I can not believe my eyes. An average 8.4 rating in IMDb? This? Really? I think the only answer to my bewilderment must be the marketing campaign behind this title, and the prestige the Oscar give to it. And how can this movie, with a commonplace script (so simple, predictable, and slow it makes you nervous), with a story so old fashioned and a staging so plain I was taking glimpses of my watch within 40 minutes into the movie, knowing already how the story would evolve, and what would be the ending, how can a film like this be nominated and win so many prizes???? My only answer is, ironically, the cinema era is finished, and we have produced nothing more valuable that this. I say ironically, because the The Artist dwells precisely in the same spot, the crisis cinema went through when it went from silent to sound. Now, I think we are living the end of the big cinema industry, and the emigration of every talent to TV. The aesthetics of The ARtist can be spared, though. Specially the protagonist dresses, really marvelous, the faces and smiles of both protagonists, really gorgeous, the black and white silent (with music) elements, and the 4:3 screen, to celebrate old times. But at the same time, it is an insult to those marvelous silent movies, to Chaplin, and Keaton for example, with stories so exciting and original they are still modern today, and of course, to Sunset Boulevard, the wonderful B. Wilder film about the decadence of golden era film stars. That was ART. This is only a (succesful) attempt to make money.
Review of The Artist
