The Artist

"I won't talk! I won't say a word!"

The Artist is a 2011 French film emulating the style of cinema in the 1920's, and the Academy Award winner for Best Picture of the year. Directed by Michel Hazanavicius, it stars Jean Dujardin as George Valentin, a silent movie star in 1920s Hollywood whose career goes into decline with the Great Depression and the advent of talking pictures. He falls in love with a young ingenue named Peppy Miller, played by Berenice Bejo, whose Hollywood career arc is the exact opposite of Dujardin's.

The Artist is unique not just for being shot in black-and-white, and in the old 4:3 Aspect Ratio, but being an almost completely silent film, possibly the first feature-length silent film to receive wide distribution since Mel Brooks put out Silent Movie in 1976. It should also be noted that this is one of the first movies in years to be filmed entirely in Hollywood.

Tropes used in The Artist include:

• Academy Award: Nominated for ten Oscars, won five, including Best Picture, Best Director (Michael Hazanavicius), and Best Actor (Jean Dujardin). It's the first silent film to be nominated for Best Picture since The Patriot (no, not that one, this one) 83 years prior, and the first to actually win Best Picture since Wings won the very first Best Picture Oscar 84 years prior.
• Alan Smithee: One of the Easter Eggs during the various credits Peppy is in.
• Almost Kiss: Happens once between Peppy and George. What's amazing is that they don't kiss even once in the film, despite being the Official Couple. This is, of course, a throwback to No Hugging, No Kissing rules enforced by censors back in those days.
• And Starring
  • "And Uggie -- The Dog" in the closing credits. Really.
  • Also used in-universe as the sign that Peppy has made it big.
• Artistic License Physics: The standard film stock of that time was nitrate, which is extremely flammable. So when George sets his film on fire, it should have erupted into an unsurvivable mass of flames in seconds.
• Ascended Fangirl: Peppy is an In-Universe example, having caught the attention of the press by inadvertently getting on the other side of a police man blocking George's fans from him. Throughout the film it is very clear that she is a huge fan of George's movies.
• Aspect Ratio: 4:3 was standard for all of Hollywood from the dawn of movie-making until widescreen caught on in the 1950s.
• Ate His Gun: Just barely averted for George!
• Attention Whore: Constance, George's costar, is livid when he keeps forcing her off the stage at the first film showing.
• Awful Wedded Life: Doris
• Beauty Mark: Peppy's trademark, although it's artificial (it was also George's idea, as she needed something to make her stand out from other actresses). It's even the name of one of her films -- the one that really hammers home George's downfall.
• Benevolent Boss
  • John Goodman's studio exec who was obviously hoping to help George make the transition to sound films until he gets stubborn about it.
  • George letting Clifton go, realizing that he'll just continue to work in lieu of pay (which George can't afford).
• Box Office Bomb: Tears of Love, in-universe.
• Break the Cutie: George
• The Cameo
  • Malcolm McDowell as one of Peppy's fellow extras.
  • Bitsie Tulloch as Norma, George's female co-star in his last silent film.
  • Bill Fagerbakke as a police officer near the end.
• Canine Companion: George even takes his dog to the movies. And it saves his life twice. He even showed up in the Oscars!
• Career Resurrection: In-universe. George seems to get one at the end of the film.
• Chekhov's Gun: George's stuff getting sold at auction.
• Chekhov's Skill: The dancing that George and Peppy do behind a scene curtain.
• Corpsing: In-universe, Peppy and George's first interaction, when she's still an extra and they can't keep straight faces in a dance scene.
• Couldn't Find a Pen: Peppy's lipstick on George's mirror, and again when she gives him her phone number.
• Creator Killer: In-universe. The Epic Fail of Tears of Love, as well as his reluctance to adapt to sound films, destroys George's movie career.
• Cruel to Be Kind: When Clifton won't take the hint and quit after George has been too broke to pay him for a year, George coldly tells him he's fired, throws him out the door and leaves him standing on the porch all day.
• Dance of Romance: During the filming of "A German Affair".
• Dartboard of Hate: Doris enjoys doodling over George's photographs. Trouble in paradise?
• Deliberately Monochrome
• Domino Mask: George's screen persona.
• Downer Ending: Don't worry! It's in-universe! The ending to the Film Within a Film Tears of Love ends with George's character sinking into quicksand, and telling the female co-star that he never loved her.
