Copyright 2012 Ben S. Pollock<\/small><\/p>\n
I knew what to expect of The Artist,<\/em> a “silent” film, meaning no talking, though it did have sound effects and music (and beforehand, ironically, the loudest-volume trailers since those running with Avatar<\/em>).<\/p>\n Still, the teenage box office cashier warned My Beloved and me, while giving me $7 change for a twenty, “You know, right, there’s no talking in this one, don’t you? And it’s black-and-white. I’m supposed to tell you that.” The reminder was an order by her management, who’d heard the reports of movie goes demanding refunds over the lack of dialogue.<\/p>\n She did not know if anything like that<\/a> had happened at the Malco Razorback in Fayetteville, Arkansas.<\/p>\n About two-thirds of the way through The Artist,<\/em> only 100 minutes long, I saw a youngish man and a youngish woman walk out of the movie (they weren’t together). I wanted to hiss, “Punks! Does grabbing that half-hour mean that much to you, compared to junk I know you sit through?”<\/p>\n I liked The Artist<\/em><\/a> a lot. Liked Tree of Life<\/em> a lot. Enthralled by Hugo<\/em>. There was The Descendants,<\/em> liked that a lot, too. These are among the current Oscar Best Picture nominees that I saw.<\/p>\n MB and I went to these movies on the basis of critical acclaim. Hitting the parking lot, before we starting talking them through, I’d wonder each time, is this one Best Picture quality by my lights?<\/p>\n What qualifies as a great movie for me? I treasure quality. But that translates to competence — if every piece of the movie — script, direction, acting, appropriate music, appropriate effects — is spot-on, well, isn’t that their job?<\/p>\n Superlative for me means that the movie has had a profound impact on me. Two standards: First, it expanded my outlook or philosophy. The second standard is lower but still can make a movie great: Do certain scenes or even images meld into my mind immediately or later?<\/p>\n Let’s call those Who’d’ve-thunk? moments. Great movies like Sophie’s Choice<\/em> and Apocalypse Now<\/em> have maybe 10 of those moments each, minimum. Those two movies also hit my upper standard as well, outlook-changing \/ personal philosophy enhancing. But the lesser movie Cotton Club<\/em> has enough of Who’d’ve-thunks to make my Great Movie list (among others: its Gwynne-Hoskins watch scene<\/a> and Gregory Hines gun-riddled solo dance<\/a>; by gosh, Gere was<\/em> right for his part).<\/p>\n In that light, for 2011 movies The Artist<\/em> is the closest to that standard of these movies. But I just am not sure. So, in the drizzly sleety season of best-of lists, what recent Oscar nominees were great?<\/p>\n What follows then is a year-by-year search for subjective greatness, with memory-jogging by oscars.org of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Perhaps half of these movies I saw first on DVD at home. To keep this medium-long, I don’t list other solid movies, that aren’t up to this level.<\/p>\n Still, it’ll sound like we two movies every weekend. But it’s barely one a month in a theater and another one or two a month at home.<\/p>\n The Descendants,<\/em> solid family melodrama. Midnight in Paris,<\/em> I should’ve liked this movie (Woody Allen, the plot, the era it honors) more than I did. Tree of Life,<\/em> a wonderful movie but a falls-short one.<\/p>\n And here are 2011 movies nominated in other categories: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo,<\/em> now non-novel readers who missed the Swedish adaption can see what the fuss was about. The concluding Harry Potter<\/em> movie deserves awards representing the whole series, as was done with the concluding third Lord of the Rings<\/em>.<\/p>\n Considering all of the remakes that pass for blockbusters in recent years, The Artist<\/em> echoes two of my great movies, Singing in the Rain<\/em> and Mel Brooks’ Silent Movie.<\/em><\/p>\n Yes, Brooks’ Silent Movie<\/em><\/a> is on my Great Movie List, though ranking under Young Frankenstein,<\/em> The Producers (1968)<\/em> and Blazing Saddles<\/em> but above The Producers<\/em> (2005)). Full of who’d’ve-thunks, of the giggling sort.<\/p>\n The third movie it echoes, or the third, fourth and fifth movies, is A Star Is Born<\/a><\/em>, which has been made three times (a fourth<\/a> remake is “in development,” by Clint Eastwood of all people). None of those movies quite meets the potential of the plot (mid-career star with problems meets rising star); maybe that’s why it gets remade every couple decades. On that level, The Artist<\/em> is the first Star Is Born<\/em> that works.<\/p>\n Singing in the Rain<\/em> is the closest parallel. It and Casablanca<\/em> (and the first five Marx Brothers features) are at the top of my Great Movies list. The Gene Kelly vehicle parallels The Artist<\/em> in plot points, and the history it chronicles. But The Artist is not a remake and more of a wink than an homage. I bet its star Jean Dujardin would be the first to say he’s not close to the dancer Kelly was, though Dujardin has a number of dances, and he’s good. Kelly’s title dance and the Surreal dance are this show’s top who’d’ve-thunks as well as every single frame Donald O’Connor is on screen.<\/p>\n Let’s just stop 4 minutes and see the trailer of Singing in the Rain.<\/em><\/p>\n2012<\/a> (movies officially released in 2011)<\/h3>\n
The Artist<\/h4>\n