By: LAURA EMERICK
Source: http://www.suntimes.com
Category: Film School Online
HOLLYWOOD — Introducing his silent-era homage “The Artist” before an AFI Film Festival screening last month at Grauman’s Chinese Theater, director Michel Hazanavicius looked like he was having the ultimate “pinch me” moment.
“I can’t believe we’re back here in Hollywood, where we made ‘The Artist’ but also where the first stars once walked,” said Hazanavicius, gesturing to the palatial splendor of Grauman’s, built in 1927, near the end of the silent era, which produced such greats as Douglas Fairbanks, Gloria Swanson, John Gilbert and Greta Garbo.
Those stars, their legacy and especially their magic are conjured up in “The Artist,” Hazanavicius’ valentine to early Hollywood, before the talkies took over. As the French-born director best known for the spy spoofs “OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies” (2006) and “OSS 117: Lost in Rio” (2009), he might seem to be an unlikely choice for a black-and-white silent that’s a cross between the quintessentially American films “Singin’ in the Rain” and “A Star Is Born.” But he didn’t let that stop him.
“I wasn’t worried about being a Frenchman taking on the most American of artforms,” he said, laughing, in a phone interview a few weeks after Grauman’s gala event, where he was joined onstage by many members of the film’s international cast: the French-speaking leads Jean Dujardin and Berenice Bejo; Americans James Cromwell, John Goodman, Penelope Ann Miller and Missi Pyle, and Briton Malcolm McDowell. “If I was, I would have done something else. You have doubts, yes, but that’s normal. I was attracted to the [silent] format. I consciously took the opportunity to tell this specifically American story — maybe it might seem presumptuous to some. But Hollywood is not so exclusively American, it belongs to the entire world.”
Yes, but as several observers have noted, a silent, black-and-white, French-made film goes against everything the studio system stands for in 2011. “It’s like when you play chess, when you’re part of the game, you see things differently, like maybe an American director would not [see],” he said. “Then again, I don’t think of myself as a French director. Also, we tried to find an American spirit, an American way to tell the story.”
If critics’ awards are a barometer, then Hazanavicius and his cast and crew have succeeded. “The Artist,” which opens Friday in Chicago, has won best film honors from the New York Film Critics Circle (and several other critics’ groups), leads this year’s Golden Globes race with six nominations and looks to be an odds-on favorite for the Oscars.
Though it’s now a critics’ darling, it’s a film that almost didn’t get made. French-born producer Thomas Langmann, whose credits include the films “Mesrine: Public Enemy No. 1” and “Mesrine: Killer Instinct” (and who’s the son of noted French director Claude Berri), tried to talk Hazanavicius into directing something else. “He wanted to make a movie with me, and I told him about this idea I had for ‘The Artist.’ He was doubtful at first, but I told him this is the one that I had to make.”
With Langmann onboard, Hazanavicius and his cast embarked for Hollywood. They filmed “The Artist” on the lots at Paramount and Warner Bros. (in nearby Burbank) and at several historic locales, including the Million Dollar Theatre, at 307 S. Broadway in downtown Los Angeles, and the first movie palace, built in 1918, by show-biz mogul Sid Grauman. (In “The Artist,” the Million Dollar Theatre serves as the backdrop for the gala premiere in the film’s opening scenes.)
To get his cast in right frame of mind, so to speak, Hazanavicius screened for them such silent-era classics as King Vidor’s “The Crowd” (1928) and F.W. Murnau’s “Sunrise” (1927). “King Vidor’s ‘The Crowd’ is really very modern,” he said. “It’s about how a man faces society and how he learns to be an individual in that society.” Like George Valentin in “The Artist,” it’s about a man “facing a transition and crossing destinies. It’s a very American theme.”
He also ran the films of Fritz Lang and Tod Browning for his cast. He calls the latter’s “The Unknown” (1927), with Lon Chaney and Joan Crawford, “one of the most extraordinary movies I’ve ever watched. And [Josef] von Sternberg’s ‘Underworld’ [1927] and ‘The Docks of New York’ [1928], they are perfect, as are the silent films of John Ford. I’m not a big fan of D.W. Griffith. The same for [Cecil B.] de Mille. Their films didn’t age so well. But the others, yes. They still work today.”
