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Health & Fitness

Best Picture Nominee: The Artist

The Artist is a silent black and white movie that brings us back to the early days of talking movies.

I finally made out to see The Artist, which is playing in select local theatres. The Artist is a silent black and white movie that has slowly generated a lot of buzz and is now the frontrunner for Best Picture. It takes place in the late 20s and early 30s when talkies first started being made and is made to look like a movie from that era. 

The Artist is about George Valentin (Jean Dujardin) a silent movie star during the 20s. When studio heads decide that they will only make talking pictures, George refuses, saying that it is just a passing fad. As “talkies” become more popular a younger set of stars start to emerge. One of these younger stars is Peppy Miller (Bernice Bejo), who got her first break working with George and now idolizes him. As the talking pictures make her, a star George begins to lose everything. He loses his wife, his house and then after the stock market crashes, he loses all his money. After he fires his chauffeur Clifton after not paying him for a year, all that he has left is his dog Uggie and he descends into a deep depression. Peppy, who is now a star, tries to help the man who helped her get started. 

At first it felt a little odd watching a silent film in the theater but as the story draws you in you don't notice it. For those who have never seen a silent film, this will be an enjoyable introduction (for ideas on other silent films to watch check out my list here). The story is fun and quick-paced. It is just over an hour and a half and it just flies by. The two words that people keep using to describe the movie is charming and entertaining, and it is both.

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Dujardin and Bejo do a great job but I was really impressed with the Michel Hazanavicius direction. There are some great shots and he has a great attention to detail. The movie has a little bit of everything - humor, drama, romance and action. I am not sure how it got a PG-13 rating since it did not have anything bad, in it maybe it was just adult themes. 

The movie is nominated for 10 Oscars, second only to Hugo with 11 nominations. Besides Best Picture it is nominated for Best Actor for Dujardin, Best Supporting Actress for Bejo, Best Director and Best Original Screenplay for Hazanavicius and various technical awards.

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If it does win Best Picture, it will be the first black and white film to win Best Picture since Schindler’s List (or technically 1960s The Apartment since Schindler’s List had a few scenes of color) and it will be only the second silent film (at least mostly silent) to win. The only other silent film to win Best Picture was Wings at the very first Academy Awards in 1929. It is the favorite to win Best Picture, Best Actor, and Best Director. 

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