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The film opens in the year 1927 with a silent movie scene playing at a theater, complete with a live orchestra providing the score, and a sellout crowd watching the film. Behind the screen is the cast and crew gauging the audience reaction, which winds up overwhelmingly positive. After the movie, its star George Valentin (Jean Dujardin) takes a bow and hams it up onstage. His co-star Constance (Missi Pyle) winds up upstaged by both Valentin and his preferred co-star, his dog (Uggie!). George and Uggie show off on stage for an extended ovation. Later, outside the theater, George is signing autographs for his ecstatic fans. One fan (Berenice Bejo) drops her wallet as she's jumping up and down and tries to pick it up without upsetting the security since it fell just outside the security barrier. Unfortunately, as she's retrieving it, she gets bumped right into George. Everyone stops and gets silent, and she is embarrassed, especially when George seems to have a look of shock and anger on his face. However, George is just teasing as he quickly smiles to tell her that it's fine, and soon everyone is relaxed. George even poses for photos with the lady, which fills her with enough courage to mug for the cameras as well. One photographer tells her to give George a kiss, and she does so. That photo winds up all over the newspapers the next morning, with headlines asking "Who's That Girl?" George's wife, Doris (Penelope Ann Miller), could care less who she is. We can easily discern the next morning around the Valentin breakfast table that she seems rather weary of the marriage and being the wife of such a famous movie star.
Our mystery girl beams about the publicity in the newspapers, and she decides to try and give Hollywood a shot, showing up at Kinograph Studios with newspaper in hand at an audition for extras, sitting next to an older gentleman (Malcolm McDowell) who doesn't seem too impressed with her being on the front page. A casting director calls out that they need three girls who can dance. Our girl dances for the casting director and gets picked. She then introduces herself to the older man as Peppy Miller, and the man nods, now impressed.
Inside the studio, George is getting an earful from Kinograph mogul Al Zimmer (John Goodman), who hates that the kiss is on the front page and the success of the new film isn't. George soon stops listening to Al because he sees a shapely pair of legs dancing behind a large screen. George goes over to the legs and mimics the dancing until the screen is moved and both George and Peppy realize they're who each was dancing with. Al throws Peppy off the set, still mad about the newspaper thing, but George stops her and says they have a movie to film. Al shakes his head and walks away.
George and Peppy shoot a particular scene in the film, and we can see there's a spark through the multiple takes. Later, Peppy sneaks into George's dressing room and writes something with lipstick on the mirror. She's about to leave but sees one of George's suit jackets and top hats, and slides an arm into one of the jacket sleeves, imagining being embraced by George. George then walks in, and Peppy's embarrassed. George just smiles and tells her that if she wants to be an actress, she needs to have something the rest don't have, and with that he takes a makeup pencil and draws a small freckle just above her lips. They continue to stare at each other and seem about to kiss, but in walks Clifton (James Cromwell), George's assistant. Peppy leaves, and George sees "Thank you" written on the mirror.
Peppy starts out in bit parts (even having her name misspelled on the poster for her first film) but winds up popular with movie audiences due to her beauty and her charm. Her star rises rapidly, and her name gets larger and higher on the movie poster with each film she makes. George and Peppy become friends along the way as well. Things are going swimmingly well for George, Peppy and Kinograph Studios.
1929 arrives, and Al brings George into a screening room to show him something. On the screen, we see Constance. We don't hear anything, but George and the others do. Constance is talking. The talkies have arrived. Movies with sound are the future, Al says, but George just laughs and says if that's the future, Al can keep it. That night, George is in his dressing room. He takes a drink from a glass and puts it down...and we all hear the sound of the glass being put down. George does a double-take and repeats the action, hearing the noise again. More noises are then heard, such as the phone ringing and Uggie barking. However, one noise is not heard. George, when speaking, is still silent. He goes outside and hears more noises, including a feather landing on the ground, which sounds like an explosion. George screams (silently) and wakes up from his dream, home in his bed.
