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En garde, worldwide enemies of France, along with all freedom-loving people! Hubert Bonisseur de La Bath Aka super-agent Oss 117 is on the case! Actually, he’s on two cases as a pair of his deadliest missions is now available in a nifty ultra-cool double BluRay gift set. Yes, I know Santa “made the scene” over a week ago, but if you’re wondering what to do with your gift cards or return credits, well…

First, let’s crack open the dossier file on this operative. The character springs from a series of novels begun by writer Jean Bruce, beating Ian Fleming’s 007 by six years. Of course, the movie studios beckoned, and a movie franchise premiered in 1957 and concluded in 1970. Ah, but you can’t keep a good spy down. Five years before they teamed on the Oscar-winning The Artist, director/co-writer Michel Hazanavicius and star Jean Dujardin re-imagined...

Jean Dujardin is off on a mission to Africa for the latest in the Oss 117 franchise scheduled as the final screening in this year’s Cannes Film Festival. His dancing partner is Fatou N’Diaye (Image Photo: Gaumont/Christophe Brochet Although the rumour machine has been rife for weeks the organisers of Cannes Film Festival finally have confirmed that the Last Screening (Dernière séance) of this year’s 47th edition will be the latest iteration of the spy spool Oss 117: From Africa With Love, which will hit French cinema screens in August.

Oss 117: From Africa With Love marks the third outing as the spy for Jean Dujardin Photo: Gaumont/Christophe Brochet The first two in the series Oss 117: Cairo - Nest of Spies and Oss 117: Lost In Rio were directed by Michel Hazanavicius who has relinquished the reins for the new film to director Guy Bedos on...

Snd, the film and TV production/distribution arm of French network M6, is teaming up with Paris-based company Superprod on the feature film adaptation of “Les blagues de Toto,” the popular French comics. Created by Thierry Coppée, “Les blagues de Toto” comprises of 13 volumes and have sold more than 3.7 million units.

The family comedy will start shooting later this month in live action. Pascal Bourdiaux, who directed another comics adaptation, “Boule et Bill 2,” is on board to direct “Les blagues de Toto.”

The cast is headlined by children and completed by Guillaume de Tonquédec (“What’s in a Name?”), Ramzi Bedia (“Taxi 5”) and Daniel Prevost (“Diner de cons”). The movie will follow the adventures of a mischievous little boy – whose parents are separated — and his friends at school.

On top of producing with Superprod, Snd has acquired French distribution and international sales rights to “Les blagues de Toto.” The...

Michel Hazanavicius, the Oscar-winning director of “The Artist” whose latest film “Redoutable” competed at Cannes Film Festival last year, is set to direct “The Lost Prince,” a fantasy-filled family comedy which will star Omar Sy (“Intouchables), François Damiens (“Heartbreaker”) and Bérénice Bejo (“The Artist”).

“The Lost Prince” is produced by Philippe Rousselet and Jonathan Blumental. Pathé, Studiocanal and TF1 Films Production are co-producing. Studiocanal also handles international sales and will begin pre-sales at Cannes. Pathé will release the film in France. Shooting will begin July 30.

“The Lost Prince” will star Sy as Djibi, a devoted single father whose life revolves around his beloved 7-year-old daughter Sofia.

Every night as Sofia falls asleep, Djibi takes her into “Storyland”, a fantasy film studio where their extraordinary fairytale adventures come to life starring Djibi in the lead role as the heroic Prince Charming. As Sofia eventually grows out of her father’s stories,...

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The plot of Hitchcock’s North by Northwest was suggested by this spy film.

The Man Who Never Was I Was Monty’s Double Odd Man Out Correct

Clifton Webb starred in Ronald Neame’s 1956 film...

Three years ago Jean Dujardin became the first French actor ever to win a Best Actor Oscar, for The Artist. That charming film, meticulously designed in the style of a late-1920s black-and-white silent film, was transformed from an ingenious stunt into something more by Dujardin’s brilliance as a swashbuckling Hollywood star circa 1928. A pastiche performance, yes, particularly paying homage to Douglas Fairbanks, but nonetheless one with delicacy and emotional depth. Few Americans heard of him before The Artist’s sleeper triumph. Fewer still of its writer-director Michel Hazanavicius. Yet they were already something of a signature creative duo in France, on the basis of two movies that got just moderate arthouse exposure in the U.S. but were big commercial hits abroad. Some of us who had seen them enjoyed The Artist very much—but semi-guiltily still preferred the brassier, vulgar, laugh-out-loud joys of Oss 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies (2006) and its sequel,...

