For many, silent films is a forgotten period in cinema. Ever since the premiere of The Jazz Singer in 1927, studios began shifting away from silent films, instead turning their attention to sound features. Famed actor-comedian-director Charles Chaplin continued to make silent features even with the advent of sound with notable films like City Lights and Modern Times. There have been few homages to this particular style of filmmaking over the years, including Guy Maddin’s 2006 feature Brand Upon the Brain! and Rolf de Heer’s Dr Plonk in 2007.
French filmmaker Michel Hazanavicius’s homage to the silent era, The Artist, looks to be an ambitious gamble that could pay off in a very big way. The black-and-white silent film depicts the silent film era in Hollywood, and acts as both a tribute and its own example of a silent feature – much in the same way that Roman Polanski’s Chinatown was both an homage to film noir and is a noir itself.
Headlined by a pair of French actors, Jean Dujardin and Bérénice Bejo, the film also features John Goodman, James Cromwell, and Penelope Ann Miller. Simply stunning.
Hollywood 1927. George Valentin is a very successful silent movie star. The advent of the talkies will sound the death knell for his career. For young extra Peppy Miller, it seems the sky’s the limit — stardom awaits.
The Artist was the first major pickup during the Cannes Film Festival as The Weinstein Company bought the film rights prior to its premiere. No release date has been set.
