The Artist (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)

French director Michel Hazanavicius’ film The Artist has enjoyed critical praise and won several awards since it made a splash at the 2011 Cannes International Film Festival. It's a black-and-white silent movie set during Hollywood’s transition from the silent era to talkies. The Artist is a classic tale of a romantic couple caught in the middle of that historic change: actor George Valentin (Jean Dujardin) sees his career slide downward while actress Peppy Miller (Bérénice Bejo) rises to stardom. Of course, music is front and center in this wordless movie. French composer Ludovic Bource draws from renowned film composers such as Franz Waxman, Max Steiner, and Charlie Chaplin, but classical music also serves as a model for this lively score (just as it did for Waxman, et al.). “George Valentin” is a jaunty track rippling with melodic percussion, while “Waltz for Peppy” delights with its fluttering winds and expressive strings. The soundtrack also includes Red Nichols and His Five Pennies doing “Imagination,” Rose Murphy’s “Pennies from Heaven,” and Duke Ellington’s “Jubilee Stomp.”