The Oscar Project #84: The Artist (2011)

by Chris Marshall:

I think the symmetry between the first and most recent Best Picture winners is absolutely perfect. Way back in 1927, Wings became the first film to win the top award at the Oscars, and as it turned out, it was the only silent picture to ever win… until this year.

Yes, in some sense, The Artist is not a true silent film. There are moments of sound and even color in the movie, but I have to imagine it’s the closest we’ll ever get to it again. And in another fitting connection, The Artist was set in 1927, the year Wings came out. I know this symmetry only exists because I happened to choose to do The Oscar Project this year, but it almost seems pre-ordained.

I do have to admit that I prefer this year’s winner to the first one, as much as I’ve defended the quality of some (thought definitely not all) of those early winners. But that’s mostly because The Artist is a very good film, finely crafted and well-acted. It didn’t win because it was a gimmick. I wouldn’t say it was the best movie of 2011—that title goes to Drive, based on what I’ve seen from last year—but it was certainly one of the best.

The Oscar Project #1: Wings (1927)

by Chris Marshall:

When I decided to undergo my Best Picture project, I knew that the very first winner, a 140 minute silent film, would be a major hump to get past. I’ve seen several silents before, but they have tended to be comedies, which I think hold up much better than their dramatic counterparts. Wings, which is a romance/action hybrid set in World War I, did not offer the prospect of much comic relief.

As it turned out, there were some laughs, but I’m not convinced they were intentional. “Herman Schwimpf? What kind of name is that for fighting the Kaiser?!” is an example, especially when coupled with Schwimpf’s “proof” of his patriotism: an American flag tattooed on his flabby bicep. Indeed, the American army, as portrayed in the film at least, was an exceptionally pasty, out-of-shape bunch. That may well have been the case at the time, but the net result was one of the least intimidating fighting forces imaginable.

Such concerns aside, however, the movie holds up quite well 85 years later, and I was impressed by how “modern” it seemed in many respects. The aerial dogfight scenes in particular were spectacular, and I still haven’t figured out how they pulled off one scene in a Paris nightclub, where the camera slowly zooms over table after table toward the drunken protagonist. It had the feel of a Steadicam shot, except that the Steadicam wouldn’t be invented for almost half a century.