'The Artist' Entertains as Art in Context

The cinema is under a lot of pressure these days thanks to competition from a multitude of sources. Not only is there rampant online piracy allowing people to view the latest films, sometimes before they are out in cinemas, but for those who are prepared to wait, the DVD can be purchased legitimately at no great cost and watched over and over again. Then there are the subscription services which deliver DVD’s to your home. For a small monthly fee you can watch as many as you like. On-demand TV services are also growing, Film4 is available on Freeview, and for the indecisive audience, the ordinary TV channels still show a narrow selection every week. All of which can be enjoyed on screens of ever increasing size and definition and with sound that rivals the cinema. Tesco’s or Ocado will deliver the popcorn to your door and finally the complete cinema experience is available without leaving your house.

In the midst of all this, the Artist is released, filmed in glorious monochrome and with intertitles and a musical score almost entirely taking the place of dialogue and sound effects. This antithesis of 3D movies is the proof that the cinema is still a viable medium of entertainment and art, or art as entertainment. What’s more, it is difficult to imagine someone putting this DVD on and sitting down on their sofa to watch it.

Allow me to explain.

Some oil paintings cleverly feature within them a continuation of the church interior where they are intended to hang. When these pictures are subsequently moved to a gallery’s whitewashed walls, they can still be appreciated as art, but only in a cold, abstracted, intellectual way. Similarly with this film, it seems that the rows of seats and the vaulted ceiling of the cinema are integral parts of the film, providing essential context.

The clever use of silent jokes, effects and self-reference, which never give the impression of being gratuitous, show that the cinema still has tricks up its sleeve and is still able to innovate while entertaining.

Meanwhile, Uggie, the Jack Russel who plays Jack in this film, reminds me of the appearance of dogs on Britain’s Got Talent. Entertaining, artistic and creative talent, be it human or animal, should always be a cause for celebration, but it strikes me that it is far more entertaining, artistic and creative when it is removed from the ‘talent show’ format and placed in the context of a compelling story, as it is here in the Artist.

If only TV producers and prime-time audiences appreciated this.