Three years ago Jean Dujardin became the first French actor ever to win a Best Actor Oscar, for The Artist. That charming film, meticulously designed in the style of a late-1920s black-and-white silent film, was transformed from an ingenious stunt into something more by Dujardin’s brilliance as a swashbuckling Hollywood star circa 1928. A pastiche performance, yes, particularly paying homage to Douglas Fairbanks, but nonetheless one with delicacy and emotional depth. Few Americans heard of him before The Artist’s sleeper triumph. Fewer still of its writer-director Michel Hazanavicius. Yet they were already something of a signature creative duo in France, on the basis of two movies that got just moderate arthouse exposure in the U.S. but were big commercial hits abroad. Some of us who had seen them enjoyed The Artist very much—but semi-guiltily still preferred the brassier, vulgar, laugh-out-loud joys of Oss 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies (2006) and its sequel,...

Three years ago Jean Dujardin became the first French actor ever to win a Best Actor Oscar, for The Artist. That charming film, meticulously designed in the style of a late-1920s black-and-white silent film, was transformed from an ingenious stunt into something more by Dujardin’s brilliance as a swashbuckling Hollywood star circa 1928. A pastiche performance, yes, particularly paying homage to Douglas Fairbanks, but nonetheless one with delicacy and emotional depth. Few Americans heard of him before The Artist’s sleeper triumph. Fewer still of its writer-director Michel Hazanavicius. Yet they were already something of a signature creative duo in France, on the basis of two movies that got just moderate arthouse exposure in the U.S. but were big commercial hits abroad. Some of us who had seen them enjoyed The Artist very much—but semi-guiltily still preferred the brassier, vulgar, laugh-out-loud joys of Oss 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies (2006) and its sequel,...

Three years ago Jean Dujardin became the first French actor ever to win a Best Actor Oscar, for The Artist. That charming film, meticulously designed in the style of a late-1920s black-and-white silent film, was transformed from an ingenious stunt into something more by Dujardin’s brilliance as a swashbuckling Hollywood star circa 1928. A pastiche performance, yes, particularly paying homage to Douglas Fairbanks, but nonetheless one with delicacy and emotional depth. Few Americans heard of him before The Artist’s sleeper triumph. Fewer still of its writer-director Michel Hazanavicius. Yet they were already something of a signature creative duo in France, on the basis of two movies that got just moderate arthouse exposure in the U.S. but were big commercial hits abroad. Some of us who had seen them enjoyed The Artist very much—but semi-guiltily still preferred the brassier, vulgar, laugh-out-loud joys of Oss 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies (2006) and its sequel,...

Welcome back to Cannes Check, In Contention's annual preview of the films in Competition at next month's Cannes Film Festival, which kicks off on May 14. Taking on different selections every day, we'll be examining what they're about, who's involved and what their chances are of snagging an award from Jane Campion's jury. Next up, from the most recent Oscar winner in the lineup: Michael Hazanavicius' "The Search." The director: Michel Hazanavicius (French, 47 years old). Three years ago, Hazanavicius was a somewhat unlikely Competition entrant: regarded as a lightweight commercial comedy director, his film was initially placed in a non-competitive slot, and only upgraded when another planned inclusion didn't pan out. That film, of course, was "The Artist." Now, Hazanavicius returns to the festival with an Oscar to his name, while he and his wife -- last year's Best Actress winner Bérénice Bejo -- are one of French cinema's premier power couples.

In 2011, French filmmaker Michel Hazanavicius and his wife, actress Bérénice Bejo, became the toast of Cannes when they premiered the B&W silent film The Artist (my glowing review), which went on to win Best Picture at the Oscars. Now three years later, Hazanavicius and Bejo are back with another film, titled The Search, which was just announced to play In Competition at Cannes 2014 next month. Leading up to the film's premiere in May, the first photo has been unveiled. The project was shot in secret last year and is a remake of an old 1948 WWII film, but contemporarized and set in Chechnya instead. Check it out below. Here's the first photo from Hazanavicius' The Search with Bérénice Bejo and the boy, found via The Playlist. The Search, written & directed by Michel Hazanavicius (Oss 117: Cairo Nest of Spies, Oss 117: Lost in Rio, The Artist previously), is about a...

Exclusive: Breaking Bad alum Christopher Cousins has joined sophomore NBC drama Revolution as a recurring. The actor, repped by Sdb Talent and manager Lisa Disante-Frank, will play high-ranking Patriot Victor Doyle, who’s on a collision course with Tom Neville (Giancarlo Esposito). French actress Louise Monot and Sam Littlefield have been added to Chris Carter’s Amazon drama pilot The After. Produced by Georgeville TV, it takes place at the moment of apocalypse. In her first Us TV role, Monot, repped by Olivia Bell Management in London, Artmedia in Paris and Radius Entertainment in La, will play Gigi, a woman caught up in the midst of the action. Her feature credits include Michel Hazanavicius’ Oss 117: Lost in Rio, Guillaume Canet’s Little White Lies and German pic Girl On A Bicycle. Littlefield, repped by Bold and attorney Chad Christopher, will play the mysterious Dark Shadow.

"You're old, pretentious, a misogynist, full of yourself, vain, borderline racist, tacky dresser, childish, not funny. Shall I stop?"

Embark on two wacky, globe-trotting adventures with a confident, debonair super-spy who always gets the girl, even if he doesn't always get his man.

