Talk:The Artist (film)

Plot derived directly from

Paul Auster's 2002 novel "The Book of Illusion". Which refers to the old and true tales of silent stars with accents and also to their more recent imitator: New York theater impressario Charles Ludlum, who himself slipped untimely into silence in 1987.

Cite that genre

The first line of this article describes The Artist as a "romantic comedy-drama". There's no romance plot in the film. 87.112.189.206 (talk) 00:14, 23 January 2014 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by 87.112.189.206 (talk) 00:12, 23 January 2014 (UTC)

Aspect Ratio

The 4:3 aspect ratio was used in the 1973 winner for Best Picture ( The Sting) originally. Marty was the last 4:3 ratio best picture winner prior to 1973. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2601:5:C080:63E:41D8:B11B:6B7:6936 (talk) 14:41, 21 February 2014 (UTC)

What reference do you have for your claim? IMDb says The Sting was 1.85:1; Wikipedia makes no mention of aspect ratio. It's more likely that the film was "open matte", i.e., it was shot at 4:3 (or technically 1.37:1 "Academy ratio") but sent to theaters with instructions to block the top & bottom for 1.85:1 projection. (Edit: By modern definition, such a film's "original aspect ratio" is 1.85:1 as it was never intended to be shown at 4:3, except possibly for TV.) Most 1.85:1 releases of that era were either that or "closed matte", i.e., blocked in the print when it was made. I know Annie Hall, Best Picture winner a few years later, was open matte; its DVD release was a "flipper disc" with the unmatted transfer as "fullscreen".

Actually, I believe even From Here to Eternity (claimed here to be the last 4:3 Best Picture) was originally open matte; it's wrongly assumed to be 4:3 because that's the only ratio Sony has used for it on home video. On the Waterfront, also open matte, was treated the same way by Sony till it was recently licensed to Criterion, who released it in three aspect ratios -- Academy ratio, 1.85:1 as originally instructed to theaters, and 1.66:1 which Criterion determined was more visually accurate. (Actually, I think the issue with both films is the 1.85:1 open matte Columbia used in 1953-54 was above center vertically, as the opening credits of both films suggest and similar to the 1.85:1 guideline for Super 35; later open matte films were centered vertically.) The last Best Picture before The Artist undeniably released in Academy ratio was 1952's The Greatest Show on Earth; it certainly wasn't made in CinemaScope (introduced earlier in 1952), and the first modern film matted to 1.85:1 was Thunder Bay in 1953 (same year as From Here to Eternity). --RBBrittain (talk) 16:41, 27 June 2016 (UTC)

French American

Wikipedia often considers movies to from more than one country. The article mentions controversy about whether it's French or American. Can't it just be both? JDDJS (talk) 03:36, 20 October 2014 (UTC)

It can, but via consensus. There's a hidden comment in the lead (which you must have seen when removing it) that invites users to discuss this issue here first. Thanks. Lugnuts ^{Dick Laurent is dead} 09:08, 20 October 2014 (UTC)

I did comment here first, but then, after looking at the previous discussion, I saw that the idea of it being both French and American was never really discussed. It being both French and American makes more sense than it being just one or the other. JDDJS (talk) 17:42, 21 October 2014 (UTC)

The nationality was discussed and the consensus was that it is a French film. Incidentally, does anyone know why there is no link to the archives of this talk page? Mezigue (talk) 14:38, 26 October 2014 (UTC)

I read the archive. There is no clear consensus from there. Several editors have bought up the idea it being French-American. It was filmed in America, besides the two leads, almost all of the all actors were American, it was distributed by American company and the producers marketed it as an American film. While I agree that if it could only be from one country, it would be French and not American, that is not the case. Many films are considered to be from multiple countries. This is one of them. JDDJS (talk) 18:19, 26 October 2014 (UTC)

