CITIZEN KANE homage in THE ARTIST

[mteal]

THE ARTIST, favored to win best picture at the Oscars tomorrow (according to the latest Vegas odds), is a very charming and well-done throwback to silent cinema. I was disappointed to hear some of Bernard Hermann's score for VERTIGO appropriated for the film's climax, but aside from that it's a fine picture. THE ARTIST also contains a scene at a dinner table that is a clear homage to the famous dinner scene in CITIZEN KANE, showing the growing alienation between husband and wife.

Given the success THE ARTIST has had, it will be interesting to see if someone else tries to take a chance on making another black and white silent film (in 1.37, no less). I have a good candidate: Welles's DON QUIXOTE! Since very little sound was recorded for QUIXOTE, and since Welles reportedly shot the film in the improvisational manner of silent cinema, why not turn it into a silent movie? I would think it would have to be better then the Franco mess, at any rate. Of course, the picture quality would have to be better then was seen in the Franco if that's still possible.

BTW, Wellesnet's own Ray Kelly discusses the Oscar race on a Springfield MA TV station here:

http://vimeo.com/37399575

[Roger Ryan]

Thanks for the link, Mike - I enjoyed seeing Ray's take on this year's Oscar nominees. I also agree with Ray that THE ARTIST is a shallow film that doesn't do enough with a theme better explored in SINGIN' IN THE RAIN and A STAR IS BORN. How much more interesting would this film have been if Jean Dujardin's character aspired to more than corny serial-style programmers or was rejected because of his voice? Too many missed opportunities along with a suspicion that Bernard Herrmann secretly won the film a Golden Globe for best score (something that may be repeated tomorrow night during the Oscars).

What is fun about THE ARTIST is to find all the hidden homages to classic Hollywood and the dinner table scene clearly appears to be a nod to KANE.

By the way, the DON QUIXOTE 35mm rushes I saw in 2005 at the Locarno Film Festival looked very good, considerably better than the poor quality duped material Jess Franco used in his edit. I think your suggestion of approaching the film as a silent movie (not dissimilar to how FOUR MEN ON A BOAT was handled) might be the way to go.

[mteal]

Good prediction, Roger. Maybe I missed it with his thick French accent, but I didn't hear Ludovic Bource give any thanks to Bernard Hermann last night.

[Roger Ryan]

Good prediction, Roger. Maybe I missed it with his thick French accent, but I didn't hear Ludovic Bource give any thanks to Bernard Hermann last night.

Nope, Bource didn't acknowledge Herrmann during his Oscar acceptance speech like he did at the Golden Globes. There's no question that the sheer amount of scoring featured in THE ARTIST would draw notice and Bource's work is very good, but the only moment that truly stands out as exceptional (to me) is the six-minute long Herrmann cue. Had that lengthy scene been scored by Bource himself, I wonder if the score would have won?

[LostOverThere]

Nope, Bource didn't acknowledge Herrmann during his Oscar acceptance speech like he did at the Golden Globes. There's no question that the sheer amount of scoring featured in THE ARTIST would draw notice and Bource's work is very good, but the only moment that truly stands out as exceptional (to me) is the six-minute long Herrmann cue. Had that lengthy scene been scored by Bource himself, I wonder if the score would have won?

What's most curious to me is why Herrmann's cue was used. Was that always the intention, or could Bource not come up with anything else? I'm inclined to think it's the former, because the rest of the film's score is simply stellar.

[Roger Ryan]

Often during the post-production process, a director or editor will drop in a pre-existing music cue as a temporary placeholder for an original cue that has yet to be written. As the director "lives" with the film for a while, he/she gets so used to the pre-existing music being part of the scene that nothing else seems appropriate and the "temporary" cue becomes permanent. I don't know if this was the situation with THE ARTIST, but it seems odd that such a recognizable piece of music would accompany such a significant scene in the film even though that music (and the film it was originally written for) had nothing to do with the era depicted in this Best Picture winner.

[mteal]

That probably happens a lot. That's what happened with Kubrick and 2001. Alex North wrote a pretty good score for the film, including a good fanfare for the film's opening, but knew he wouldn't tear Kubrick away from Zarathustra, the Blue Danube, and the Ligeti pieces.

My guess is that many people who really liked THE ARTIST (like the two twenty-something's I saw the film with), did not have the knowledge of film history to make the Hermann connection. But it would be unfortunate if someone watching VERTIGO for the first time, were to recognize the love theme and think that it had been stolen from another film.