Next Showing:

Link | Posted 2/4/2013 by BrentJS

Jean Dujardin | Michel Hazanavicius | Oss 117: Cairo: Nest of Spies | Oss 117: Lost in Rio...

Toronto - Whether you know him best as Sean Connery, Roger Moore, or Daniel Craig, we all know him as Bond; James Bond. Tall, dark, and handsome, yet devilish, armed, and dangerous, Ian Fleming’s MI6 secret agent is the definition of iconic, influential, and indelible.

Starting October 26th, Tiff Bell Lightbox presents the North American Premiere of Designing 007: 50 Years of Bond Style, the most comprehensive James Bond exhibition ever. Running until January 20th, the showcase will explore the craft behind the Bond phenomenon, from the villains and femme fatales, tailoring and costumes, set and production design, and gadgets and special effects.

Notable highlights include Bond’s Samsonite briefcase with diamonds from Die Another Day (2002), his Omega Watch from Tomorrow Never Dies (1997), his bathing trunks from Casino Royale (2006), his Tom Ford tuxedo from Quantum of Solace (2008), Scaramanga’s golden gun and 007 bullet from The Man With the Golden Gun...

Comedian sells screenplay about a spy on the run with his football hooligan brother to Paramount

Sacha Baron Cohen could star in a James Bond-style spy spoof about a secret agent forced to go on the run with his football hooligan brother, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

The British actor has written the screenplay for the untitled film alongside Phil Johnston, who wrote the 2011 comedy Cedar Rapids, and may take a role if his schedule allows it. Paramount Pictures, which has a long-term arrangement with Baron Cohen, has bought the pitch for the new project.

Spy films and spoofs have proven fertile ground for Hollywood, even before the long-running James Bond series began driving all before it at the global box office in the 60s. Oscar-winning The Artist director Michel Hazanavicius was previously known for his 2006 spy spoof Oss 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies and its 2009 sequel Oss 117: Lost in Rio,...

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences brings you the Oscars (yep, that's why they're called Academy Awards), and on Friday, the organization announced that it was prepared to invite 176 new folks to its fold.

In a list posted on its website, the Academy deemed Matthew McConaughey, Jean Dujardin, Terrence Malick, Jonah Hill, Berenice Bejo, Jessica Chastain, Octavia Spencer and a host of other film luminaries worthy of inclusion in its nearly 6,000-member army.

The Academy has drawn the ire of critics who bemoan its overwhelmingly male, white population. A Los Angeles Times investigation found that of all Academy members, 94 percent are Caucasian and 77 percent are male. A mere 2 percent are black, with Latinos constituting an even smaller portion. Only 14 percent of members are under the age of 50.

Full members of the Academy select and vote on Oscars nominees. The organization was started in 1927 and is now governed by a 43-person board.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences extended their 2012 membership invitations today to 176 lucky actors, directors, cinematographers, and other members of the filmmaking industry.

Terrence Malick, who somehow wasn’t already a member, received an invitation, as did fellow directors Rodrigo Garcia and Asghar Farhadi.

For actors, Melissa McCarthy’s invitation continues her incredible post-Bridesmaids rise. In addition, actors Jonah Hill, Matthew McConaughey, Andy Serkis, Jessica Chastain, and Octavia Spencer were all invited to be members, among others.

Voting membership in the organization has now held steady at just under 6,000 members since 2003, according to the Academy’s website.

HollywoodNews.com: The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is extending invitations to join the organization to 176 artists and executives who have distinguished themselves by their contributions to theatrical motion pictures. Those who accept the invitation will be the only additions in 2012 to the Academy’s roster of members.

“These film professionals represent some of the most talented, most passionate contributors to our industry,” said Academy President Tom Sherak. “I’m glad to recognize that by calling each of them a fellow Academy member.”

Voting membership in the organization has now held steady at just under 6,000 members since 2003.

The 2012 invitees are:

Actors

Simon Baker – “Margin Call,” “L.A. Confidential”

Sean Bean – “Flightplan,” “The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring”

Bérénice Bejo – “The Artist,” “Oss 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies”

Tom Berenger – “Inception,” “Platoon”

Demián Bichir – “A Better Life,” “Che”

Jessica Chastain – “The Help,” “The Tree of Life”

Clifton Collins,...

With the 20th Toronto Jewish Film Festival now behind us, it’s time to look back at all the films screened and determine which were the good, the bad, or the ugly.

The Good

Oss 117: Lost in Rio

The most complimentary thing you can say about Michel Hazanavicius is something everyone acknowledged after his Oscar-winning 21st century silent film, The Artist – Hazanavicius knows his cinema. Oss 117: Lost in Rio boasts endearing performances and successfully taps into the nostalgia for 1960’s cinema. This is the spoof that the Austin Powers trilogy wished it could be. Just don’t expect this spy film to be revelatory.

The Day I Saw Your Heart

Although wildly imperfect, The Day I Saw Your Heart magically conciliates its flaws with French charm. From any other country, this film might not have worked, but because it’s French, it does. It’s clearly unfair, but,...

