It’s not often you find a silent movie that promises to be more than a simple homage to the silent output of old, but filmmaker Michael Hazanavicius appears to have pulled it off with the impressive-looking **The Artist. **The trailer is now online over at Apple.
The writer/director, probably best known on these shores for the two French spy parodies in the OSS 117 series, goes even further back in time for this genuinely original look at a 1920s silent film star facing the end of his career thanks to the encroaching allure of the talkies.
OSS’ preening, smooth, moustached spy himself, Jean Dujardin, stars once more as George Valentin, a man who has been the king of Hollywood for years but is now on much shakier ground with the arrival of the modern technology. He meets and falls for Peppy Miller (Bérénice Bejo) a young dancer and singer looking for her big break. They strike up a relationship, but, in true **A Star is Born **style, she starts to eclipse him, driving Valentin into fits of bitter, jealous rage.
Shot in black and white and using title cards to express dialogue, The Artist is unlike anything you’ve seen recently. It scooped the Best Actor prize at this year’s Cannes Film Festival for Dujardin and was nominated for the Palme d’Or. It was also highly recommended by our own Damon Wise.
Featuring the likes of John Goodman, Malcolm McDowell, Penelope Ann Miller and James Cromwell among its cast, The Artist will be out on November 23 in the States, but there’s no set release date over here yet.