The Artist, 2011

The Artist, 2011
Director: Michel Hazanavicius
Cast: Jean Dujardin, Berenice Bejo, John Goodman,



The Artist in short: Outside a movie premiere, enthusiastic fan Peppy Miller literally bumps into the swashbuckling hero of the silent film, George Valentin. The star reacts graciously and Peppy plants a kiss on his cheek as they are surrounded by photographers. The headlines demand: "Who's That Girl?" and Peppy is inspired to audition for a dancing bit-part at the studio. However as Peppy slowly rises through the industry, the introduction of talking-pictures turns Valentin's world upside-down.


Preps: The first one after the Oscar night. Five oscars. The best movie of the year included. I presumed it's a marketing trick and that it's not that good as all claim it is supposed to be. Like the fashion fly you see and you are addicted about a few days, then you are wondering what the hell happened to your intelligent mind to be tricked this way :) But let's see.



Reality: the story is one of the most real ones in any show business /art. There comes a time when the star of the year is jsut a thing of the past. Eaten by time, another star, another style. Dealing with this makes most of artist sway away from their initial energy drive and in most cases they fall to their knees, because they are not willing to adapt. To the trends, to the people, to the show as it is from the new point on.
The divide between the silent movie and the movie as we now it today, was striking through the roof. I am sure the story can be easily placed in that time. I kept wondering who did this Dujardin look like. Then I remembered, he reminded me of one of the greatest clasics, Gone with the Wind and Rhett Buttler (1939 movie; with Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh, I loved this piece). So I like the guy already. The charm he has, is (I swear) just as if I was watching Gone with the wind, where I absolutely dreamt of meeting a Rhett Buttler for me one day. So I am bought. On the other hand, the first lady in the house, Berenice Bejo, is like Ginger Rogers or some nice exception in Vivien Leigh as Scarlett O' Hara. The energy between the two is seen, noticed, remarkable.
Now, the only thing that a silent movie can be praised and understood upon, is the music. The most important part of the movie, if we don't hear it. What happened with music in this piece, I don't know. But it's the shittiest part of this movie and makes it very average. Such a shame. I believe it might have been truly one of the greatest heroic deeds this time, but because the music doesn't reflect what the charactes are saying, I am pointing my thumbs down. See and judge for yourself. Don't get me wrong. The selection of the music is good. It is not just a lovely music to hear, it's the music to dry your bones of emotions. But the asshole that placed the tunes where they are in scenes, doesn't know what he/she is doing. Because not that they don't back the scenes we are watching, you need to really guess if the couple is fighting or not, are you supposed to feel sorry for someone, etc. The sound doesn't do the job and it's one of my biggest dissappointments in this piece. Don't want to see a silent movie if it doesn't know how to place the music. I am speaking for most of the scenes. In some of them they really took the right piece to back it up. But the most of them are out of tune.
I was dissappointed to the point where I could just walk out of the movie and erase it. There are some brilliant ideas in the movie. The dog. I love it. The fashion. I want to embrace it. The looks of the two main characters. I would love to look like that and to taste like this on big screen. Plus, the energy between them. Like Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire.
Is it a marketing trick? I believe it is. Something different, something we didn't see before. Something the whole world would just stare at, with mouth wide open and yearning of something creative. Anyway, in my eyes, it's not enough. I don't want to guess what the main characters said. The music is supposed to tell me. So I am a bit stubborn and want the whole deal. Plus, the War Horse didn't get a thing, and in my eyes, more than one attribute to win over The Artist.


My personal rating: 6,0 (something new on the market, watchable. I want it to work with music, though. This is why I take a lot of points out of this piece. The story, however, is solid and a classic, the energy between the two is extraordinary).

The Artist on IMDB

In the Electric Mist, 2009

In the Electric Mist, 2009
Director: Bertrand Tavernier
Cast: Tommy Lee Jones, John Goodman, Peter Sarsgaard



Electric Mist in short: Lt. Dave Robicheaux, a detective in New Iberia, Louisiana, is trying to link the murder of a local hooker to New Orleans mobster Julie (Baby Feet) Balboni, who is co-producer of a Civil War film. At the same time, after Elrod Sykes, the star of the film, reports finding another corpse in the Atchafalaya Swamp near the movie set, Robicheaux starts another investigation, believing the corpse to be the remains of a black man who he saw being murdered 35 years before.


Stage: Local art cinema Dvor


Preps: The piece is recommended by a friend of mine, whose opinion counts a lot. Furthermore, I get to see the synopsis and seems like a good thriller or at least a good crime movie. Therefore, a must-see.



Reality: Well, it has a good start and push of the imagination. The scenes change so quickly you need to focus quite hard to follow. Then after a while, the main float of the movie, the main theme just somehow vaporizes in a shape of different scenes that don't seem to be connected at all, but in the end you figure they are (or at least to some extent, your brain discovers the unrivaled truth that maybe you just didn't pay the needed attention to get your puzzle pieces stick together). Well, one thing is certain and true from the very beginning; this is one of unusual movies you get to see when choosing a non-american director. This is also a plus to the movie. And of course, also the reason for my dissappointment. Normalwise you would get the movie to reveal the murders and to chase the criminals and in its end, you would get your curiosity satisfied.

In this case you don't get anything like this. However, you get to play with the connections that chase you from your past (is it that past describes the way you will evolve or explains the kind of person you are?) The movie implies that it does and also has some christianity hidden inside - you will be punished for your sins, sooner or later.

The good point of the piece would be bringing attention to something that americans wanted to brush under the rug - the crimes that noone seems to admit they happened, the natural disasters (Katrin) that influenced people's lives in so many ways and last, but not the least, the civil war that happened and got a lot of people to suffer.
In the movie, the resemblance or the memoirs of the civil war seem like a cartoon inside the movie. But in reality, right at the end, you see the vision the director had in how to connect both worlds as you see the Robicheaux in a photo with all the other soldiers - as you had the impression it was a movie set. The passing between a movie set (filming of a movie in that city) and the civil war soldiers, just running around, is smooth, the director doesn't pull a distinctive line between past/forgotten past and reality - to the viewer it just seems somehow awquard and visionary - as Hood seems to know what happened, what is happening and what is going to happen - like a bad conscience of Robicheaux.

Maybe worth seeing another time to get to the bottom. Am not sure. Left the movies with mixed feelings. And somehow empty in the result department (answers that were never there, questions that popped out.. like it wasn't supposed to end like that).


My personal rating: 5,0 (I guess despite the superb cast and superb scenes in the movie, too many riddles remain unsolved and a big stretch from the main story doesn't inspire me the way it was supposed to. The expectations for this piece went another way. )


Electric Mist on IMDB

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