A Bérénice Bejo jag from The Past (2013). Written and directed by her husband Michel Hazanavicius who won an Oscar for the direction. Also Oscared as best picture. The novelty is that it's mostly silent.
A simplified Sunset Boulevard (1950): talkies killed the silent-movie star but the star-is-born actress brought him back. Much of the time Hazanavicius did not seem to know how to drive the story forward or provide enough wildly inventive scenes (somewhat like Sound of Metal (2019)). Jean Dujardin (Oscared, the first Frenchman) disappeared into the lead role: he embodied the looks, self-regard and expressiveness of golden-era Hollywood. The dogs can act. Bejo (Oscar-nommed) is far better here: she does unmitigated joy a lot better than complex emotions. John Goodman is fine but his character (a producer/studio head) is a cliche, as is James Cromwell's devoted manservant/butler. I found it less engaging than it should have been; it's more effective in showing what the American movie industry could do than being great in itself.
Universally feted. Roger Ebert: four stars. Singin' in the Rain (1952). Dana Stevens: "essentially a novelty item." Genteel alcoholism. The "plot is a deliberately unoriginal backstage melodrama." "[D]rags a bit in the last third."