The Weinstein Company was merely its U.S. distributor, a common practice for foreign films. It was distributed in France by the French arm of Warner Bros., which distributes numerous independent French films; AFAIK Warner Bros. did not distribute the film outside France. It also received a French visa d'exploitation (French Wikipedia) number but not an MPAA number, which I understand is typical for French films released in the U.S. (It did receive an MPAA rating, but not an MPAA number like most U.S.-released films. I believe the last Best Picture winner before it without an MPAA number was Midnight Cowboy, probably because it was originally rated X. The only other winner since 1931 without an MPPDA/MPAA number, Tom Jones, was distributed in the U.S. by non-MPAA Lopert Pictures.) Its production & distribution arrangements were largely in line with a French film, even though in the U.S. its dialogue (both easily-changeable intertitles and the few spoken lines at the end) was entirely in English. I still believe it is properly a French film, not a co-production. --RBBrittain (talk) 22:07, 30 July 2016 (UTC)

Not sure why the talk page hasn't been archived. JDDJS - suggest you also consult with the Film Project for more opinions on this before you change it. Thanks. Lugnuts ^{Dick Laurent is dead} 14:45, 26 October 2014 (UTC)

It has been archived to Talk:The Artist (film)/Archive 1; you can see it in the edit history, but no link appears to have been generated. Mezigue (talk) 15:39, 26 October 2014 (UTC)

The official AMPAS database considers the film to be solely French, apparently based on its director, producer, primary production companies (IIRC one of its lesser companies was actually Belgian), and stars. That alone is notable as AMPAS considers every other Best Picture winner to be partially of either United States or United Kingdom origin. --RBBrittain (talk) 16:49, 27 June 2016 (UTC)

Hello, the film is French because it is produced by French companies. It would have been French even if it had had American actors only, had English dialogues from the beginning to the end, or/and had an American director. We have to be careful with sources (even main magazines and websites) which are not always vigilant on this point, and just pick up the information from other websites and sometimes... Wikipedia. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Herve.toullec (talk • contribs) 18:35, 22 August 2017 (UTC)

External links modified

Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified 2 external links on The Artist (film). Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:

• Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20100108115828/http://www.goldenglobes.org/nominations/ to http://www.goldenglobes.org/nominations/
• Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20110914011421/http://www.festival-cannes.com/assets/Image/Direct/041179.PDF to http://www.festival-cannes.com/assets/Image/Direct/041179.PDF

When you have finished reviewing my changes, you may follow the instructions on the template below to fix any issues with the URLs.

Y An editor has reviewed this edit and fixed any errors that were found.

• If you have discovered URLs which were erroneously considered dead by the bot, you can report them with this tool.
• If you found an error with any archives or the URLs themselves, you can fix them with this tool.

Cheers.—InternetArchiveBot (Report bug) 20:45, 27 April 2017 (UTC)

Category:Historical romance films

An editor keeps adding this category, but doesn't source their addition, saying that "it's obvious". Considering the issues with the lead of the article, saying it's French and in the style of a silent film, anything else along those lines would need to be backed up with reliable sources. Thanks. Lugnuts ^{Fire Walk with Me} 11:41, 16 October 2017 (UTC)

Boxoffice Mojo lists it as a comedy/drama, while Allmovie has the same, with the sub-genres of "Romantic Drama" and "Showbiz Comedy". Lugnuts ^{Fire Walk with Me} 11:48, 16 October 2017 (UTC)

The only genres that should be listed are those that WP:SECONDARY WP:RSs note. Lugnuts has provided those - the IP has not. MarnetteD|Talk 13:48, 16 October 2017 (UTC)

The American Film Institute goes with "Comedy drama" and "Romance". "Historical films" usually have specific traits, and some basis in fact (either historical people or historical events); Allmovie provide a full description. I think The Artist is just a comedy drama with a period setting, and the "Films set in XXXX" categories take care of this. Betty Logan (talk) 17:50, 16 October 2017 (UTC)

Thanks both. Lugnuts ^{Fire Walk with Me} 18:07, 16 October 2017 (UTC)

Production notes

If anyone is interested in improving the article, and especially the reference coverage, they might find this archived copy of the Production Notes (PDF) helpful. -- 109.77.236.232 (talk) 23:06, 20 October 2018 (UTC)