The next morning, George goes to the studio but sees a lot of the silent film sets now empty. He learns from a worker that Kinograph is now exclusively going to film talkies. George goes to Al and is told that the public wants new faces and they want to hear those faces. George decides he'll make his own film, ending his relationship with Kinograph. As he leaves, George looks at a publicity photo with the new faces of the studio, and Peppy is front and center in the photo. George scoffs, telling Al so much for new faces. On his way out of the building, George runs into Peppy, who has now signed exclusively with the studio and gives George her phone number, hoping they'll work together again soon.
George produces, directs and finances his next silent film, "Tears of Love", which turns into a 68-day shoot that will open on October 25. George learns through movie posters that the new Peppy Miller film, "Beauty Spot", opens the same day. In preparation for the new opening, George gives several newspaper interviews where he sticks to his guns, saying he's an artist, not a talking head. Meanwhile at home, George's wife continues to be unhappy, constantly drawing all over photos of George.
On the eve of the new movies opening, George is dining with Clifton at a restaurant. While doing so, he hears Peppy giving an interview at an adjacent table. Peppy hams it up when asked about her being the next big thing, saying that people are tired of old actors mugging for the cameras to be understood, and it's time for the old guard to make way for the younger in talkies. George gets up and Peppy now sees he was at the next table. George gestures and says "I've made way for you", and leaves. Peppy now feels bad for what she said.
The next morning, Clifton brings newspapers to George that show the stock market is crashing. George makes some calls and finds out he's amongst those who've lost everything they had invested. He tries to stay positive, saying all they need is for "Tears of Love" to be a big hit and everything will be fine.
We're with George, watching his new film at the theater. The crowd is sparse, but Peppy is in the balcony with a date. She shakes her head, knowing the film is destined to fail. George soon leaves and passes by the theater next door, where Peppy's new movie has a huge line waiting to get inside to see it. He returns home and finds a note from Doris saying she's had enough of the marriage, and George has 2 weeks to collect his stuff and move out. Adding insult to injury, the note ends with "P.S., Go see "Beauty Spot", it's incredible." Some time later, Peppy visits George and tells him she saw "Tears of Love". George sarcastically asks her if she now wants a refund, and did he mug too much. Peppy apologizes for what she said, but George accepts that she was right, it's time to make room for the new faces. Peppy's date runs up to the door excited to meet George, saying his father is a big fan.
1931. George now lives in a modest dwelling. His movie career is finished, and he's gradually pawning off trinkets such as suits. Eventually he even has to fire Clifton, who doesn't care that he isn't being paid anymore, he just doesn't want another job. George tells him to keep the car and find another employee. George decides to auction off all his souvenirs and memorabilia. The auction is a great success, with an older man and woman buying most if not all of the items. George leaves the auction house and Peppy is sitting outside in a car.
1932. Peppy is the biggest star in Hollywood, with every film bringing in huge crowds and box office results. George (with his dog, as always) goes to see one of the films, "Guardian Angel", and hates himself for enjoying the new talking picture. As he leaves, a woman asks to pet Uggie. George says "If only he could talk!", which confuses the woman.
Back at home, George is watching one of his old silent films. When it ends, he stands and sees his silhouette on the screen. George yells at himself for being stupid and proud, and the shadow walks away. Enraged (and probably drunk), George topples the projector and then throws all of his old film reels around the floor before setting it all ablaze. It only takes a few seconds for George to realize what he's done, and he then frantically searches for and finds one particular film reel, which is still in its metal case. George clutches the case and collapses in a corner, being overcome from smoke.
Uggie runs out and fetches a policeman, who successfully gets George out of the burning house. On set, Peppy learns of the fire and rushes to the hospital to see him. The doctor tells her he's out of danger. She notices a film on a nearby table, and the doctor says he was clutching it. She checks it out and sees it's the first film she and George made together. Incredibly flattered, she asks if she could take him home to rest there, and is allowed to discharge him.
When George wakes up at Peppy's house, the nurse alerts her and she runs to him, and they embrace. George continues to convalesce and they enjoy breakfast together the next morning. Peppy has to run to the set, and when there she pitches a new movie with her and George to Al, who shoots it down, saying George is old news. Peppy will not take no for an answer, awkwardly trying to say that if she can't work with George, then Kinograph doesn't get her at all. Or either of them. Peppy realizes she's talking in circles, and Al sits there looking confused, so Peppy just ends it with...
