Watch The Artist

When The Artist won Best Picture at the 2012 Academy Awards, it set an interesting record: it was the first silent film to win that award since the first Academy Awards were presented in 1929. Back then, of course, sound was not an option. With The Artist, however, director Michel Hazanavicius made a conscious decision to forgo sound and create a film that would be an homage to the days of the silent film era.

That means The Artist is also filmed in black and white. It tells the fictional story of a silent film star named George Valentin, played by Jean Dujardin, who discovers that his days of stardom are numbered when talking films first come into vogue in the late 1920s. As George’s star is on the wane, the star of young actress Peppy Miller, played by Berenice Bejo, is very much on the rise.

When Peppy was first starting out in pictures, George was kind to her, and she never forgets that. As George’s career takes a dive and he falls into depression, his personal life also spirals into chaos. It is successful Peppy who then gets to take him under her wing, repaying some of the kindness the great man once showed her.

This unconventional love story is also a kind of love song to the days of silent film, with director Hazanavicius showing how much he appreciates the older artistry in the creative ways he appropriates it. Since there is no dialogue in the film, beyond a surprise few words in the final scene, the score is quite important. The music is composed by Ludovic Bource though Bource also pulled on the work of other cinematic composers, including Bernard Herrmann.

Besides Best Picture, The Artist won four other Oscars, including Best Director for Hazanavicius and Best Actor for Dujardin, who became the first Frenchman to win the award.