When Hazanavicius wrote the script for “The Artist,” he used silent stars Gilbert and Fairbanks as inspiration. Bejo, his wife, who plays the ingenue Peppy Miller, immediately immersed herself in the era, and Dujardin signed on later. “He was a little bit afraid at the beginning. It took him a while to accept the idea. I knew ‘Singin’ in the Rain’ would be a comparison, so I told him he could look like Gene Kelly. But when you look closely, it’s very different. I’m very proud that we are a grandson of ‘Singin in Rain.’”
The film’s lineage also traces back to several other Hollywood classics. “I stole an entire segment — the breakfast montage — from ‘Citizen Kane.’ And there are touches of ‘Sunset Boulevard.’ I think it’s more ‘Sunset’ than ‘Singin’, actually.”
Plus, there’s an extraordinary sequence near the end, for which he used Bernard Herrmann’s famous “Scene d’Amour” theme from Hitchcock’s “Vertigo” (1958). “The ‘Vertigo’ music is here to help shape the emotional structure of the climax,” he said. “But it’s also heard in the finale [of ‘Vertigo’], and the theme worked perfectly here. It helps to create a sense of resolution.”
As for a resolution, there’s a happy ending, a la Ginger and Fred, for George and Peppy. But one question remains. Why “The Artist”?
“I didn’t choose that title,” he said, laughing. “The working title was ‘Peppy and George,’ and then it was ‘Beauty Spot’ [referring to the trademark look that Valentin gives Peppy]. I like that concept. The producer asked me what I thought of ‘The Artist.’ To me, [Valentin] is proud, selfish, egocentric. I don’t see how he’s an artist, but he thinks he’s an artist. Thomas said just try [using the title], just to see. Maybe the title is to convince other people. I think it works, but also it reminds me of the way they used to introduce characters in silent films [with title cards]. But I think maybe for him, it’s a very meta title, just in a way.”
Source: http://www.suntimes.com/entertainment/movies/9566419-421/the-artist-is-directors-love-letter-to-early-hollywood.html
Source: http://www.suntimes.com
Category: Film School Online
HOLLYWOOD — Introducing his silent-era homage “The Artist” before an AFI Film Festival screening last month at Grauman’s Chinese Theater, director Michel Hazanavicius looked like he was having the ultimate “pinch me” moment.
“I can’t believe we’re back here in Hollywood, where we made ‘The Artist’ but also where the first stars once walked,” said Hazanavicius, gesturing to the palatial splendor of Grauman’s, built in 1927, near the end of the silent era, which produced such greats as Douglas Fairbanks, Gloria Swanson, John Gilbert and Greta Garbo.
Those stars, their legacy and especially their magic are conjured up in “The Artist,” Hazanavicius’ valentine to early Hollywood, before the talkies took over. As the French-born director best known for the spy spoofs “OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies” (2006) and “OSS 117: Lost in Rio” (2009), he might seem to be an unlikely choice for a black-and-white silent that’s a cross between the quintessentially American films “Singin’ in the Rain” and “A Star Is Born.” But he didn’t let that stop him.
“I wasn’t worried about being a Frenchman taking on the most American of artforms,” he said, laughing, in a phone interview a few weeks after Grauman’s gala event, where he was joined onstage by many members of the film’s international cast: the French-speaking leads Jean Dujardin and Berenice Bejo; Americans James Cromwell, John Goodman, Penelope Ann Miller and Missi Pyle, and Briton Malcolm McDowell. “If I was, I would have done something else. You have doubts, yes, but that’s normal. I was attracted to the [silent] format. I consciously took the opportunity to tell this specifically American story — maybe it might seem presumptuous to some. But Hollywood is not so exclusively American, it belongs to the entire world.”
Yes, but as several observers have noted, a silent, black-and-white, French-made film goes against everything the studio system stands for in 2011. “It’s like when you play chess, when you’re part of the game, you see things differently, like maybe an American director would not [see],” he said. “Then again, I don’t think of myself as a French director. Also, we tried to find an American spirit, an American way to tell the story.”
