“Here is one of the most entertaining films in many a moon, a film that charms because of its story, its performances and because of the sly way it plays with being silent and black and white.”
Roger Ebert’s review of The Artist
“One day, the world says to you, ‘You’re part of the past.’ It can happen in your own office, in your factory, in your relationship. It’s a feeling any person can understand.”
Michel Hazanavicius
On the fading silent screen star in The Artist which he wrote and directed.
(Isn’t that basically the theme of Toy Story 3, The Natural, Seabiscuit, The Grey Fox, and The Obsolete Man (from The Twilight Zone)?
“I decided to gain some inspiration and become reacquainted with the genre by watching a number of silent movies—French, German, Russian, English, and American. The Russian silent films were very interesting for their editing, and the German films were about expressionism which went beyond the cinema and captured the movement of society. But I began to really focus on the last four to five years of the American silent era. The style of the last days of American silent film is essentially the same style in which we share in modern cineplexes. You don’t watch these films as if they are pieces of a museum. They live and breathe as if they were made today. When you watch, say, The Crowd by King Vidor, it’s a masterpiece. It’s a modern story about a man facing society. This is the basis of the American culture and the American movie—which hasn’t changed much since the ’20s and ’30s.”
Michel Hazanavicius
On the inspiration behind his film The Artist
Script magazine, Volume 18/Number 1
P.S. Speaking about “You’re part of the past,” just a few days ago The Wall Street Journal wrote about Eastman Kodak Co. preparing to file for bandruptcy protection. The 131-year old company that once provided much of the film for those great silent films has struggled in the digital age. At stake are 19,000 jobs as well as obligations for pensions and health costs.
In the article by Mike Spector and Dana Mattioli they point out that Kodak in its prime was the Apple or Google of its time, and quote a former employee as saying, “We had this self-imposed opinion of ourselves that we could do anything, that we were undefeatable.” Kodak as a company isn’t dead, but the decline of the company that in the ’70s generated 90% of the film sales in the United States will make for a fascinating documentary someday—shot on a digital camera, of course.
[…] “Here is one of the most entertaining films in many a moon, a film that charms because of its story, its performances and because of the sly way it plays with being silent and black and white.” Roger Ebert’s review of The Artist “One day, the world says to you, ‘You’re part of the past.’ […] Original Source… […]