Chat with ‘The Artist’ star, director before Hollywood

MICHEL Hazanavicius, in front of “The Artist” poster featuring Jean Dujardin and Berenice Bejo, believes comedy allows viewers to open doors of discussion. AFP

Four years ago, French filmmaker Michel Hazanavicius and actress Berenice Bejo visited Manila to promote the spy spoof, “OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies.” During their stay, Inquirer had the chance to chat with the tandem, who would soon make waves in Hollywood.

Their latest collaboration, “The Artist,” recently won three Golden Globes: best comedy/musical film, best actor (for “OSS” star Jean Dujardin) and best musical score (for Ludovic Bource).

Hazanavicius was also nominated for best director, while Bejo got a best supporting actress nod.

Cannes, San Sebastian

Prior to the Golden Globes, “The Artist” won best actor for Dujardin at the Cannes fest last year and the audience award at the San Sebastian. It likewise wowed critics, topping the New York Film Critics Circle and Broadcast Film Critics Association Awards.

Only a few days after the Golden Globes, “The Artist” earned a remarkable 10 Oscar nominations—second only to Martin Scorsese’s “Hugo” (with 11). Hazanavicius, Bejo and Dujardin clinched Oscar nods as well.

Variety’s Elsa Keslassy called it “a love letter to silent cinema sealed with a smirk.”

“The Artist” tells the story of a silent-film star (Dujardin) who copes rather awkwardly with the coming of the so-called “talking pictures.”

New York Times’ Celestine Bohlen noted: “There’s something very different, even startling, about this film: It’s black and white and wordless … There is no violence, no sex—not even a kiss.”

It has proven that silence can be golden.

In these outtakes from the 2007 Inquirer interview, Hazanavicius and Bejo already showed keen interest in vintage Hollywood films.

In “OSS,” they paid homage to the James Bond movies of the 1950s and 1960s. In “The Artist,” they traveled further back in time and revisited 1920s Hollywood, during the last days of the silent era.

Bejo told the Inquirer: “I had that culture in me. My dad is a big fan of classic movies. At a young age, I started watching all sorts of films—Westerns, musicals, Italian, American. I had those images in my mind.”

For “OSS,” she studied Kim Novak, Katharine Hepburn and other “elegant leading ladies of the silver screen.”

For “The Artist,” Bejo watched old movies featuring Marlene Dietrich, Joan Crawford and Clara Bow, said Hazanavicius in a recent interview with Filmmaker magazine.

Like Chaplin

As early as the 2007 Inquirer interview, their love for the classics was already evident, especially since Hazanavicius has compared Dujardin to Charlie Chaplin.

“He can play different characters. Very versatile,” the director said of Dujardin. “He has an unusual gift as an actor. He’s funny in both close-ups and wide shots. He acts not only with his face, but with his entire body. In that way, he’s a lot like Peter Sellers and Chaplin.”

Bejo had nothing but praise for Dujardin, too: “He’s a big star in France, so I was a little scared at first that he might not give me space.”

Rhythm is key

Some stars, she explained, sabotage their colleagues, “so that they won’t be as good as the leads.” But not Dujardin. “He’s generous to his cast mates and kind to the crew. He was marvelous. He has a great sense of humor.”

Then and now, Hazanavicius used comedy to tackle different issues concerning politics (in “OSS”) and cinema (“The Artist”).

“Humor is interesting. You can open a door with jokes and laugh about things. But after opening the door, there is discussion. Now, you can talk about issues.”

In comedy, he said, “rhythm is key.”

Bejo agreed: “You can’t be too fast or too slow. Timing is important. In the end, I learned to let go. In any case, I knew that my director was good … that he would make the scene hilarious.”

Back in 2007, they were just sweethearts. By the time they made “The Artist,” they had become parents to two kids.

Said Hazanavicius of his actress: “She’s good! She plays straight guy to Jean, which is hard.”

Said Bejo of her director: “He was great on the set. He joked a lot. We laughed a lot.”