Oss 117: Lost in Rio

Directed by Michel Hazanavicius

Written by Jean François Halin

France, 2009

Before Michel Hazanavicius and Jean Dujardin were Oscar-winning artists, they collaborated on the spy spoof comedy, Oss 117: Lost in Rio, the sequel to Oss 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies. Although Hazanavicius’ love for the genre is quite evident, he nevertheless fails in making you love Lost in Rio in the same way.

The year is 1967. Hubert Bonisseur de la Bath, aka Oss 117, (aka Jean Dujardin) is France’s most prolific spy. After a successful mission in Gstaad, Switzerland, Hubert is sent to Rio de Janeiro, where he dons the persona of Noël Flantier in order to track down a high-ranking Nazi exile.

The most complimentary thing you can say about Hazanavicius is something everyone acknowledged after his Oscar-winning 21st century silent film, The Artist – Hazanavicius knows his cinema.

In making a spy film set in the 1960’s,...

Blu-ray & DVD Release Date: June 26, 2012

Price: DVD $30.99, Blu-ray $35.99

Studio: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment

2012 Best Picture Academy Award winner The Artist was called “a love letter to the movies” by The Los Angeles Times.

Silent and shot in black and white, the film is set in 1927 Hollywood and tells the story of George Valentin (Jean Dujardin, The Players), a silent movie star. The introduction of the talkies is leading to the end of Valentin’s career, but young extra Peppy Miller (Berenice Bejo, A Knight’s Tale) is poised for major movie stardom. Their stories interlink.

The cast also stars John Goodman (The Big Lebowski), James Cromwell (Secretariat), Penelope Ann Miller (Carlito’s Way), Malcolm McDowell (A Clockwork Orange) and the Jack Russell terrier Uggie that we loved in Water for Elephants.

Rated PG-13, The Artist also won Oscars for Best Actor Oscar (Dujardin), Best Director (Michel Hazanavicius, Oss 117: Lost in Rio...

Jean Dujardin, Natalie Portman This year's Best Actor Oscar winner, Jean Dujardin, poses with 2010 Best Actress Oscar winner Natalie Portman backstage at the 2012 Academy Awards Awards, held at the Hollywood and Highland Center on February 26. Dujardin won his Oscar for Michel Hazanavicius' The Artist. Portman won hers for Darren Aronofsky's Black Swan. (Photo: Todd Wawrychuk / © A.M.P.A.S.) Jean Dujardin was a first-time nominee. His Best Actor competition consisted of Demián Bichir for Chris Weitz's A Better Life, Gary Oldman for Tomas Alfredson's Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, George Clooney for Alexander Payne's The Descendants, and Brad Pitt for Moneyball. In the past year, in addition to the Oscar Dujardin took home three major Best Actor awards: the BAFTA, the SAG Award, and the Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Motion Picture Comedy/Musical. Thus, Dujardin became the first actor ever to win all four trophies.

Best Actor Oscar winner Jean Dujardin Best Actor Academy Award winner Jean Dujardin did his Oss 117 act backstage at the 84th Academy Awards last Sunday, February 26, 2012. Dujardin won the Oscar for his portrayal of a fast-fading silent-film star in Michel Hazanavicius' Best Picture winner The Artist. Dujardin's two Oss films, Oss 117: Cairo Nest of Spies and Oss 117: Lost in Rio, were both directed by Hazanavicius, who also helmed one segment of Dujardin's latest movie, Les Infidèles / The Players. (Photo: Todd Wawrychuk / © A.M.P.A.S.) Dujardin's Best Actor competition consisted of Demián Bichir for Chris Weitz's A Better Life, George Clooney for Alexander Payne's The Descendants, Brad Pitt for Bennett Miller's Moneyball, and Gary Oldman for Tomas Alfredson's Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. A first-time Oscar nominee, Dujardin became the first Frenchman to take home an Oscar in the acting categories. (French-born actresses...

Jean Dujardin, a 39-year-old French actor virtually unknown in the United States before the release of "The Artist," has won the Academy Award for Best Actor. Before starring as fading matinee idol George Valentin in the largely silent film "The Artist," Dujardin was best known for playing the lead in two secret-agent spoofs from director Michel Hazanavicius, "Oss 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies" and "Oss 117: Lost in Rio." Those films were big hits in Europe but little-seen in the U.S. Also read: The Complete List of Oscar Winners Dujardin began the race...

The Artist's Michel Hazanavicius has won the 'Best Director' Academy Award. The French filmmaker held off competition from Alexander Payne (The Descendants), Martin Scorsese (Hugo), Woody Allen (Midnight in Paris) and Terrence Malick (The Tree of Life) to take home his first Oscar. Hazanavicius said that he was "the happiest director in the world right now" as he took to the stage at the Hollywood & Highland Theatre. The 44-year-old, who previously directed spy spoofs Oss 117: Lost in Rio and Oss 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies with The Artist duo Jean Dujardin (more)...