Al realizes he's sunk and tells her to bring George a screenplay. Clifton, who now works for Peppy, delivers it to George and tells him Peppy is a good person. Later, George walks around the house. Uggie leads him to a room, barking wildly. George opens the door and enters, seeing a bunch of items all covered in sheets. He checks one item out and sees it's something he had auctioned off. And another. And another. Finally, George whips off a sheet from the largest item and sees it's his giant portrait. He turns around and sees Peppy's butler and maid, who were the older couple that bought everything at the auction. Horrified, George returns to his burnt-out house.
Meanwhile, Peppy returns home to find that George has left. She can't find Clifton so she drives herself to his house. A series of scene cuts go back and forth. At George's house, he decides he's hit rock bottom, and he takes out a gun in preparation to off himself despite Uggie barking at him not to. In Peppy's car, she veers wildly almost running over people and crashing into other cars as she speeds to George's. The final shot we see in the back-and-forth series is George with the gun in his mouth...
...and we see that Peppy has crashed the car into a tree outside of George's house. George heard the noise and gets up to see what happened out there, but before he can get to the window Peppy runs in. She's horrified that George almost killed himself. George plays it off like he never would have, and accidentally shoots the gun to the floor. Uggie pretends to play dead from the shot, which makes Peppy and George laugh. They embrace, and Peppy tells George that she has an idea where he can return to films without speaking. The film then transports us to the studio...
...where we see, AND hear, Peppy and George dancing to a big band tune. Al has been watching and he smells a huge, huge box office bonanza. The final scene is Peppy and George dancing for the cameras as they shoot a new movie. Upon completion of the dance, we hear them both panting, out of breath. Then for the final minute, we hear dialogue. Al asks if they could film one more take. George replies, "With pleasure." They set up for another take and the film ends just as the director yells, "Action!"
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The Artist was a French production but shot in Los Angeles, completed in just 35 days at a budget of $15M. The worldwide box office was almost 10x that amount. Critical reception was overwhelmingly positive. The biggest critical backlash was from, of all people, legendary actress Kim Novak. Her criticism wasn't even in relation to the story, but the music used. The score incorporated a portion of that from the film "Vertigo". Hazanavicius respectfully replied that the score had been "sampled" in several films, and he did so here because of his love for that original film and score. Naturally, he got the permission to use it as well beforehand. When the worst criticism were a few people unhappy with borrowing a portion of an earlier score, it's safe to say The Artist had nothing to worry about.
The Academy sure wasn't worried. They feted the film with 10 nominations, with wins coming in the categories of Costume Design (Mark Bridges), Original Score (Ludovic Bource), Lead Actor (Dujardin), Director (Hazanavicius) and Best Picture, winning out over a large list of other nominees due to the Academy now nominating up to 10 movies for the top prize. At the 84th Annual Academy Awards ceremony, The Artist won Best Picture over The Descendants, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, The Help, Hugo, Midnight in Paris, Moneyball, The Tree of Life and War Horse. In addition to being the first silent movie since Wings to win top honors, it also was the first black-and-white movie to win since 1993's Schindler's List.
I've now seen The Artist four times. I love it more and more every time. I don't really keep an official all-time Top Ten Favorite Films list or anything like that, but I can say that if I were to do that, I think this movie would be amongst those I listed. It's just so freaking good. The story is phenomenal, and the fact that a silent movie was successfully pulled off in 2011 only makes it that much better. We will never see another movie like this ever again, and it damn sure will be the last silent movie to win Best Picture. Silent movies were beloved because they delivered incredible emotion with not a single spoken word. The Artist does that. Everything makes sense even without the intertitles, because the story is so clear and the actors are all so good and the music is so perfect that we know what's being said, and what's going on, at all times. There's no confusion. There's no overacting. There's nothing negative I can think of from the first to the last minute of this film. The Artist is an absolutely brilliant and beautiful film that you should see ASAP.
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