Does The Artist deserve to dominate The Oscars?
Does The Artist deserve to bask in all the critical praise it's receiving, or do you think it was a good film, just not a great one? MSN UK Movies Editor Ed Holden fights a war of words, in favour of The Artist, while MSN Canada Senior Entertainment Editor Ben Carrozza argues against the popular film's accent to dominate The Oscars.
Designed for Oscar?
Ed: As soon as The Artist was mentioned in the same sentence as an awards ceremony, the knives came out. The unfounded supposition is that a movie about old movies was crafted for the tastes of aging awards voting bodies. Michel Hazanavicius' motivation, if anything outside the strength of the idea itself, was to find a perfect part for his wife Bérénice Bejo. "I really wanted to offer her a role that truly fits her, that was made especially for her," he told us. Yes, there is such a thing as 'an awards movie'. This, however, is simply a 'good' movie.
Ben: Is The Artist designed for Oscar? Well, it's a "love song" to film itself so, in a word, yes. Whether purposely so or not, it satisfies the Academy's insatiable taste for unbridled sentiment and what is more sentimental today than a silent film? Granted, it's a good one, but its twee charms hit a little too on the nose to be a "best picture," no? Still, we're sure it'll swipe up the big trophy - and we'd like to submit Oscar's egregious track record of favoring sentiment over substance (see Shakespeare in Love vs. Saving Private Ryan; Rocky vs. Taxi Driver, et al) as evidence.
Gimmick?
Ed: Perhaps it's because The Artist is, at its core, a comedy that naysayers have pointed the finger and deemed it a gimmick unworthy of Oscar love. If it were a gimmick it would be in the silent movie format for no real reason. But it's a movie ABOUT silent movies, making the format absolutely relevant and fitting. It's a unique entity and a true original, not a gimmick.
Ben: Writing off The Artist as a gimmick-film is a disservice to Michel Hazanavicius' heartfelt and deeply realized work. That hasn't stopped the film's marketing team from doing it, though. Gimmick can be defined as: "a device, scheme, or stratagem, especially one designed to attract attention or increase appeal." Whether Hazanavicius intended it or not, the film is sold on one thing: The Artist is "the silent film." Obviously there is a depth to the film that goes beyond a simple selling point, but the taint of gimmickry is there as anyone who intends to see it at any point in time will be seeing (or not seeing it) based on its silent movie status.
Mass appeal
Ed: The Oscars have a duty to reward the best in cinema. And you don't need to have seen The Artist to know that quality and box office don't always go hand in hand. Let's allow the People's Choice awards to celebrate The Twilight kids and the MTVMAs to dish out acting gongs to Shia LaBeouf. If The Oscars had to pander to popularity, they'd lose their only real purpose which is to select the best film. This year it's The Artist. Simple.
Ben: Widespread popularity and fine art don't often mix, so giving awards to only popular films doesn't make much sense. The Academy gets this sometimes (see The Hurt Locker vs. Avatar), so I don't think perceived lack of popularity for The Artist will be a problem. Further to the point, I don't think the film is lacking in popularity at all. While box office receipts may be relatively small, the film (like Slumdog Millionaire before it) is growing in the popular consciousness daily; a measure of popularity arguably as important - and certainly just as important to Academy voters - as cash itself. The Artist is on people's minds whether they've seen it or not and if it takes home the best picture gong, the masses will not be surprised.
The competition
Ed: Allow me to eliminate 5 of the 9 dubiously selected contenders. Extremely Loud And Incredibly Close: dull. The Tree Of Life: ridiculous. War Horse: lightweight. Moneyball: Good but baseball stats don't win Oscars. Hugo: The first hour was deadly boring. There. Although the remaining rivals (The Help, The Descendants and Midnight In Paris all stand alone as excellent movies, none of them provide the like-nothing-else experience of watching The Artist. We know that George Clooney is an excellent character actor and Martin Scorsese has a great eye. This is something entirely new.
Ben: Certainly, The Artist ranks among the few real contenders this year - that said, the best of the lot it is not. The best picture winner should by rights feature the best examples of the other categories within it; the best acting, direction, writing, etc. Other films in the category do all of those things better than The Artist. And most of them are done better by The Descendants. Clooney out-acts Desjardins. It's close but Payne's less-is-more approach sees him out-direct Hazanavicius. And the measured and world-weary The Descendants features much better writing. Attention Academy: sometimes you just have to give the best picture award to the best picture - no matter how hard that seems to be for you.
Closing statements
Ed: Director Michel Hazanavicius put it perfectly: "When you are in a couple, the most important things you don't say with words, you say them with your eyes, with your hands, with silence. I wanted to bring that emotion to the film." And he did, wildly successfully. Rewatch the scene where Bérénice Bejo walks into Jean Dujardin's office and has a romantic encounter with his coat. Then tell us it isn't the most original, funny and genuinely touching movie of the last twelve months. We dare you. Silence really is golden.
Ben: Is The Artist a good film? Definitely. Is it a great one? Probably. Is it the best picture this year? Hardly. The Artist is a fun, sentimental film. But so what? Ice cream is tasty and awesome but it is not a healthy meal. Too often the Academy gets lost in its enjoyment of a film without stopping to consider whether that film is, in fact, the best picture. There are galleries-worth of WTF?! choices from past years that bear this out. Please don't let this be another of those years. Please, Academy, don't let the laconic charms of The Artist (and Uggie) fool you into making a choice we'll regret.
Check out the rest of our Oscars coverage here and join on us on February 26 for our live coverage.
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