Highly proud from the blog of film 

The curiosity here will be how the Weinstein Co. plans to handle the film’s distribution. The audience for this kind of fare is small if visible at all, but I am assuming they have confidence they can reach an older audience based on the massive success of The King’s Speech. I don’t see how this can possibly appeal to today’s modern audiences, which are used to motion capture 3D, transforming robots and talking toys, but if anyone should be up to the challenge it would be the Weinstein’s.
In terms of filmmaking, The Artist is closely related to Charlie Chaplin’s 1936 classic Modern Times in that it uses sound effects and a late moment of dialogue (a song and dance scene in the case ofModern Times), but is otherwise completely silent. It’s a tough task, primarily because it places limits on the filmmaker, limits a filmmaker of the modern era never has to think about and yet Hazanavicius has, for the most part, successfully navigated this tricky mine field and put together a decent film. However, 80 or so years ago I don’t think it would have been hailed as anything more than the norm.
Taking place from 1927-1931, the story begins as silent films are about to be replaced by talkies. At the center of the story is Hazanavicius’ OSS 117 star Jean Dujardin as George Valentin, a major silent film star whose appearance mirrors that of Clark Gable, Trevor Howard or William Powell more than any silent actor that comes straight to mind, though Douglas Fairbanks is probably the closest comparison when it comes to his career.
George’s star is about to be tested as the age of talkies is upon him, but after scoffing at the idea, the proud silent star is soon pushed aside as the cinema makes way for a new kind of star. Peppy Miller (Berenice Bejo) has burst on the scene and is ready to light the box-office on fire. Audiences fall in love with talking motion pictures and she’s an instant hit. George’s response is to try making a silent film on his own. He fails. Combine this failure with the stock market crash and he finds himself sad, alone and forgotten.
Primarily a drama, The Artist follows the lives of these two stars as they move in opposite directions. However, it isn’t all serious notes as this film has several moments of humor with a lot of credit to whomever trained George’s dog (either named Uggy or Jack), a Jack Russell Terrier that immediately reminded me of Nick and Nora’s Asta from The Thin Man.
Highlights I personally took away include an excellent nightmare scene in which George dreams the world is full of sound, but he has lost his voice. It’s not only a highly entertaining and funny scene, but it’s a scene that gets to the heart of the story in a matter of seconds. A running “play dead” trick involving George’s dog also never fails to get a laugh.
The primary success on the part of Hazanavicius, though, is making sure the story never gets too big for its own good. Generally, silents benefit from a simple story with top notch actors doing the rest and this one falls right in line. But in that same sense editing remains important and this film gets a bit ponderous in its second and third acts as George’s downfall begins to take up much of the running time, dragging the film down where it previously moved at a pretty quick clip.