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"Artist": A tribute to the classic silent film in the age of sound film
"Artist" is a film directed by the famous director Cher Azanavesius, in 2011 Released in France, won the 84th Oscar for Best Picture that year, and its protagonist Jean Dujardin won the title of Best Comedy Actor. The difference between
and the movie we see now is that this movie adopts the "silent movie" performance form, which brings the audience to the initial stage of black and white silent film. The plot of the story is also very simple. It tells the transition of classical Hollywood from the "silent film era" to the "sound film era". The hero George Valentine went from rejection, rejection, and even self-destruction to his friend Pepi. With the help of Miller, he accepted this trend and found his own story again.
The film’s male and female protagonists are set very interestingly. The male protagonist was the then Hollywood superstar George Valentine, but he represented the decline and demise of the "silent film era"; and the unfamous grassroots actor Pepi Mi Le, it represents the rise and popularization of sound films. The setting of characters and story plots like makes the rhythm and contradictions of the entire movie very prominent, and also allows us modern people to have a more intuitive understanding of the technological changes and industry changes in the film industry in the last century.
Today, through the movie "The Artist", we will take a look at how classical Hollywood movies have achieved the technological change from the "silent film era" to the "audio film era".
At the beginning of the 20th century, the last brilliance of "silent movies"
As far as we can remember, the movies we saw were "sounds". The sound of refers to the "sounds of film and television", that is, the lines of the actors and the voices of the scene , The audience can hear it.
And the "silent movies" in the early 20th century are not really without sound. Silent refers to the absence of simultaneous sound, that is, we can't hear the actors' lines, and we can only follow up the plot of the movie through the following three methods :
have been well embodied in The Artist.
Therefore, in the silent film era, it is mainly through the above three methods to realize the real "audio-picture counterpoint", so that the audience can understand the plot of the movie and understand a movie.
However, because the silent film lacks the important sound element of simultaneous sound in film art, it relies entirely on the language of the lens to promote the development of the film plot. Therefore, the performance skills of the silent film era largely rely on body movements and facial expressions, that is to say , Exaggerated performance is an important aesthetic feature of silent films . In the
movie "The Artist", except for the last few minutes, it shows the advent of the sound film era. All the previous forms of expression are carried out in the way of "silent films". At the beginning of the story, the scene was set in a theater in the 1920s. The grand movie theater was full of seats. With the performance of George Valentine on the screen, people suddenly became nervous and burst into laughter, completely immersed in the silent film. Atmosphere. At the same time,
also showed the professional live bands of the silent film era, to set off the film or the nervous or cheerful atmosphere, and to synchronize with the audience's watching process, which truly reproduced the golden age of black and white silent film in the 1920s. The golden age of Hollywood silent film.
In 1929, the strong impact of "sound movies"
German-American film theorist and psychologist Rudolf Arnheim pointed out in the film theory monograph "Film as Art" that 1929 was one of the strongest impacts of "sound films" on "silent films". year.
and "Artist" also regards 1929 as an important time node.
The biggest contradiction in this movie is the strong resistance and rejection of the male lead George Valentine to the sound film. For the actors represented by George who love silent film performance, it can only be reflected in the silent world. Their own value, and when the sound appears in the silent film they are familiar with, they start to fall into an awkward situation, and even at a loss. In the
film, we can see that when the owner of the film company took George Valentine to watch a sound film, George felt that the sound film was a joke, a blasphemy against silent movies, and a very exaggerated and unrealistic form of performance. . His pride and conceit made him resist the technical changes in the sound of film. During the transition of the film from silent to sound, he experienced a misunderstanding. He was unable to bring the performance of silent films into the sound era, and refused to perform in sound films.
"The Clash of Sounds in Classical Hollywood Movies" mentioned that: film adopts modernist expression methods when George faces the challenges of sound films and the various anxiety and discomforts that appear.
When George found out that he had lost his voice, the music in the film disappeared, and the sound of objects colliding around him, the barking of puppies, the ringing of telephones, the sound of footsteps, the sound of wind, the laughter of girls, and even feathers falling to the ground The voices on the above were all amplified infinitely. These smallest voices in life gave him a huge shock. He felt that he was completely isolated from the sound world. Such a modern sound montage expression technique, The star's fear of sound films in the silent film era is portrayed in a three-point manner.
1931, the era of sound film really came, the artistic value of silent film will always be
After the 1930s, with the change and update of filming technology, the era of "silent film" gradually came to an end, and the era of "audio film" really came.
Associate Professor Liu Xinye of Shenyang University mentioned in a paper:
is like the film performance artist Chaplin in the silent film era. Although sound films have become mainstream, he has always insisted on making his own silent films, which lasted until 1936, Chaplin After Lin finished his last silent film "Modern Times", the silent film finally officially withdrew from the film stage. The
movie "The Artist" also expresses the true end of the silent film era through a similar story. George Valentine took out all his savings and filmed "Tears of Love." At the end of the film, the protagonist he played fell into the quicksand and died, symbolizing that the silent film loved by performing artists in the silent film era finally came to an end.
, in sharp contrast, is Perth Miller, who represents the sound film. When George's silent films gradually faded out of people's sight, Pesser relied on the beauty moles of her silent era and the voice of the sound era to achieve great success, and became famous in Hollywood and became the star of sound films.
Although the schedules of the two movies are the same, on the day the movie was released, there were only one or two audiences in the silent movie theater, while the sound movie was full.
So there is an expression of voice film actors represented by Miller:
"People are tired of those old actors, they wink their eyebrows to make the audience understand, the old will not go, the new will not come, make way for young people ! This is life!"
So, is the age of silent movies really not worth going back to? of course not. Associate Professor Liu Xinye, who specializes in film technology, said:
"The final climax of this play is that the heroine Miller drove to rescue George this section, which borrowed from the father of American film David Griffith in 1915. taking pictures""The Birth of a Country", the classic "last minute rescue" shooting technique and parallel montage editing. And the big "Bang" that appeared on the screen at the last moment can be said to be the best expression of sound expression in the silent film era. It has both impact and comical viewing effect. It is also the best that sound films can not completely replace silent films. illustration. The
movie "The Artist" reminds the audience all the time that the era of silent film is gone, but the artistic value of silent film will always exist.
Conclusion: In the era of sound film, we still have to pay tribute to the classic "silent film" art at the end of
. Under Miller’s active persuasion and emotional consolation, George finally accepted Miller’s invitation and danced an energetic tap dance with Miller. The last dance in the movie "The Artist" borrowed from the golden age of Hollywood Ginger. Rogers and Fred Astaire’s classic song and dance clips, and the black and white color scheme borrowed from the classic combination of "Top Hat".
George Valentine and Perth Miller after this perfect tap dance performance is over, "Artist" finally appeared in the real sense of the film and television sound, the audience heard the gasp of the two, and then heard the voice of everyone on the shooting scene, at this time, the film "Artist" finally transitioned from silent to sound The film symbolizes that silent film has completely withdrawn from the stage of history and is replaced by sound film.
Finally, the boss of the film company asked George and Miller: "Can you skip another paragraph? George finally made his voice "I am honored".
George's "I am honored" indicates that he finally let go of his pride, rejection, resistance and guard mentally, and finally walked out of the shackles of silent movies. He once again demonstrated his acting talent and artistic talent, and started his career as a voice film actor.
In this way, the curtain of the voice film era has been opened. The silent film has become history, and its artistic value has also been sealed and become The fond memories in people’s hearts.
"Artist" pays tribute to classical Hollywood silent films and classic art in this way.
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