"Singin' in the Rain" vs. "The Artist"

This coming Sunday, the Motion Picture Academy Awards for 2011 will be presented, and among the nominated films expected to make a big haul, if not THE big haul (Picture, Actor, Director) is "The Artist." Now, regular readers know that I saw "The Artist" a few weeks back, and that I liked it. I do not think it is the Best Picture of the year. I do think that while it is a good movie, it is being overpraised due to the fact that it is so different (silent, black & white, and foreign). In many ways it is someone saying "Look, how clever we are. We made a silent movie in 2011", and Hollywood, in a bit of self-indulgence, is breaking its arm patting itself on the back over the whole thing.

By a curious bit of coincidence, on Sunday afternoon, viewers of Turner Classic Movies will have the chance to watch an undisputed classic, Stanley Donen's and Gene Kelly's 1952 "Singin' in the Rain." This is a movie that always ranks in the Top Ten or Top Twenty of all-time great movies whenever such lists are complied. If you don't know the movie, it stars Gene Kelly, Donald O'Conner, a 20 year old Debbie Reynolds, and, in an hilarious supporting role, Jean Hagen, and the story is very much the same story as "The Artist" tells.

Kelly and Hagen are two silent movie stars of the highest rank, famous for their starring opposite each other as movie lovers in countless films. Trouble is, talking pictures are about to make their debut, and while Kelly should do OK in talkies, Hagen has a voice that makes fingernails on a blackboard seem soothing. How do they get around this? Where and how does Reynolds fit in? Will Kelly get the girl in the end? (Silly question.) And some all-time classic musical numbers: Kelly, O'Conner, and Reynolds singing "Good Morning", O'Conner singing "Make 'em Laugh", and, of course, Kelly's absolute classic version of "Singin' in the Rain", which Pirates fans get to see and hear on the scoreboard at PNC Park whenever there is a rain delay.

By all means, go and see "The Artist." It's a good movie, but also take time on Sunday afternoon (or program the DVR) and watch "Singin' in the Rain", where a very similar story was told, and told much better sixty years ago. No matter what happens come Sunday night at the Oscars, I believe that "The Artist" will in a very few years time be viewed as a novelty item that struck a lot of peoples' fancy in 2011, and will be relatively forgotten, while people will still be watching and enjoying "Singin' in the Rain" for at least another sixty years.