Thanks to Jonas Nordin at his blog, All Talking! All Singing! All Dancing! I've learned about a new film that sounds like something I will definitely want to see. THE ARTIST, a movie by French director Michael Hazanavicius had its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in May of this year and since I usually don't keep up with the whole panoply of new films unless I'm hit over the head with a great review or an intriguing bit of casting news, I'd never heard of it until today.
THE ARTIST is a surprise, a silent film done in black and white with a synchronized score and sound effects and a short dialogue sequence at the end in the style of the 1920's. It's all about the rise and fall of a 20's silent film star. But what struck me the most when I saw the amazing trailer is the incredibly 1920's/30's 'look' of actor Jean Dujardin. Is it only a Frenchman who can look like this? I admit it, I was dazzled. (Uggy the Jack Russell terrier won me over too.) The film also features American actors, James Cromwell and John Goodman.
All I can say is, I can't wait to see THE ARTIST. Hopefully it will show up in this country and on Netflix at some point.
Link to the wonderful trailer here. (There's a short color trailer of a German film to sit through quickly before THE ARTIST trailer begins.)
And read this review by Skukhdev Sandhu in The Telegraph.
Sounds like a winner, doesn't it?
Uggy and Jean Dujardin
_The Artist_ is now listed on Netflix,but it is in the SAVE category, not yet available. So, it should eventually be available.
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ReplyDeleteThe last one was littered with embarrassing typos. Ugh. Here's what I meant to type:
ReplyDeleteJean Du Jardin is not only damn good looking, but a very funny actor. You should check out the spy movie spoofs based on a series of French spy novels about a secret agent whose code name is OSS 117. in France the books are more popular than James Bond and there were hundreds of them. There were also several movies made of them in France. But the two most recent were done as spoofs not only of the books but of the entire secret agent movie genre. They make fun not only of all the 1960 spy movie cliches, but the way spy movies - espceially the Sean Connery Bond movies - were filmed. Lots of cinematography jokes, screenwriting gimmick jokes. Plus the character is an unabashed racist and chauvinist. It's all tongue in cheek and utterly hysterical. I think you'd get a kick out of them. Genuine movie fans tend to appreciate them all the more. Both are available from Netflix.
OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies
OSS 117: Lost in Rio
Yvonne: This looks like a great film. And Jean Du Jardin looks like he stepped out of a Thin Man movie. Yummy!
ReplyDelete@John: Love the sound of the French spy-spoof movies! "Oh, Brad (husband)...I've got something to put in the Netflix queue...."
Thanks, Fred. Good to know. I'm really looking forward to this one.
ReplyDeleteJohn: Wow, great to know all this. I will definitely watch these films on Netflix. Thanks for the info. The heck with typos!
ReplyDeleteBev: Yes, isn't he something? I'm still sighing....! I'm headed to Netflix to move some stuff around on my queue.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for bringing this movie to my attention! The trailer was wonderful!
ReplyDeleteYou're right Jean Dujardin does get the look right. He has dazzled me too. :-)
Oh, these suave, debonair French men, the reason for ruin for so many poor young women, who fall for their charm.
ReplyDeleteIt looks like a great movie. Uggy definitely wins me over. Adorable.
wutheringwillow: You're welcome. It's a film that needs some talking about. It looks marvelous.
ReplyDeleteJean Dejardin....sigh!
I just watched one of his spy movies on Netflix (well, last night, actually) - it's a spoof of James Bond. Dujardin is wonderful!
Kathy: Yes, doesn't it? I can't wait to see it. I am smitten by both man and dog. Ha!
ReplyDeleteJohn: I watched one of the James Bond spy spoofs last night. Jean Dujardin is my new favorite actor. I am hooked! I'll be watching the second film tonight. Thanks again for the tip.
ReplyDeleteYou're so welcome! Of the two I think I liked the Cairo one better. Lost in Rio has a better plot if I recall correctly. Cairo has a lot more parody of the whole genre. Especially in the way action scenes are shot. I love the chase scenes where he would run down an alley, pause, look over his shoulder, then look left, then right and then run again. That's why I think real movie fans will get double the jokes in these movies. And even though the character is a racist chauvinist he's paradoxically charming and sexy. He's an irresistible actor. If an American film company did this kind of thing they'd cast one of these a--hole comics and he'd screw up the whole vibe with outright misogynism minus all the charm. DuJardin is perfect.
ReplyDeleteI know, John. I'm in love. Ha! He is SO wonderful. It's amazing to me that I've never heard of him before. But then I'm not up on all the latest, especially in French cinema - which, by the way, I mostly love.
ReplyDeleteIn the beginning of this Cairo film, they show a few minutes of b/w with Dujardin in a mustache looking suave and very 40's. I wonder if that's where they got the idea for THE ARTIST. He wears a stache in that one too. And looks mighty fine. The trailer is magnifique.
Yvette (and John, if you're still peeking in): I just watched the Cairo movie tonight! What glorious fun. Dujardin is marvelous. I love how expressive he is with his eyebrows. And, you're right--the b/w was very suave and debonair. Sigh....
ReplyDeleteOh...and I love, love, love the scene where he's playing with the band!
ReplyDeleteBev: Isn't it fun? I meant to watch the Rio one today, but time got away from me. Maybe tomorrow.
ReplyDeleteThe Cairo one just made me laugh. The chickens - the lights on and off. I howled. What a chump. I just love Jean Dujardin. He's my new crush. :)
I wonder what other films he's been in. I'm definitely going to find out.
Truly fantastic and I can say truly one of a kind for I love every detail of it and every scene is so captivating.
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