The Artist
The most awarded French film in history and
winner of five Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Actor and
Best Director, The Artist succeeds entirely as both an engaging
cinematic experience and a painstaking evocation of a bygone age.
Shot in black and white and framed in the
all but extinct 4:3 aspect ratio, this affectionate homage to the era of
silent cinema opens in 1927 with the advent of the ‘talkies.’ Silent
movie star George Valentin (Jean Dujardin) is about to be eclipsed by a
host of ambitious up-and-comers, amongst them the brightly vivacious
Peppy Miller (Bérénice
Bejo). Suddenly
last month’s flavour and increasingly passed over in favour of Miller
and her cohorts, the one-time star sinks into a morass of despair and
financial ruin. If only he could pull off one last comeback...
The upcoming Blu-ray edition of this feted
film, to be released locally on June 28, contains both an immaculate
rendering of the print itself and a number of worthwhile bonus
features. On offer are a 22-minute Making Of Featurette
entitled The Artist: The Making of An American Romance; an
insightful and upbeat 45-minute Q & A with the Cast and
Filmmakers (including Dujardin, Bejo and director Michel Hazanavicius);
The Artisans Behind the Artist, a series of four Behind the
Scenes Featurettes on the Production Design, Costuming, Music and
Cinematography; a short Locations Featurette and a (silent)
Blooper Reel. An audio commentary or two would’ve been a nice
touch, but overall there are some well-chosen additions to the main
feature and fans of the movie won’t be disappointed by the array of
extras on offer.