• Dream Sequence: With a unique effect to get the unreality across when the lead character starts experiencing synchronized sound around him in ever more exaggerated forms while he is still silent.
• Drives Like Crazy: There's a reason Peppy needs a chauffeur.
• Drowning My Sorrows: Poor George.
• Dutch Angle: The fire scene. Possibly another homage to period techniques.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: It takes a lot of convincing from Peppy, who is determined to help him, but she shows George that he has a future in sound films as a star of dance musicals.
• Electric Torture: Complete with Torture Technician and Mad Scientist in the first Film Within a Film.
• End of an Age: The film set during the twilight of mute cinema and the emergence of sound films.
• Eureka Moment / "I Know What We Can Do!" Cut: When Peppy finally figures out how to help George.
• Environmental Symbolism
  • George walking beneath a marquis reading, The Lonely Star.
  • An unhinged picture frame in the bar George gets sloshed in.
• Fake Kill Scare: BANG!
• Fascinating Eyebrow: During the German Affair shoot, George keeps deploying this in take after take.
• The Flapper: Peppy is one -- and plays one!
• Flipping the Bird: George's co-star when he hogs the limelight from her during a film premier.
• Foreshadowing: During the first Show Within a Show, George's character is being tortured, being commanded "SPEAK!" He refuses to speak, just like he later refuses to speak on any film.
• Genki Girl: Peppy. It's even in the name.
• George Lucas Throwback: The film is deliberately stylized to look like a late 20's Melodrama.
• Gone Horribly Right: Peppy's beauty spot.
• Gray Rain of Depression: After George's film Tears of Love bombs.
• Grumpy Bear: Al Zimmer
• Hands-On Approach: George and Peppy dancing together in a scene. At first, the pair erupt into some harmless Corpsing. With each take, though...
• Happily-Failed Suicide: Bang!
• Heroic Dog: Mostly entertaining but definitely becomes heroic considering a played straight Timmy in a Well moment. Later he tries desperately to dissuade George from his suicide attempt -- it almost seems to be working at first, but ultimately it's Peppy who stops him.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: George helps Peppy make it big, which hastens his own downfall.
• Hollywood California: Shot on location in buildings authentic to the time period. Peppy's mansion is Mary Pickford's mansion, and George wakes up in Pickford's bed.
• Hypercompetent Sidekick: Valentin's dog.
• Iris Out: Another nod to silent cinema.
• It's All Junk: Although on second thought burning the items may have been a bad choice for other reasons.
• It Will Never Catch On: What George believes about talkie films.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: The studio executive, Al Zimmer. He's willing to give George another chance, but George finds talkies idiotic and passes it up.
• Jump Scare: At the end of George's Dream Sequence, a small feather is seen drifting lazily to the ground, with no other sounds playing... and it lands with the sound of a ten-ton weight. This is what wakes George up.
• Large and In Charge: John Goodman's studio boss.
• Large Ham: George in front of an audience. His costar, Constance Grey, is seen hamming it up to a painful extent when she's playing Juliet in a talkie.
• Laughing Mad: George setting his reels on fire.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Repeatedly, starting with the first title card, which is the page quote.
• Living Shadow: Possibly related to a Pink Elephants type moment.
• Meaningful Background Event: The movie names, all over the place.
• Medium Awareness: George's Dream Sequence -- he's visibly shocked when events around him come with sound effects.
• Meet Cute: How Peppy accidentally strikes off her career.
• Mirror Monologue: George has an argument with his shadow projected against a wall.
• Monochrome Casting: Yes, there were few performers of color in the silent film era. But that certainly didn't extend to the audiences.
• Mood Whiplash: And how!
• My God, You Are Serious: Clifton, you're fired.
• No Antagonist: The real problem is George's refusal to change with the times, and his downfall as a result.
• No Hero to His Valet: Valentin actually is, apparently, a hero to his valet, but he is both a jerk to his costar and a neglectful husband.
• No Name Given: George's dog is listed in the credits as "The Dog".
• Offscreen Moment of Awesome: At the beginning of the movie, Valentin's character is locked in a cell very securely. The movie cuts to the audience reaction as they gasp at his escape and then the movie cuts back to him out of the cell.
