... you can learn from:
The Artist (2011)
Al: You and I belong to another era, George.The world is talking now. People want new faces,talking faces. I wish it wasn't like this,but the public wants fresh meat,and the public is never wrong.George: I'm the one people come to see.They never needed to hear me.
A happy 50th birthday to Oscar winning director Michel Hazanavicius today. I liked The Artist well enough - not Best Picture enough, but well enough - but it still seems really weird that it swept so many Oscars now, right? It's not just me?
In a weird coincidence before realizing today is Hazanavicius' birthday I'd just been watching this teaser for his new movie called Redoubtable, which has my beloved Louis Garrel playing the director Jean-Luc Godard, and...
... wowza! What a difference a
bald-patch can make. Watch it at this link.
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3 comments:
I think all of its Oscars were incredibly well deserved. It was a beautifully shot and acted movie with moments of great poignancy, humor and even surprise.
I was watching it on my laptop and my husband was sitting across from me, not really paying attention. When you hear the sound of the pen (cup? It's been a year or two since I've rewatched it) my husband literally shot up and said, "what was that?"
Looking at the movies it was against (for Best Picture, at least), a lot of them were 100% Oscar bait, in my opinion. Extremely Loud&Incredibly Close, Hugo, Moneyball, The Tree of Life and War Horse seemed to be made purely to be nominated for Oscars. The Help and The Descendants had moments of goodness but there was a lot of dragging. As far as Midnight in Paris goes, I'm a Woody Allen fan but that fell short (at least best picture short) in my opinion.
It's similar, I think, to people who attack Shakespeare in Love for winning Best Picture. The Artist does something in a creative, lovely way. Jean Dujardin is perfection in the role.
I cannot defend this movie enough.
I agree with the post above. I just cannot figure out why the tide turned on The Artist. How can you not have a great time watching this movie? It's so beautifully crafted, and just such a darn good time. And I don't think it's an oscar bait movie at all; A black and white silent movie, with two un-known leads (unknown outside of France) - is not oscar bait, not in the way that War Horse or Incredibly Loud so obviously are. Row-bin you're right to compare it to Shakespeare In Love, another well-deserved best picture winner that everyone unfairly turned on.
It was my favourite movie of that year, I'll defend it always.
To be clear, I don't hate The Artist. It's a perfectly fun movie and Dujardin gave one of my favorite performances of the year in it.
And the movies it was up against for Best Picture were generally awful (although I probably like Hugo more).
But movies that also came out that year? MELONCHOLIA and YOUNG ADULT and KILL LIST and A SEPARATION and I SAW THE DEVIL and TAKE SHELTER and MARTHA MARCY MAY MARLENE and CERTIFIED COPY and WEEKEND and BEGINNERS and DRIVE and SHAME.
And any of those kick The Artist's arse in my opinion. :)
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