While most have been dubbing this year’s most talked about film ‘witty and moving’, the team here at the agency are shocked by The Artist’s reviews, with Talent Management’s MD labelling it ‘total drivel’.

On acclaimed film review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, where film critics often viciously vent their dislike for a film, a remarkable 97% of critics gave this dialogue and colour free film a positive review.

In fact, with an average score of 8.8/10, incredibly the film received the highest praise on the website’s rating system; a ‘Certified Fresh’ seal.

With a film that feels sluggish throughout, despite clownish, over-exerted acting efforts from Jean Dujardin and Bérénice Bejo, all that’s left to praise is the music. And yes, we did enjoy the moving, albeit repetitive, musical score by Ludovic Bource. That was until actress Kim Novak described it as “rape”, after we all realised Bource had stolen a portion of Bernard Herrmann’s score from the 1950s classic Vertigo and injected it in his own work.

While Novak said that The Artist “should’ve been able to stand on its own without depending on Bernard Herrmann’s score from Alfred Hitchcock’s ‘Vertigo’ to provide more drama”, we’re doubtful. Let’s not forget, there were 3% that agreed with Talent Management’s bemused interpretation of this so-called ‘delight’.

Disheartened by the film, critics’ comments on Rotten Tomatoes included: “Ignores everything that’s fascinating and memorable about the silent-film era, focusing instead on a patchwork of general knowledge, so eroded of inconvenient facts that it doesn’t even qualify as a roman à clef,” and “If The Artist truly were from the period it’s about, it would be a minor film that occasionally played on TCM at 3AM, and about which even hardcore silent film fans wouldn’t care much.”

One critic even suggested that The Artist has diminished all hope of the classic era of silent cinema ever being revived, saying: “Inasmuch as Hazanavicius wants to revitalize the silent cinema, my fear is that this film has already nailed the coffin shut for good.”

Another accused the film of being a ‘suck-up’ to Hollywood, merely to score big at The Hollywood-based Academy Awards: “The Academy Awards are the biggest annual party that Hollywood throws for itself, and The Artist is a movie that worships Hollywood. Looks like a done deal.”

Still, there are a lot of people that disagree with us. But we’re still baffled as to where this esoteric appeal stems from. If you’re ‘Team Artist’, let us know your thoughts right here on the Talent Management Blog.