• Old Retainer: Clifton. By choice, though.
• Pink Elephants: While getting hammered in a bar George hallucinates a tiny vision of himself (and some of the African supporting players) from the Film Within a Film "Tears of Love".
• Porn Stache: George's pencil mustache is eventually replaced by this.
• Post Modern: This film establishes very clear boundaries for its medium, then breaks them. Specifically, the scene in this otherwise silent movie that begins with George audibly placing his glass on the dresser, and then the entire scene spiraling out of control as he learns everything makes sound BUT him. It is, of course, a nightmare, but still. The end also violates the boundaries of silent film, indicating George's acceptance of talkies.
• Precision F-Strike: A visual one: George's leading lady gives him the finger. It also serves as a clue to the audience that this film won't quite behave like an old silent-movie. Though if you pay attention to her lips, you can see she's also a silent Cluster F-Bomb...
• Pride: George's biggest fault. Clifton even warns him against it when Peppy wants to give him another chance.
• Quicksand Sucks: The ending to George's movie Tears of Love, complete with a Last Grasp at Life.
• Rage Against the Reflection: George tipping his drink over his reflection in a table.
• Reality Subtext: In-universe, the final scene of Tears of Love where George's character sinks in quicksand.
• Retraux: The whole film, really.
• The Roaring Twenties: First part takes place at the end of it, and the arrival of The Great Depression kicks off Valentin's downfall.
• Rule of Cute: George toting his dog everywhere, including into a movie theater.
• Rule of Symbolism: The crooked frame in the bar where George gets smashed. Also note that whenever there's a staircase in the movie, Peppy will no doubt be going up whilst George will only go down.
• Running Gag: The dog plays dead whenever someone makes a motion like shooting a gun.
• Shout-Out:
  • The score includes quite a lengthy sample of the love theme from, of all movies, Vertigo. George's nightmare about sound is also very Hitchcock-esque.
  • The old movie that George watches on a home projector just before his breakdown is an actual silent movie, The Mark of Zorro, with Jean Dujardin inserted in close-ups in place of Douglas Fairbanks. In fact, George's whole on-screen persona, as present in the Films Within The Film, pretty strongly resembles Fairbanks.
  • The solution to Valentin's career problems is straight out of Singin in The Rain.
  • Valentin's very name is a Shout-Out to Rudolph Valentino, arguably the first and most famous silent movie star of the twenties.
  • Valentin's career problems mirror those of romantic silent film star John Gilbert, who drank himself to death when his career tanked after the transition to talkies. George eventually becomes an expy of Fred Astaire (complete with a set straight out of one of his films!), and bears a strong physical resemblance to Clark Gable.
  • Valentin's defiant effort to make a silent film with his own money with the rise of sound films is similar to Charlie Chaplin's stubborn efforts in making the largely silent films, City Lights and Modern Times, but Charlie's films were big hits. George... not so much.
  • The policeman running to save George's life from the fire is reminiscent of the next-to-last scene of Les Quatre Cents Coups
  • Peppy gives a shout out to Greta Garbo's famous line in the 1932 film Grand Hotel by telling her date, "I want to be alone."
  • George and Doris' simmering hostility at the dinner table recalls the same between Kane and his first wife in Citizen Kane.
• Show Within a Show: We see a number of George's and Peppy's films.
• Silence Is Golden: Used to very great effect -- three scenes total use sound, and they're all jarring.
• Spell My Name with an "S": Peppy's first "big" role has her name misspelled as "Pepi".
• Spinning Paper: Done as Peppy rises to the top of stardom.
• Stalker with a Crush: Peppy is a benevolent one towards George.
• Suddenly Voiced: The ending.
• Take That: In universe, Tears of Love is a thinly veiled rebuke to Peppy's success.
• Timmy in a Well: Played straight, even if the policeman in question is skeptical at first.
• Title Drop: In a newspaper headline.
• Trash the Set: George destroying his projector and film collection.
• When She Smiles: Invoked Trope with Peppy's screen persona.
• White Dwarf Starlet: George in the second half of the movie.
• Whole-Plot Reference: The premise is more than a little bit similar to the first two incarnations of A Star Is Born.
• Wipe: Another effect from the silent era.
• Women Drivers: Brakes? Telephone poles are Peppy's brakes!