Sightlines · reception
How The Artist was received
2011 · Michel Hazanavicius · The Artist on Sightlines
The arc
It swept the 2011–12 awards season as an irresistible charmer — first (mostly) silent Best Picture winner since Wings in 1929 — then almost immediately became Exhibit A in the 'forgettable Oscar winner' conversation, routinely ranked near the bottom of best-of-the-2010s Best Picture retrospectives.
What’s debated
The perennial fight: delightful love letter to silent cinema, or Weinstein-campaigned nostalgia-bait that beat The Tree of Life and stole Hugo's thunder in the very same silent-movie-nostalgia year?
Its footprint
Its most enduring celebrity is Uggie the Jack Russell terrier, who won the Palm Dog at Cannes, inspired a semi-serious 'Consider Uggie' Oscar campaign, and left his paw prints in cement at Grauman's Chinese Theatre.
Where it stands
A canon faller rather than a climber — the go-to Letterboxd example of a Best Picture winner nobody rewatches, though its defenders insist the charm holds up.
Did you know? The score's use of Bernard Herrmann's love theme from Vertigo prompted a furious public statement from Kim Novak — Vertigo's own star — who said she felt her body of work had been violated, forcing Hazanavicius to publicly defend the homage.
Named by the director
- F.W. Murnau — Hazanavicius repeatedly named Murnau as his touchstone, saying he immersed himself in his films to learn how silent cinema tells stories in images.
- Sunrise (1927) — Cited by Hazanavicius among the silent masterpieces he studied and screened while preparing the film.
- City Girl (1930) — Another Murnau he singled out in interviews as a direct reference for the film's visual storytelling.
- King Vidor — Named alongside Murnau and Borzage as one of the silent-era directors whose work he drew on, particularly The Crowd.
- Frank Borzage — Cited by Hazanavicius as part of his core trio of silent-era influences for the film's romantic melodrama register.
- Billy Wilder — In his Best Picture acceptance speech Hazanavicius famously thanked 'Billy Wilder, Billy Wilder, and Billy Wilder' as his guiding inspiration.