The Artist

What a brilliant film. The Artist is bursting with creativity and charm. Jean Dujardin is dashing and prideful as George Valentin. Its not often that a lead character, never mind without words, so thoroughly moves me. Yet, Dujardin as Valentin is utterly engaging. I loved his character- I was so disappointed in him!- and I was in love with the entire scape of the cinematography. The use of sound was gorgeous, from the score to the moments of hearing cups hitting a dresser and cars driving by.

I also resonated with the struggle of the artist. Not personally- I've not been an "artist" long enough to experience a shift in the culture of my art form- but I saw correlations between Valentin and Julie Taymor. Taymor is the director famous for her stagings of The Lion King on Broadway and the film Across the Universe, among hoards of other work. My gosh, she received six Academy Award nominations for Frida alone. Yet, what does the name Julie Taymor immediately bring to mind now? The epic failure of Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark on Broadway in the past year. She was FIRED from the production- or, according to some sources, she "left due to artistic differences." After $60 million is spent on a failing production, I think one loses the right to artistic differences.

Maybe Taymor's recent blunder represents an artistic shift in our times. In attempting to integrate mixed media- holograms, projections, computer animation- into a Broadway production, Taymor's vision got lost in a modernizing maze. She attempted to create something so relevant, that she forgot her own artistic medium. I think that's what Valentin is scared of in The Artist. He knows so clearly what his medium is, that he see's himself as unable to move from silent to speaking film. He does not want to do a "Taymor" and fail at something it seems should be a shoe-in.

I do think there are more messages than just artistic in this film. Themes of how one communicates- it is a silent film in an era of 3D and surround sound- and certainly of pride too. Valentin is so full of artistic pomposity that he nearly kills himself. Twice. Themes and meaning and heart galore. And its just a gorgeous film to experience. I'd watch it again right now if I could.

So, have you seen it? What did you think?