The Artist · reception & legacy

How The Artist has been received, argued over, and remembered.

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.

Named by the director

Influences Michel Hazanavicius has publicly named — the director's own word, distinct from the inferred lines of influence.

• 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.