If critics’ awards are a barometer, then Hazanavicius and his cast and crew have succeeded. “The Artist,” which opens Friday in Chicago, has won best film honors from the New York Film Critics Circle (and several other critics’ groups), leads this year’s Golden Globes race with six nominations and looks to be an odds-on favorite for the Oscars.
Though it’s now a critics’ darling, it’s a film that almost didn’t get made. French-born producer Thomas Langmann, whose credits include the films “Mesrine: Public Enemy No. 1” and “Mesrine: Killer Instinct” (and who’s the son of noted French director Claude Berri), tried to talk Hazanavicius into directing something else. “He wanted to make a movie with me, and I told him about this idea I had for ‘The Artist.’ He was doubtful at first, but I told him this is the one that I had to make.”
With Langmann onboard, Hazanavicius and his cast embarked for Hollywood. They filmed “The Artist” on the lots at Paramount and Warner Bros. (in nearby Burbank) and at several historic locales, including the Million Dollar Theatre, at 307 S. Broadway in downtown Los Angeles, and the first movie palace, built in 1918, by show-biz mogul Sid Grauman. (In “The Artist,” the Million Dollar Theatre serves as the backdrop for the gala premiere in the film’s opening scenes.)
To get his cast in right frame of mind, so to speak, Hazanavicius screened for them such silent-era classics as King Vidor’s “The Crowd” (1928) and F.W. Murnau’s “Sunrise” (1927). “King Vidor’s ‘The Crowd’ is really very modern,” he said. “It’s about how a man faces society and how he learns to be an individual in that society.” Like George Valentin in “The Artist,” it’s about a man “facing a transition and crossing destinies. It’s a very American theme.”
He also ran the films of Fritz Lang and Tod Browning for his cast. He calls the latter’s “The Unknown” (1927), with Lon Chaney and Joan Crawford, “one of the most extraordinary movies I’ve ever watched. And [Josef] von Sternberg’s ‘Underworld’ [1927] and ‘The Docks of New York’ [1928], they are perfect, as are the silent films of John Ford. I’m not a big fan of D.W. Griffith. The same for [Cecil B.] de Mille. Their films didn’t age so well. But the others, yes. They still work today.”
When Hazanavicius wrote the script for “The Artist,” he used silent stars Gilbert and Fairbanks as inspiration. Bejo, his wife, who plays the ingenue Peppy Miller, immediately immersed herself in the era, and Dujardin signed on later. “He was a little bit afraid at the beginning. It took him a while to accept the idea. I knew ‘Singin’ in the Rain’ would be a comparison, so I told him he could look like Gene Kelly. But when you look closely, it’s very different. I’m very proud that we are a grandson of ‘Singin in Rain.’”
The film’s lineage also traces back to several other Hollywood classics. “I stole an entire segment — the breakfast montage — from ‘Citizen Kane.’ And there are touches of ‘Sunset Boulevard.’ I think it’s more ‘Sunset’ than ‘Singin’, actually.”
Plus, there’s an extraordinary sequence near the end, for which he used Bernard Herrmann’s famous “Scene d’Amour” theme from Hitchcock’s “Vertigo” (1958). “The ‘Vertigo’ music is here to help shape the emotional structure of the climax,” he said. “But it’s also heard in the finale [of ‘Vertigo’], and the theme worked perfectly here. It helps to create a sense of resolution.”
As for a resolution, there’s a happy ending, a la Ginger and Fred, for George and Peppy. But one question remains. Why “The Artist”?
“I didn’t choose that title,” he said, laughing. “The working title was ‘Peppy and George,’ and then it was ‘Beauty Spot’ [referring to the trademark look that Valentin gives Peppy]. I like that concept. The producer asked me what I thought of ‘The Artist.’ To me, [Valentin] is proud, selfish, egocentric. I don’t see how he’s an artist, but he thinks he’s an artist. Thomas said just try [using the title], just to see. Maybe the title is to convince other people. I think it works, but also it reminds me of the way they used to introduce characters in silent films [with title cards]. But I think maybe for him, it’s a very meta title, just in a way.”
Source: http://www.suntimes.com/entertainment/movies/9566419-421/the-artist-is-directors-love-letter-to-early-hollywood.html