Michel Hazanavicius, director of the silent, black and white film The Artist, beats Scorsese, Malick and Payne to directing award

Oscars 2012 coverage continues on our live blog

Michel Hazanavicius has won the Oscar for best director at the Academy Award ceremony currently taking place at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood. The Artist director was the favourite to take the prize for his silent, black and white film, which is set during Hollywood's 1920s golden age. He has defeated such luminaries as Martin Scorsese, Woody Allen and Terrence Malick.

Before this year Hazanavicius, who was also nominated / won [Change] for his work on The Artist's screenplay and editing, was best known for the French spy spoof movies Oss 117: Lost in Rio and Oss 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies, which featured The Artist's stars Jean Dujardin and Bérénice Bejo.

The Artist sees Dujardin play George Valentin, a silent movie star...

I Need My Fix Michael Fassbender to appear tonight... any moment now I guess given the time difference...on Top Gear (in the UK)

Movie|Line details all the messy pre-release problems surrounding John Carter. I hope to see it soon. I would so much rather see movies than hear about their production for months beforehand.

Rope of Silicon 'the ABCs of cinema'. How many of these 26 movies can you name. I had a tough time since it moves so fast (one minute) but it's a cool animation.

Coming Soon gets its hands on the diaries of Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter

Associate Press Dame Judi Dench is fighting blindness via macular degeneration :(. Having scripts read to her now.

Guardian interviews BAFTA's rising star winner Adam Deacon who is an unknown on these shores.

Serious Film our Michael C reveals his Best Actress ballot. We share three choices.

Animation Mag...

Jean Dujardin Jean Dujardin at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' Oscar Nominees Luncheon in Beverly Hills, California, on Monday, February 6, 2012. Dujardin is a Best Actor nominee for Michel Hazanavicius' The Artist. (Photo: Greg Harbaugh / © A.M.P.A.S.) Dujardin's Best Actor competition consists of Demián Bichir for Chris Weitz's A Better Life, George Clooney for Alexander Payne's The Descendants, Brad Pitt for Bennett Miller's Moneyball, Gary Oldman for Tomas Alfredson's Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. Dujardin is a first-time Oscar nominee. Just recently, he won three major Best Actor awards: the BAFTA, the SAG Award, and the Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Motion Picture Comedy/Musical. Among Dujardin's other movie credits are two James Bond-ish spoofs directed by Michel Hazanavicius: Oss 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies and Oss 117: Lost in Rio. In addition, Dujardin starred or was featured in numerous French productions,...

Jean Dujardin Jean Dujardin, winner of the SAG Award for Male Actor in a Leading Role for Michel Hazanavicius' silent comedy-drama The Artist, poses in the press room during the 2012 Screen Actors Guild Awards. The SAG Awards ceremony was broadcast on TNT/TBS from the Shrine Auditorium on January 29 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Michael Buckner/WireImage.) Jean Dujardin was the somewhat surprise winner, as most had been expecting George Clooney to take home SAG's The Actor statuette for his performance in Alexander Payne's family drama The Descendants. Dujardin and Clooney's SAG Award competitors were Demián Bichir for Chris Weitz's A Better Life, Brad Pitt for Bennett Miller's Moneyball, and Leonardo DiCaprio for Clint Eastwood's J. Edgar. Last Sunday, Dujardin also won the British Academy of Film's Best Actor Award. He's now the odds-on favorite in the Oscar race. Among Dujardin's other movie credits...

Jean Dujardin Jean Dujardin, Best Actor SAG Award winner for Michel Hazanavicius' The Artist, speaks onstage during the 18th Screen Actors Guild Awards. The SAG Awards ceremony was broadcast on TNT/TBS from the Shrine Auditorium on January 29, 2012, in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by John Shearer/WireImage.) Jean Dujardin beat George Clooney for Alexander Payne's family drama The Descendants. Clooney was considered the favorite for both the SAG Awards and the Best Actor Oscar. The picture has since gotten fuzzier as far as the Academy Awards are concerned. Dujardin's fellow SAG Award competitors were Demián Bichir for Chris Weitz's A Better Life, Brad Pitt for Bennett Miller's Moneyball, and Leonardo DiCaprio for Clint Eastwood's J. Edgar. Among Dujardin's other movie credits are two with Michel Hazanavicius: Oss 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies and Oss 117: Lost in Rio. Additionally, Dujardin starred or was featured in Ca$h,...

Los Angeles -- The Directors Guild of America Awards are the latest Hollywood film honors to go silent.

Hollywood's top filmmakers group presented its feature-film honor Saturday to Michel Hazanavicius for his silent film "The Artist," giving him the inside track for the best-director prize at the Academy Awards.

"I really love directors. I really have respect for directors. So this is really very moving and touching for me," said Hazanavicius, whose black-and-white silent charmer has cleaned up at earlier Hollywood honors and could emerge as the best-picture favorite at the Feb. 26 Oscars.

