“The Artist” took home one of the top honors as the Golden Globes and is positioned to be the front-runner heading into the Academy Awards. That top honor was in the Best Musical or Comedy category at the Golden Globes. It may seem pointless to speculate at this point, but let’s do it anyway. Which of those two subcategories within the larger category is a better fit for describing “The Artist?” Very little sound exists on the movie’s soundtrack except for music, so that does mean that those nominating the film intended it to be considered a musical? Or is “The Artist” to be considered a comedy?
It makes a difference, historically speaking. Comedy has not done well at the Academy Awards over the years (at least until dramedies that would easily have been lumped into the Drama category started being classified as comedies since the 1980s, whereas musicals represent one of the most honored categories in the history of the Oscars. In fact, more than a few times in history has witnessed the jaw-dropping spectacle of a musical taking home Best Picture that had no business doing so. Almost as often, in fact, as the number of times that has witnessed the jaw-dropping spectacle of a comedy that did deserve the top Oscar being overlooked.
So let’s play the game of what if and assume, for the nonce, that “The Artist” will take home Best Picture at the end of the Academy Awards telecast. It’s a valid question if, ultimately, pointless and meaningless. Obviously, in the big scheme of things, who really cares, right? But for Oscar geeks, the question may be argued over for decades. Is “The Artist” a comedy? It certainly does produce laughs. But the sight gags and the jokes grow increasingly rarer as the film takes its darker turn in its Second and Third Acts. The first Act? Comedy, no question about it. Darkness falls, however, as the film’s male protagonist follows his Norman Maine fall from grace.
It is that Second and Third Act of “The Artist” where things get interesting from the perspective a movie genre geek. The music in this “silent” film almost never stops. Toward the end, things even get really weird when the soundtrack suddenly travels down “Vertigo” avenue. The introduction of Bernard Hermann’s iconic score for the Hitchcock movie has produced the film’s only real controversy and regardless of how you feel about the concept of copyright infringement, the effect for those familiar with this music is dislocate you at least and rip you right out of the narrative at worst. The strange “Vertigo” interlude is utilized to increase the dramatic effects of the film and its level of success probably depends a lot on whether you recognize the music or not.
At issue is this: “The Artist” is unquestionably a movie that depends to a mammoth extent upon its musical score to produce emotional responses both to its comedic and dramatic elements. It would be hard to argue that taking the music away from the “The Artist” would not be as damaging as taking the songs away from “West Side Story.” On the other hand, the film is only an outright comedy about a third to half of the way through and becomes at the very least a “dramedy” for the last third.
It would seem, from that perspective, that “The Artist” should most accurately be considered among the ten or so musicals to win Best Picture rather than among the four or five comedies (nine or ten if you count much darker and more arguable comedies to win since “Annie Hall”) to win Oscar’s top prize.
For more from Timothy Sexton:
Comedies to Win Best Picture From the 1930 through the 1960s
Comedies to Win Best Picture Since the 1970s