Tuesday’s Top Trailer: The Artist

Welcome to a weekly feature here at Movies with Abe, Tuesday's Top Trailer. One of my favorite parts about going to see movies is the series of trailers that airs beforehand and, more often than not, the trailer is far better than the actual film. Each week, I'll be sharing a trailer I've recently seen. Please chime in with comments on what you think of the trailer and how you think the movie is going to be.

The Artist – Opening November 23, 2011



I finally had a chance to watch the trailer for a film that I’ve been reading a lot about in preliminary Oscar predictions. This black-and-white silent film from relatively unknown French director Michel Hazanavicius won relatively unknown French actor Jean Dujardin a Best Actor prize at the Cannes Film Festival. It does feature a slew of recognizable American faces, such as John Goodman, James Cromwell, Joel Murray, Beth Grant, and Missi Pyle, in the cast, but the main point of this movie, it appears, is to present a throwback to older times, 1927 specifically, and to a different area. I will acknowledge that when “Almost Martyrs” from the “Life of David Gale” soundtrack, a personal musical favorite of mine, came booming over my computer speakers midway through the trailer, it did detract from the authenticity of this experience for me. I don’t think that the presence of the previously named actors will be a disservice to the film, and I think it should prove a thoroughly intriguing, if not entirely enthralling, fabricated relic of what films used to be like. Whether Oscar voters will take notice is an entirely separate question, but I’m sure it will end up on at least a few ballots.