The Directors Guild honors are one of the most-accurate forecasts for who might go on to take home an Oscar. Only six times in the 63-year history of the guild awards has the winner failed to win the Oscar for best director. And more often than not, whichever film earns the directing Oscar also wins best picture.

Jean Dujardin Actor Jean Dujardin won a Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Comedy or Musical for his performance as a fading silent-film star in Michel Hazanavicius' The Artist. In the above photo, Dujardin — who also won the Best Actor Award for The Artist in Cannes last year — poses backstage in the press room with his Golden Globe at the 2012 Golden Globe Awards at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, CA, on Sunday, January 15. In many ways, The Artist borrows elements from George Cukor's What Price Glory?, in which Constance Bennett plays a rising star and Lowell Sherman a troubled producer, and the first two A Star Is Born movies, the first directed by William A. Wellman, and starring Janet Gaynor and Fredric March; the second directed by Cukor, and starring Judy Garland and James Mason. All three movies, in turn, were inspired by real-life...

Asa Butterfield, Chloë Moretz, Hugo Guillaume Schiffman, Afc (The Artist), Jeff Cronenweth, Asc (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo), Robert Richardson, Asc (Hugo), Hoyte van Hoytema, Fsf, Nsc (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy), and Emmanuel Lubezki, Asc, AMC (The Tree of Life) are the five nominees for the 2012 American Society of Cinematographers (Asc) Awards, now in their 26th year. The winner will be announced at the Asc Awards ceremony at the Hollywood and Highland Grand Ballroom on February 12. Glaringly absent from the shortlist is Janusz Kaminski's work on War Horse, the Steven Spielberg World War I drama that has been performing well enough at the domestic box office, but that has been — surprisingly — generally bypassed by the various guilds. Kaminski's absence from the Asc Awards' roster is particularly surprising because his work on War Horse has been widely praised, and he has already been nominated four times in the past.

Who does this? Who makes a black-and-white movie in the 21st century? Who makes a silent film in the 21st century? The Artist: Not in 3D, not in IMAX, not even in widescreen! It’s impossible to imagine anyone even remotely connected to Hollywood -- or hoping to bust in -- making a movie this audacious. Risky isn’t even the word. Insane might be the word. The Artist could have been all about the gimmick. Marvelously, it isn’t. And yet its marvelousness is wrapped up in the gimmick. This same story would be very different, and have a very different impact, if it weren’t silent. It might still be, far and away, the best film of the year. But it would be so for very different reasons. This craziness fell to French filmmaker Michel Hazanavicius and one of France’s most famous comic actors, Jean Dujardin.

If you’ve seen writer-director Michel Hazanavicius‘ two spy-genre parodies — Oss 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies and Oss 117: Lost in Rio — then you know that The Artist, a film as focused on good-hearted laughs as it is on the downward nature of Jean Dujardin‘s star-to-unknown trajectory, is a somewhat notable jump towards the more dramatic for the French filmmaker. It’s certainly not supremely weighty stuff, but it nevertheless represents a slight departure, and one that Hazanavicius probably had some acknowledgement of while undertaking the silent-film project.

That said, the uproarious response the Cannes-debuter has had — critical acclaim through the roof, a current status as the Best Picture frontrunner — must have gone a long, long way towards reassuring any doubts Hazanavicius may have initially had about his tonal versatility. And with that in mind, his just-announced feature-length follow-up is traveling amidst much darker territory — it’s a modern-day riff,...

Suddenly, brand-new vintage pictures are everywhere. But is cinema's great leap backwards more suited to cult concerns such as Grindhouse and Darkplace?

Future historians sifting through the cinematic detritus of the last 100 years might find themselves wondering whether some dozy assistant had mislabelled the reels for the early 21st century. After an orderly progression from silent cinema, through the talkies, Technicolor, right up to the digital era, it suddenly starts to get messy. What's this 1950s melodrama doing in the 2002 pile? Why were a bunch of 1970s horror movies apparently made in the noughties? And which idiot thought that this silent movie belonged to 2011?

Movies set in the past are nothing new, but in recent years we've seen a boom in films made in the style of their particular era. It's a new level of vintage: not just getting the period details right onscreen, but getting the whole mode of presentation correct,...

Bérénice Bejo and Jean Dujardin on the appeal of the Oscar-tipped silent film in which they star

Their silhouettes, struck in a classic, romantic pose, are becoming the defining image of the current film awards season. As George Valentin and Peppy Miller in The Artist, French actors Bérénice Bejo and Jean Dujardin have been reviving the icons of the silver screen, making old Hollywood live again and, at least for the next couple of months, they are two of the hottest stars in the world.

"Ever since the movie premiered at Cannes, I've had a sudden surge of scripts and interest," says Bejo, whose character Peppy Miller goes from flirtatious silent movie flapper to the biggest female star of the "talkie" era. "It's a once-in-a-lifetime event for all of us, something like this. The Argentinian-born actress moved to France when she was three and is now married to The Artist's director Michel Hazanavicius.

