Jean Dujardin makes a great Douglas Fairbanks, with his slicked-back hair and pencil mustache and swagger. He plays a silent star about to face the onslaught of Sound--a showdown that will cost the star his career. Dujardin isn't Fairbanks, though; he's George Valentin: a man who never was, but could have been, and represents many who were.
Aside from one archival clip, Fairbanks doesn’t appear in The Artist; he's not even mentioned in passing. Neither are Clara Bow, Greta Garbo or Norma Shearer, the three women I believe were sampled to make Peppy Miller (Bérénice Bejo), Valentin’s love interest. The Artist does not recreate the time in which it is set, so much as create the look and feel of a movie from that time. And kudos to director Michel Hazanavicius for taking this to its logical—and bold—extreme: a 100-minute, modern silent film.
Aside from one archival clip, Fairbanks doesn’t appear in The Artist; he's not even mentioned in passing. Neither are Clara Bow, Greta Garbo or Norma Shearer, the three women I believe were sampled to make Peppy Miller (Bérénice Bejo), Valentin’s love interest. The Artist does not recreate the time in which it is set, so much as create the look and feel of a movie from that time. And kudos to director Michel Hazanavicius for taking this to its logical—and bold—extreme: a 100-minute, modern silent film.
