Review by Gary Tooze

Production:

Disc:

Video:

Audio:

Title Cards/text in French

• Commentary by director Michel Hazanavicius (in French)

• The Making of... (33:23)

• 'Betisier' (2:07)

• The Music - Orchestra of Flanders (15:40)

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Description: Hollywood 1927. George Valentin (Jean Dujardin) is a silent movie superstar. The advent of the talkies will sound the death knell for his career and see him fall into oblivion. For young extra Peppy Miller (Berenice Bejo), it seems the sky's the limit - major movie stardom awaits. The Artist tells the story of their interlinked destinies.

***

Michel Hazanavicius' stylistically daring, dialogue free comedy The Artist stars Jean Dujardin as George Valentin, a... matinee idol in Hollywood before the dawn of the talkies. His marriage is far from perfect, and one day he meets ambitious chorus girl Peppy Miller (Berenice Bejo) and is smitten. Very quickly, sound comes to movies, and George sinks all his money into one epic silent film, while Peppy becomes a star in the new era. John Goodman co-stars as the head of the film studio. The Artist played at both the 2011 Cannes Film Festival and the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival.

 

 

The Film:

Excerpt from Roger Ebert at the Chicago Sun-Times located HERE

Image :    NOTE: The below Blu-ray captures were taken directly from the Blu-ray disc.

Firstly, this is the Warner French Blu-ray version of The Artist. I don't expect that the a/v transfer will differ greatly from the upcoming US 1080P release. WE probably won't bother comparing to the Sony - unless there is a huge disparity in the technicals. The film's visual intent was to replicate a the softer appearance of cinema from the silent era - not simply look like a modern black and white film. This was achieved with a smoky paler contrast style - as well as the 1.33:1 aspect ratio, the title font etc. I think it looks very authentic and quite endearing. This is a dual-layered Blu-ray with a high bitrate. Detail is strong but there is some noise. Overall, I expect this replicates the filmmakers intent extremely well.

CLICK EACH BLU-RAY CAPTURE TO SEE ALL IMAGES IN FULL 1920X1080 RESOLUTION

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

While the film has no dialogue there is certainly music - and is offered in the choice of a reasonably buoyant DTS-HD Master 5.1 at 1831 kbps or a lossless, and less dynamic, 2.0 channel stereo. The surround was very full and sharp with solid high ends and some depth. There are no subtitles per-se (except in one sequence) but the infrequent title cards and text (notes) are in the French language. My Momitsu has identified it as being a region FREE disc playable on Blu-ray machines worldwide.

Extras :

 

 

BOTTOM LINE:
Despite being French-leaning (title cards etc.) - on this Blu-ray release - it couldn't have been simpler to follow and enjoy. There is a lot of pleasurable, amusing, viewing here. If it exposed the beauty and brilliance of silent era filmmaking - then it should be viewed as a positive to the general public. I wouldn't say this was a masterpiece - but simply a very good, fun, extremely entertaining film very much worth watching! 

Gary Tooze

June 6th, 2012