More than a homage to the silent era, Michel Hazanavicius's The Artist is a dazzling tale of love and loss

What better way could one year end and another start than with a pair of charming, funny, moving films celebrating the cinema itself? Three weeks ago Martin Scorsese gave us Hugo, a deeply felt picture about the creation of the cinema in France during the final years of the 19th century. Now the French cineaste Michel Hazanavicius returns the compliment with the complementary The Artist, about the coming of sound to Hollywood. The directors of the Nouvelle Vague were born around the time the talkies began. Hazanavicius was born seven years after Truffaut's Les quatre cents coups and Godard's Breathless but is as steeped in movies as they were. His first feature film, La classe américaine, which I haven't seen, was apparently compiled entirely of clips from old Warner Brothers films,...

"Of all the cinematic surprises of 2011 — the ascendency of Elizabeth Olsen, the excellence of Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Woody Allen's return as hit-maker — the renaissance of silent cinema was probably the hardest to see coming down the pike," writes Tom Shone in Slate. "After it received a 15-minute standing ovation, Michel Hazanavicius's homage to the days of swashbuckling matinee idols, iris shots, and Busby Berkeley dance numbers, The Artist, was marked up by Oscarologists as the outside favorite to win best picture." And of course, this same holiday weekend has seen the opening of Martin Scorsese's Hugo, "whose poster echoes Harold Lloyd's clock shenanigans in Safety Last (1923) and whose final 25 minutes turn into a loving revivification of the earliest days of cinema, from George Méliès's A Trip to the Moon to the Lumière brothers' Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat… Nobody could accuse modern blockbusters of silence,...

One of the more discussion-piquing results of contemporary cinema’s ever-increasing implementation of technological advancements is the way these innovations can often distort the essential quality of a film. James Cameron‘s Avatar is a perfectly applicable and illustrative, if over-referenced, example for this assertion — a breathtaking, engulfing visual atmosphere (even on a 2-D screen) it has; a rich, complex, moving story with lasting characters it lacks. In other words, the historic visual achievement is undermined by a simplistic story — hardly a lamentable fault by any means (I’d still recommend Avatar to any beating heart), but one that takes on a more observable presence once people make the (perhaps unconscious) choice of overlooking the mediocre by overstating the remarkable.

Michel Hazanavicius‘ The Artist, then, which has been sweeping up festival awards across the country, provides a fascinating, compatible example to the innovation of Cameron‘s film. The Artist is...

Remarkably, given the decibel-raising, sensorial overkill of our current mainstream film culture, Michel Hazanavicius’ The Artist—an exuberantly charming black-and-white silent melodrama about the birth of the talkies—is finding a foothold in awards season thanks to a Best Actor win at Cannes for French star Jean Dujardin, effervescent word of mouth, and the mighty muscle of the Harvey Weinstein machine. Hazanavicius, a onetime gag man for a TV comedy troupe and writer-director of the nutty James Bond spoofs Oss 117: A Nest of Spies and Oss 117: Lost in Rio, conceived of the film as a formal experiment that would hearken back to the Golden Age of live-orchestra-accompanied Hollywood cinema. Little did he realize what a welcome the film would receive from audiences around the world (I saw The Artist in a packed-to-the-rafters opera house in Doha, Qatar) who’ve embraced the pure spirit of his traditional tale, rendered in an obsolete format.

"The Artist" is, as you may have heard by now, a black-and-white movie that is, for the most part, silent.  It is set during the era when the silent films were replaced by talking pictures.  It is a crowd-pleaser, and since its premiere at Cannes this summer, it's been getting warm and enthusiastic reviews. I was onboard since before the film started screening based purely on the creative team involved.  Michel Hazanavicius and Jean Dujardin collaborated on both "Oss 117: Cairo, Nest Of Spies" and "Oss 117 - Lost In Rio," which are these lovely silly French riffs on spy movies...

Each week within this column we strive to pair the latest in theatrical releases to worthwhile titles currently available on Netflix Instant Watch. This week we offer alternatives to Hugo, The Muppets & The Artist.

This holiday weekend is nostalgia heavy as two family-friendly features will duke it out for the top spot at the box office. And while a movie-lovin’ orphan battles against a mob of Muppets, a spectacular entry into silent cinema will dazzle in select theaters. But if you’re craving some couch-friendly entertainment to go with your turkey, we’ve got you covered with some kid-centered adventures, Henson-created creatures and classic and cutting comedies suitable for the whole family!

In 1930s Paris, an orphan boy named Hugo Cabret (Asa Butterfield) aims to unlock the secret behind a curious robot his recently deceased father has left him. Chloe Moretz and Sacha Baron Cohen co-star; Martin Scorsese directs.

Orphans...

