THE UNFETTERED CRITIC

In l929, silent film icon Charlie Chaplin angrily told an interviewer, “They are spoiling the oldest art in the world—the art of pantomime.” He was referring to studio moguls who were installing recording equipment in order to produce “talkies.”

Chaplin’s words fell on deaf ears, of course. Most film fans today can’t conceive of an era when the only sound in the theater came from a live organist seated at the base of the screen. Culture today just wouldn’t be the same without universally recognized audible lines like, “Frankly my dear, I don’t give a damn,” “We’ll always have Paris,” and “Snakes—why did it have to be snakes?”

By the early l930s, the entire film industry had switched to sound. The only major “silent” motion pictures produced since then are the l952 Ray Milland spy thriller The Thief, and Mel Brooks’ l976 comedy titled, appropriately, Silent Movie. (Brooks’ film did include one word of dialogue, delivered, ironically, by the great mime Marcel Marceau.)

So industry insiders were surprised—and dubious—when word spread that an entry at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival was a full-length, black-and-white, silent film, written, produced and directed by a little-known French filmmaker and starring two equally unfamiliar French actors. They were even more surprised when, at the end of the screening, they found themselves jumping to their feet to give director Michel Hazanavicius and actors Jean Dujardin and Bérénice Béjo a thunderous standing ovation.

In tribute to the great silent filmmakers of the past, Hazanavicius has created The Artist, a “rise of the talkies” story that Chaplain might have identified with. George Valentin (Dujardin) is the reigning silent star of the day; think Douglas Fairbanks or Rudolph Valentino. Suddenly sound explodes into theatres, and George’s career is in jeopardy because he refuses to change with the times. Meanwhile, in dances beautiful ingénue Peppy Miller (Béjo), whose face, form and footwork fit the format like sprocket holes to a sound projector. And Peppy just happens to be in love with George.

You’ve seen aspects of this story before. Silent vs. sound led the way for Debbie Reynolds and Gene Kelley’s romance in Singing in the Rain. And A Star is Born’s many incarnations related the sad tale of an incandescent new star’s rise marking the decline of an old familiar one. Hazanavicius makes these themes and others his own to demonstrate that a film doesn’t need dialogue to touch the heart.

Interestingly, The Artist is only partially French. It was shot in Hollywood, on historic soundstages built during the silent era. The mansion Peppy lives in once belonged to real life silent star Mary Pickford. Adding to the film’s appeal to non-French audiences are the American co-stars that fill out the cast. John Goodman plays the cigar-chomping studio head who gives up on George; James Cromwell plays the loyal chauffeur/servant who doesn’t.

One additional American actor would have remained speechless even if The Artist had been a talkie: George’s four-footed best friend, played by Uggie, a California-born Jack Russell Terrier. Uggie’s misspent youth had him bound for the pound until animal trainer Omar Von Muller rescued him. Now a working actor, Uggie’s performance in The Artist has won him a Palm Dog Award at Cannes and “Top Dog” at the annual Golden Collar Awards.

Uggie’s co-workers on the film are finding similar success. So far, The Artist has collected top honors from the Golden Globes, the Directors’ and Producers’ Guilds of America, the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, and the American Film Institute.

Will it receive similar accolades at the Academy Awards on Sunday, February 26? As we write this, we don’t know. But we predict the Oscars ceremony will be yet another love fest for The Artist, an affectionate tip of the hat to old-fashioned Hollywood filmmaking. How can Hollywood resist?

Paula and Terry Each have long impressive-sounding resumes implying that they are battle-scarred veterans of life within the Hollywood studios. They’re now happily relaxed into Jacksonville.