I was very pleased to see Jean Dujardin (also 40 this year) would be joining me on the great leap over the hill, he seems to be having a great year, best actor at Cannes, best comedy actor at the Golden Globes. Not to mention a flurry of Oscar nominations for the film the Artist, directed by Michel Hazanavicius and co-starring Bérénice Bejo .
I saw the film before Christmas, when in first came out in France. I have always been torn between driving forty minutes and paying half my salary for the privilege of seeing a film in English at a Geneva cinema, or nipping down the road to the local French one. The French seem to be perfectly happy with dubbing, both cinema and TV feature famous stars with gruff French voices and wobbly lips that seem to be moving of their own accord. Having lived her a while I’ve got used to it as well, it’s a bit of a shock to hear some actors real voices, often I’m so used to the French version that their own voices don’t seem to suit them as well.
Anyway, there was no dilemmarous decision with the Artist, down the road I popped with my partner in coffee. I adored the film, I don’t get to the cinema as often as I’d like to, so I try to make sure it’s for a film that’s worth it, therefore I do read up a bit before deciding, unlike the viewers of a Liverpool cinema I read about, who asked for their money back on discovering that it was a silent movie. Personally I loved the whole “black and white and silent”-ness of the whole thing, I’m sure I wouldn’t want every film I see to be like that but the originality was most refreshing.
Jean Dujardin is no newcomer to us Francofillies, he has been in numerous tacky comedy films and a sketch called Un gars et une fille, before becoming all grown up and serious. So here’s wishing him every luck with his own 40foible project.
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