French filmmaker Michel Hazanavicius had immense success in his native country with two popular secret agent spoofs, Oss 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies and Oss 117: Lost in Rio . Both movies were blockbusters in France but mostly went unnoticed here in the States. Then the director turned up at this year's Cannes Film Festival with The Artist , a silent black and white film about an era in Hollywood where silent films were giving away to "talkies," something that changed the film industry forever, even if not everyone was able to go along for the ride. Taking place in Hollywood in 1927, it stars Oss 117 himself, Jean Dujardin, as silent movie star George Valentin, an enormously popular leading man known for his swashbuckling roles. Hazanavicius' wife, Argentine actress...

I am interviewing The Artist director Michel Hazanavicius on Monday morning and in preparation I watched his two previous films Oss 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies and Oss 117: Lost in Rio and wow, I had a lot of fun with these... Oss 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies & Lost in Rio

 

As a director Michel Hazanavicius has four feature films to his name. At the moment all the attention is on his Oscar contending silent film The Artist, which is currently making a strong bid to win Best Picture at this year's Oscars and will likely rack up nominations, if not wins, in several other categories. However, before The Artist, Hazanavicius directed a pair of successful James Bond spy spoofs (which are also satirical continuations of the original Oss 117 films from the 50s and 60s) beginning with Oss 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies, followed by Oss 117: Lost in Rio.

Leonardo DiCaprio in J. Edgar

Photo: Warner Bros. Last week saw the first screening and reviews of Clint Eastwood's J. Edgar as well as a weekend screening in Los Angeles of Martin Scorsese's Hugo. The responses differ quite dramatically with one appearing to be universally praised despite a few flaws while the other is earning some kudos with particular attention paid to its shortcomings. We'll begin with J. Edgar where the majority of early reviews seemed unable to commit to any kind of specific opinion, as those commenting did their best to find ways to say nice things and sneak in a few bad all while focusing more on its Oscar prospects, or aspects of the film that may earn a nomination, rather than focusing on the film itself. As such it's a little difficult to get an exact bead on how good the film is, but as...

With one week to go until the 64th Cannes Film Festival kicks off, Cannes organizers are still adding films and jurors, with Michel Hazanavicius' "The Artist" joining the lineup to become the 20th film in official competiton for the Palme d'Or. Hanavicius is best known for the spy-film sendups "Oss 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies" and "Oss 117: Lost in Rio." His new film is a black-and-white, silent period comedy with an international cast, including Jean Dujardin and Berenice Bejo (left), John Goodman, Missi Pyle and James Cromwell; it was originally...

DVD Playhouse—August 2010

By

Allen Gardner

Black Orpheus (Criterion) Winner of the 1959 Best Foreign Film Oscar and that same year’s Palme d’Or at Cannes, Black Orpheus is a modern-day update of the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice reset in 20th century Brazil during Carnival in Rio. Director Marcel Camus offers up a visual feast with some of the decade’s most ravishing color cinematography. A classic. Also available on Blu-ray disc. Bonuses: Archival interviews with Camus and actress Marpessa Dawn; Interviews with Brazilian cinema scholar Robert Stam, jazz historian Gary Giddins, and Brazilian author Ruy Castro; Documentary on the film; Trailer. Full screen. Dolby 1.0 mono.

The Last Song (Touchstone) Sentimental adaptation of Nicholas Sparks’ (by Sparks and Jeff Van Wie) sentimental novel about a father and daughter attempting to repair their damaged relationship. Greg Kinnear, as the dad in question, comes off best, while tween sensation Miley Cyrus...

Thanks to a huge Mother's Day bump, documentary Babies opened to $2.16 million, which represented the highest-grossing limited opening in over a year and a half. Holdovers City Island, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and The Secret in Their Eyes continued their decent limited runs, but new release Mother and Child was so-so and Casino Jack and the United States of Money failed to extort much cash from audiences in its debut. Distributor Focus Features' marketing positioned Babies as a Mother's Day event, and the picture did not disappoint on this front: while Babies fell outside of the Top Ten in its first two days, it experienced a 57 percent increase on Sunday to $1.09 million, which pushed it up to eighth place on the weekend chart. While Babies seems relatively high profile, it only opened at 534 locations, putting it just under the 600 theater threshold separating limited and nationwide releases. Babies's...

The summer is here baby! Iron Man 2 officially kicked off the proceedings last night at midnight, and should continue to attract mobs of people to multiplexes over the weekend. If you're looking for something a little different, there are a pair of documentaries in limited release (Babies and Casino Jack and the United States of Money), the latest Amanda Seyfried rom-com Letters to Juliet, and the French spy comedy Oss 117: Lost in Rio. So who has seen Iron Man 2, and what did you think? Iron Man 2 [1] Letters to Juliet [2] (semi-wide) Babies [3] (limited) Casino Jack and the United States of Money [4] (limited) Multiple Sarcasms [5] (limited) Oss 117: Lost in Rio [6] (limited) Mother and Child [7] (limited) Happiness Runs [8] (limited) [1] http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1228705/ [2] http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0892318/ [3] http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1020938/ [4] http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1540814/ [5] http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0984210/ [6] http://www.