Composing Greatness: #3.The Freshman Class of the 2010's - "The Artist" (2011)

Scene from The Artist

Welcome to Composing Greatness: a column dedicated to exploring the work of film composers. This will specifically focus on the films that earned them Oscar nominations while exploring what makes it so special. This will be broken down into a look at the overall style, interesting moments within the composition, and what made the score worth nominating in the first place. This will also include various subcategories where I will rank the themes of each film along with any time that the composer actually wins. This is a column meant to explore a side of film that doesn't get enough credit while hopefully introducing audiences to an enriched view of more prolific composers' work. This will only cover scores/songs that are compiled in an easily accessible format (so no extended scores will be considered). Join me every Sunday as I cover these talents that if you don't know by name, you recognize by sound.

Series Composer: Ludovic Bource

Entry: The Artist (2011)

Collaborators (If Available): N/A

Nomination: Best Original Score

Did They Win: Yes

Other Nominees:
Best Original Score
-The Adventures of Tintin (John Williams)
-Hugo (Howard Shore)
-Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (Alberto Iglesias)
-War Horse (John Williams)

Additional Information

This is to help provide perspective of where each composer is in their Oscar-nominated life as it related to the current entry.

Oscar Nomination: 1

Oscar Wins: 1

Track List

1. "The Artist Overture"
2. "1927 A Russian Affair"
3. "George Valentin"
4. "Pretty Peppy"
5. "At the Kinograph Studios"
6. "Fantasie D'amour"
7. "Waltz for Peppy"
8. "Estancia Op. 8"
9. "Imagination"
10. "Silent Rumble"
11. "1929"
12. "In the Stairs"
13. "Jubilee Stomp"
14. "Comme Une Rosee De Larmes"
15. "The Sound of Tears"
16. "Pennies from Heaven"
17. "1931"
18. "Jungle Bar"
19. "L'ombre Des Flammes"
20. "Happy Ending..."
21. "Charming Blackmail"
22. "Ghosts from the Past"
23. "My Suicide (Dedicated to 03.29.1967)"
24. "Peppy and George"

Note: Listen to here.

Exploring the Music

The area of the column where I will explore the music in as much detail as I see fit for each entry.

Theme Exploration:

"The Artist Overture"

The whole serves as one long pastiche to classic Hollywood cinema, so it makes sense that the beginning features a lot of grand melodrama. The drums slowly build as the strings play a sorrowful tune, capturing the woes that will take place in the opening "film" that is seen in the film. While it's a bit tonally different from large portions of the rest of the score, it still helps to convey a time and place that grabs you, filling you with awe and taking you quickly back to a nostalgic place. It's arguably the most accomplished pastiche score that has been released this decade, managing to sound tonally rich with themes that aren't used as a novelty but instead strike up emotions similar to what silent films of the time would have.

Interesting Standout:
"L'ombre Des Flammes"

Without giving too much of the plot away, the third act gets dark for a moment as George decides to look back on his recent failures. This requires the music to be big, capturing the familiar melodrama of a movie, but in his own life. It's supposed to feel tense while filling the viewer with a sense of sadness that something horrible could happen at any moment. Considering how upbeat the rest of the score is, it stands out more like a piece of music that is more string oriented than the others, as if they're plucking him and playing a sad tune. 

Best Moment:
"Peppy and George"

To be honest, there's about five or six tracks here that have a place in this column. This really is one of those movies whose score does a lot of the heavy lifting. Still, who could deny the power of that finale? In the film, it's accompanied by a dance that captures a star revived, looking for a brighter future. It's a blending of old and new, finding a deeper meaning in why we entertain. It's the feel-good finale that is necessary and one of the most immediately catchy tracks on an infinitely catchy soundtrack. It makes you want to get up and dance, leaving all your cares somewhere else for a while so that you can see the good in the world. 

Did This Deserve an Oscar Nomination?:
Yes

After only eight years, it does seem unfortunate that The Artist is mostly forgotten and considered a substandard Best Picture winner. The reason could be that many see it as a pastiche and gimmicky movie instead of telling an organic and interesting one. With that said, the attention to detail is superb, managing to elevate silent film for one brief moment back to its former glory. The film is debatable, but the score is a thing of beauty and works to capture the atmosphere of the 1920s and 1930s in great detail, managing to make its own motifs in the process that are rich, instantly memorable, and everything that a good score can do. While film music is often recognized by cinephiles, this is one that everyone can notice right away because of how the film uses it to advance the story.

Did This Deserve to Win?

Yes

Again, one can argue what value The Artist has had culturally. Yet there is a need to point out that more than any other 2011 film, this one compliments the film most clearly. Every note impacts an emotion on screen, tells some piece of the larger story that grabs the audience. It may be a pastiche that recalls older scores, but it does enough original to be simply exciting and memorable, finding ways to make an essential silent film score with modern techniques. While it's a shame that Ludovic Bource hasn't done much in the way of Oscar nominations since, one can hope that he gets a career resurgence one day, because he's really good at making these melodies pop.

Up Next: Best Original Score - Mychael Danna, The Life of Pi (2012)

Best Theme

A ranking of all themes composed by The Freshman Class of the 2010's.

1. Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross: "Hand Covers Bruise" - The Social Network (2010)
2. John Powell: "This is Berk" - How to Train Your Dragon (2010)
3. Ludovic Bource: "The Artist Overture" - The Artist (2011)