Tuesday, February 21, 2012

The Artist: An Actor's Movie?

There are movies I consider writers' movies. Adaptation comes to mind. I loved it. Pretty much every writer I know that saw it, loved it. We got it. We got the subtleties and the relationships. We got the anxieties and the fears. Not many of my non-writer friends liked it. They didn't get it.

Shakespeare in Love is another one, but for other reasons. The word play. The wit. I think as writers, we could see what they were doing and appreciate it all the more for its subtlety and cleverness. Clearly, a lot of other people liked that movie, too, but I think writers got more out of it because of our understanding of what the writers had one.

We saw The Artist on Friday night and I was wondering if actors felt the same way about it. I thought it was wonderful for a lot of reasons, but the acting was so fun to watch. I was amazed at how little we really needed the big dialogue screens. We know what they were saying. If not the exact words, then certainly their intention. I was impressed, but I bet another actor would get even more out of it because an actor would understand how John Goodman or Jean Dujardin or Berenice Bujo was using a facial expression or a cocked hip or an arched brow to convey so much information. Then again, it was about acting and actors. I bet an actor would "get it" even more than I did, because an actor would understand more of that internal struggle, like I understood the Charlie Kaufman character in Adaptation.

Regardless, it was a great movie. I'm so glad we saw it on the big screen in the funky theater with the super comfy seats. Did you all see it? What did you think? Do you have any actor friends who have seen it? What did they think?

5 comments:

Molly O'Keefe said...

Oh I still haven't seen this - what a great thought about it though. Adaptation seemed like a little wink to me....

Eileen said...

A wink that saw into my very soul!

Anonymous said...

I really need to see this movie... especially in time for the Oscars this weekend...

Maureen McGowan said...

Adaptation was a total writers' movie. A few non-writer friends I discussed it with said the ending was dumb. To which I replied: THAT WAS THE POINT!!! LOL

I do agree that The Artist was an actors' movie and I have a few actor-friends (who are also writers) who I can ask about this... Hmmm.

I really enjoyed The Artist. My only complaint was I found the soundtrack (music) too quiet. But that was probably a mistake of the theatre I was in. It's like they forgot to adjust for the fact it wasn't in Dolby and therefore coming out of a gazillion speakers.

I think I might hijack this topic for tomorrow because there were a few "actors' movies" this year I think.

Eileen said...

I know what you mean about the soundtrack. At one point, the heating system kicked on in the theater and we all jumped! We wouldn't have even heard it come on in most movies. OTOH, I come out of a lot of theaters with my ears ringing. This was a nice change of pace.

You are so right about Adaptation. It all made so much sense to me. Not so much to my sister who thought it was kooky.

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