This is a film you are going to be hearing a lot about! It is a modern, silent movie shot in black in white, made by a team of French filmmakers smack in the middle of today’s Hollywood but dressed circa 1927.
Produced, written, and directed by Michael Hazanavicius, it is the biggest silent film sensation in 80 years — ever since Greta Garbo spoke! It stars the director’s beautiful wife, French actress Berenice Bejo, as an up-and-coming talkie star and her relationship with the fading silent film hero played by dashing French actor Jean Dujardin. He just won Best Actor at the Cannes Film festival and if there’s a triple crown for film festivals,” The Artist” won it by sweeping Cannes, Telluride, and Toronto.
You’ll recognize Americans John Goodman and Jamie Cromwell and Penny Miller along with Brit, Malcolm Mcdowell in supporting roles and will be amazed at what a huge impact this feel-good film makes on your emotions without saying a word. As director Hazanavicius says, “A silent format is a Utopia. It has a universal language, like a painting or music…and appeals to people of all colors, races and cultures.”
The filmmaker said he was inspired by Avatar to do something really different, really fresh and, boy, has he! My special screening audience laughed out loud as well as teared up. I noticed it wowed men and women alike who sat riveted to the screen. That factor, topped by a brilliant score, art direction and costume design, makes this film a real treat.
“The Artist” opens on Thanksgiving weekend.
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BECOME THE FILM WRITER YOU ALWAYS WANTED TO BE
Linda Bergman has worked for every major Hollywood film studio and all the top television networks. She has been paid to write 21 film and TV scripts and even produced 5 of them. In both of her books “So You Think Your Life’s a Movie: Ten Steps to a Script that Sells” and “So You Think Your Life’s a Movie: The Sequel,” Linda combines her knowledge of the craft with true stories from her experience to illustrate, inform and entertain. These books are a fun, must-read if you want to write a movie!
