The Artist
Film of the year? Possibly. A genuinely brilliant cinematic experience? Without question. The Artist is a 100 minute French silent film may not sound like the most appealing proposition in 2011 but put aside any preconceptions and prepare yourself for one of the year’s real gems.
The immensely charismatic Jean Dujardin plays George Valentin, a silent movie star in Hollywood in the 1920s. With changing technology and films moving into the realm of the ‘talkies’, Valentin stubbornly refuses to move with the times and before long his audiences are dwindling and his career is in ruins. His fall from grace coincides with Peppy Miller’s rise to stardom (a wonderful Berenice Bejo), a rise Valentin helped instigate.
