricardo Cortez, Gary Cooper, Warner Oland, Greta Garbo, Norma Shearer, Joan Crawford, and Loretta Young all sailed through the transition.\u00a0 Even though comedy didn\u2019t flourish in the 1930s as it did in the 1920s, still stars like Buster Keaton, Harry Langdon, Vernon Dent, and many others, at least found work.\u00a0 Harold Lloyd was especially prosperous in the sound era.\u00a0 Keaton\u2019s downfall came not with the advent of sound, but rather with his contract moving to MGM, and even with his boozing and bad films, he still <\/em>worked steadily through the 1930s.<\/p>\n

The idea that stars were summarily flushed out of the system for talkie stars is just wrong.\u00a0 There were a few stars with unsuitable voices, which is an idea that was blown way out of proportion with Singin\u2019 in the Rain<\/em>.\u00a0 Raymond Griffith had a vocal injury and couldn\u2019t speak above a whisper.\u00a0 Sound films didn\u2019t quite end his career, but it was close.\u00a0 Karl Dane had a very thick accent and had trouble in sound films, as did Anny Ondra, whose voice was dubbed in Blackmail <\/em>(1929).\u00a0 <\/em>In general, even those actors with relatively thick accents still did well: Bela Lugosi, Charles Boyer, and Paul Lukas come to mind quickly.<\/p>\n

This is why the biggest flaw in The Artist <\/em>is the goofy idea that a studio would summarily drop a big, moneymaking star who simply had yet to make a talking film.\u00a0 I can\u2019t think of a single time that happened.\u00a0 Perhaps someone can correct my memory.\u00a0 Movies are, and always have been, about making money, not about art.\u00a0 If the star makes money for them, they\u2019ll put up with about anything.\u00a0 As soon as they stop making money, they\u2019re out.\u00a0 Do you honestly think that studios would have put up with the drug-addicted, temperamental Judy Garland had she not been brilliant and profitable?<\/p>\n

No one should ever get their history from movies made about movies.\u00a0 For some reason, films are neglected art and film history seems particularly unimportant.\u00a0 I have no idea why, but you\u2019re more likely to get a good reconstruction of a Napoleonic campaign than a talking film from 1931.<\/p>\n

***Special Side Note***<\/p>\n

Kim Novak has gone on record<\/a> complaining bitterly about the use of music from Vertigo <\/em>(1958) during the climactic section of The Artist<\/em>.\u00a0 Her remarks were pointed and used a rape metaphor.\u00a0 Novak has been accused of looking to get her name in the papers again, and of being overly sensitive. \u00a0 The music is used to back up a particularly poignant scene, and no one ever did poignant like Bernard Herrmann, the composer of Vertigo<\/em>\u2019s score.\u00a0 Several people have said that it doesn\u2019t really matter, because the music is from an old film anyway, and, after all, who would notice?<\/p>\n

Here are my two cents\u2019 worth:\u00a0 Who would notice<\/em>?\u00a0 Gee whiz, guys, you are making a movie and targeting fans of older films.\u00a0 Don\u2019t you think it would be obvious?\u00a0 Vertigo <\/em>isn\u2019t just some old movie… it\u2019s an all-time classic, and it\u2019s one of the greatest film scores ever written.\u00a0 People know it.\u00a0 A lot of people know it.\u00a0 Don\u2019t believe me\u2014believe Google.\u00a0 Perhaps Ms. Novak is a little extreme in her wording, but she has a good point.\u00a0 If I were writing a symphony, I could easily lift the last few minutes from a Beethoven symphony.\u00a0 It might work well, and it would be perfectly legal.\u00a0 But why would I do that?<\/em><\/p>\n

Artistically, it\u2019s a bad call.\u00a0 It immediately took me out of the film.\u00a0 The rest of the score, by Ludovic Bource, is quite excellent at imitating the style of the period.\u00a0 He even does a pretty good job of foreshadowing the quote from Vertigo<\/em>.\u00a0 But it still doesn\u2019t match.\u00a0 Vertigo <\/em>is 1950s Herrmann, not 1920s pop.\u00a0 It\u2019s great, it mostly works, but it\u2019s intrusive.\u00a0 I would have been happier with an ending by Bource.\u00a0 I think he could have done it justice. \u00a0(For an illuminating answer as to why Bource didn’t have his music in this scene, please check Bruce Calvert’s comment below. \u00a0I didn’t know about it before publishing this.)<\/strong><\/p>\n

I am not going to jump on the bandwagon criticizing Novak.\u00a0 She is not stupid, and she is not a publicity hound.\u00a0 The use of Vertigo <\/em>music in The Artist<\/em> is strictly legal and above board, but I don\u2019t think it works with the film.\u00a0 Vertigo <\/em>is Vertigo <\/em>and I think it would have better been left alone.<\/p>\n

All that said, The Artist <\/em>is still a fun film, and a great cinematic experiment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019ve been bombarded with questions about The Artist.\u00a0 Everyone I see asks me about it.\u00a0 I felt that I had to give it a look, and a fair chance, before answering. Before I go on too far, let me say that I\u2019ve seen zillions of silent films.\u00a0 I know how they are supposed to look … Continue reading “An Artist is Born Singin’ in the Rain”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"powered_cache_disable_cache":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[207,4],"tags":[73,41,72,71],"class_list":["post-174","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-film","category-views-and-reviews","tag-hugo","tag-review","tag-singin-in-the-rain","tag-the-artist"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.drfilm.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.drfilm.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.drfilm.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.drfilm.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.drfilm.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=174"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.drfilm.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1933,"href":"https:\/\/www.drfilm.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174\/revisions\/1933"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.drfilm.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=174"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.drfilm.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=174"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.drfilm.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=174"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}