The Artist

2011 Directed by Michel Hazanavicius

A Breath Of Fresh Vintage Air

Hollywood, 1927: As silent movie star George Valentin wonders if the arrival of talking pictures will cause him to fade into oblivion, he sparks with Peppy Miller, a young dancer set for a big break.

Jean Dujardin Bérénice Bejo John Goodman James Cromwell Penelope Ann Miller Malcolm McDowell Missi Pyle Beth Grant Ed Lauter Joel Murray Ken Davitian Elizabeth Tulloch Basil Hoffman Bill Fagerbakke Nina Siemaszko Stephen Mendillo Dash Pomerantz Beau Nelson Alex Holliday Wiley M. Pickett Ben Kurland Katie Nisa Katie Wallack Hal Landon Jr. Sarah Karges Sarah Scott Ezra Buzzington Stuart Pankin Andy Milder Show All…

Alternative Titles

El artista, Umelec, Umjetnik, Ha'artist, 아티스트, Glumac

romance drama comedy

100 mins More details at IMDb TMDb Report this film

Popular reviews

Review by Austin Burke ★★★★ 3

✅76%
2011 list - Click HERE
Is The Artist Best Picture worthy? Not necessarily (for me), but it was a weak year for nominees. The best films were ones that would have never been nominated for Best Picture (for the most part). Is this a bad movie? No it isn’t. It isn’t necessarily a film that had me intrigued within the first 20 minutes, but it slowly sucked me into its world. It’s the last of the Best Picture Winners I needed to see before making my video, and I’m glad I was able to see it. It’s extremely well-made and directed. It isn’t the kind of film that speaks to me, but it all comes down to what you’re looking…
Review by CinemaClown ★★★★ 8

Winner of 5 Academy Awards including Best Picture, The Artist is an awe-inspiring ode to the silent era of cinema and is filmed with such fine elegance & precision artistry that it was too difficult for me to wipe the grin off my face while watching it. An enthralling work of indelible charm, every frame of this silent feature pays its tribute in the most respectful manner possible but also succeeds in carving out its very own identity in the process.
Set in Hollywood during the years when talkies were being introduced into cinema, The Artist focuses on the relationship between a major silent film star & an aspiring young actress who bump into each other during the premiere of the former's…
Review by DirkH ★★ 21

Boy, was I disappointed.
I was looking forward to this film, of course fuelled by the hype surrounding it, the Oscar nominations it got and the prizes it had already won. For me it was merely a gimmicky, thinly stretched exercise in style.
Now don't get me wrong, I really appreciate what they were trying to do here. Anyone who wants to make an ode to cinema has got my vote and I applaud them for that. I just feel by wrapping it all in a flimsy, incredibly shallow plot they caused me to lose interest.
Dujardin's performance has been praised a lot, but I found him to be very one-dimensional. Sure he has got incredible charm and an unmistakable…
Review by Evan ★★★ 11

I liked the movie, but Best Picture...? Seriously!?
Review by Doug Tilley ★★★ 4

It looks great. It - perhaps ironically - sounds great. The acting is fine, particularly from Jean Dujardin and Uggie the dog. But while the novelty of a modern silent film is fun (with all due respect to Mel Brooks SILENT MOVIE), it feels more like a stylistic exercise or a short film stretched to feature length rather than a complete work. It's so slight and breezy, and instantly forgettable.
Review by Adam Cook ★★★★ 6

In the past couple of years we have had a number of films look back to fertile periods of cinema’s history; from Scorsese’s love letter to the pioneering greats in Hugo to the Spielbergian fan-fiction of Abrams’, Super 8. Whilst both were undoubtedly affectionate towards those movies that inspired them the end results were rather lifeless and never quite recaptured the true brilliance of the film’s that initially influenced them. Despite the plethora of awards I was fully expecting The Artist to be another handsomely made but hollow facsimile of past greats, but on this occasion it pleases me to be very wrong indeed.
The Artist ended up being not only a loving homage to the silent era of Hollywood…

Recent reviews

Review by James Milstead ★★★★

THE ARTIST (PG)
D: Michael Hazanavicius
The Weinstein Company (Thomas Langmann)
USA/France 🇺🇸 🇫🇷 2011
100 mins
Comedy/Drama
W: Michael Hazanavicius
DP: Guillaume Schiffman
Ed: Michael Hazanavicius & Anne-Sophie Bion
Mus: Ludovic Bource
Pd: Laurence Bennett
Cos: Mark Bridges
Jean Dujardin (George Valentin), Berenice Bejo (Peppy Miller), James Cromwell (Clifton), John Goodman (Al Zimmer), Penelope Ann Miller (Doris), Malcolm McDowell (The Butler), Uggie (The Dog)
A silent film about a Hollywood leading song & dance star who becomes worried about his appeal following the birth of the 'talkies' and the decline of silent movies.
On artistic merit, The Artist is an excellent production. Meticulous to detail in every way and the two main performances are superbly acted (although both are arguably upstaged…
Review by EliaN ★★★★

If Tarantino had made a movie about the 1920's, it would basically be this.
I had a smile on my face the whole time.
Just a sweet little movie about the classical silent actor getting pushed out for the new hot thing, the talkies. The film does two things quite well, it emulates films from the 1920s, perfectly encapsulating what works in those films, treading the fine line and swiftly avoids being a copy to be an homage, and it deftly utilizes knowledge of audience expectations plays with those expectations often. The simplistic story works so well and yet still has a profound amount of emotion throughout. To be so brave in 2011 to try a film so different, it was an absolute delight to watch this.
Review by Freddie_Laidler ★★★★★

Beautiful.
Review by Libby Caldwell ★★½ 2

Films Watched in 2020 - Film 101
100 Degrees Challenge - Film 67/100
Wasn’t engaged at all, still need to see The King’s Speech but so far this is easily my least favourite Best Picture winner of the 2010’s.
Review by Shane ★★★

Has anyone actually watched this since it came out? Come on, be honest.
Review by J. Matthew Lucas ★★

One of the biggest problems with The Academy Awards is that its selections are choices of the moment. This perhaps isn’t a problem on its face, but considering they’re handing out the highest honors in all of film, and perhaps media, their selections kind of get etched in stone for all time. It’s therefore more than a bit problematic to me that they choose films that have their fancy that particular week, which is more often than not even the best of the other films they have nominated. If “1917” wins for instance this year, it will absolutely be a case of its gimmicky nature and coming out in late December. We won’t be talking it at all a year,…
Review by cigarettes ★★★½

While I don't think I wouldn't have enjoyed this film as much if not for the amount of craft and technical achievement on display, I'm in awe at the amount of beauty and precision on display here. While simple on paper the amount of nuance in the acting here is truly astounding. A great film that's really only held back because this is such a tired story we've seen time and time again that being said I believe The Artist is a fresh take on this story.
Review by Vin ★★★

The Oscars fiasco exposed
Best picture and Best actor.
'Singin in the rain' but for teens that don't know what 'Singin in the rain' is....or the film...
Why Dujardin won the oscar for best actor came from the hype this "Cool" Black and white film gave to moviegoers and also hollywood played the card.
The film is great but not for best actor win, but honestly, i don't see any other strong contender beside Gary Oldman that year soo....
In the middle.
This is mostly about the film, a remake of 'Singin in the rain'.
Review by fiascotic ★★★★½

Beautiful take on the life of an artist, their glamorous exterior and dark interiors.