The Artist (2011)

-When I first saw that I would need to watch a silent movie I thought that it would be old fashioned and hard to understand seeing as there is no speech. I knew that music would play but I didn’t really think that I would find the film very interesting. In the film: The Artist, the story follows the main character George’s fall from fame to a broke washed up actor. This is because he is a silent movie actor and as time goes on, silent films are replaced by talking films. George meets a girl named Peppy and starts to love her as she becomes famous, even in the talking movies. However as George gets poor and isolated he looses touch with Peppy. Close to the end of the film, when George has lost everything and almost ends his life, Peppy comes to the rescue and helps George get his passion for dancing and silent acting back. I think that the plot did make sense – the music really helped to tell the actors had good body communication to show how they felt. I understood the plot much more than I thought I would. The plot of the film was believable as it follows what could easily happen to actors at that time, whilst following silent film conventions by using text to show what someone says and relying heavily on music to express the feelings of the actors. In the end I did enjoy the film as I found it very exciting and sad at times, it was also the first silent movie I had watched other than in one of the episodes of the 2011 Sooty And Sweep. My favourite parts of the movie were the exciting end scene and watching Peppy and George’s journey as a duo. My favourite scene – the one where Peppy saves George’s life was my favourite because it was very sad when George almost dies, with the intense music and the distress of his dog putting it all together. That with cuts to Peppy’s mad car driving made it very exciting. The ‘BANG’ was clever because it makes you think the gun went off when it was actually the car. This gives the watcher a sudden suspense and dread followed by relief when Peppy rushes in to save George. I would recommend this film to people who maybe haven’t watched a silent film before and are looking for one to start with. As well as older people who used to watch silent movies so they can have a look at how much they have changed over the years. Overall I give this movie a 7/10.