Loving Life Blog

Jean Dujardin and Bérénice Bejo in The Artist

It’s been a long time since I have expressed my self out loud. In this forum. But there’s been a lot of acting. Watching the movie The Artist, gave me the segway back to the blogosphere…

Below are some interesting facts about the movie – and by now we know that The Artist won 5 Oscars: Best Picture, Directing, Actor In a Leading Role, Costume Design, and Music (Original Score).

Compared to the movie Hugo, that also was awarded five Oscars, The artist was ten times less expensive. According to IMDB the estimated budgets were: $15,000,000 (The Artist) compared to $170,000,000 (Hugo) per vikisecrets.

Notes to self:

– Silence is golden

– Less is more

– A picture says more than 1000 words

All along watching the movie I couldn’t resist relating to The Artist in my world. Without spoken words, she can capture a whole timeline in her portraits. She can convey a story that is both moving deeply, and make you laugh loudly. She incorporates objects and details that are unexpected and humoristic. Her art is original, optimistic and well received.

She recently visited San Francisco for some meetings and introductions, planting seeds for her first US exhibition.

As expressed in a letter back to Sweden by one of the private event participants:

“Great to connect after all these years now when the mystery with the secret Royal painter from Sweden has been unraveled by Johanna Nilsson, the social media queen of San Francisco. Catrine swept in like a whirlwind in the Bay area and people are stepping on oneanothers toes to grab her before somebody else does… WAO, a painter, actress, comedian, entertainer, wife and mother of twins – she should have her own TV show now when Oprah is gone…. Greetings to the entire family from Karl L”

If Jean Dujardin can entertain in words like Catrine Näsmark, is still a secret to me. But I am sure he, or any other Oscar winners would appreciate their own portrait done by her. Just like I am sure Marc Zuckerberg would appreciate the portrait Catrine Näsmark has done of him in her last exhibition “United Statements of America”, and how she captured his Facebook Timeline in a quite brilliant way. It’s in the details. Can’t wait for her art to actually take stage in San Francisco.

With regards to social media queen or not… I do know that I love what social media offers when it comes to communicating something of importance and meaning, to an audience that needs to hear it and love to share it. Building relationships in a transparent and authentic way across all kinds of borders. Allowing for private and corporate ideas, and dreams to be realized through the traction and support they gain and make them thrive.

With that said: may I introduce you to The Artist. Catrine Näsmark – click here.

And, to quote Jean Dujardin:

“With pleasure”,

Johanna

Final note to self: if something seems old and stale – add a dance and you bring back life to it!

1. Director Michel Hazanavicius, 44, fantasized about making a silent film for many years, both for the image-driven nature of the format and because many of his favorite filmmakers emerged in that era.

2. Hazanavicius studied many silent films to find the right technique in order to make the story comprehensible without the use of too many title cards.

3. The dog actor in the film, Uggy, won the Palm Dog Award for best canine at the Cannes Film Festival in France. The honor can be awarded to live or animated dogs or a group of dogs in films presented at the festival. (The name of the award is a pun on the Palme d’Or, the festival’s highest honor). ‘Up”s Dug is a previous winner.

4. The stars of the film, Berenice Bejo and Jean Dujardin, had to learn to act in an 80-year-old style that has not really been used since the 1920s, and they both had to learn to tap-dance at a professional level for the film.

5. The Weinstein Company’s publicity strategy of plugging ‘The Artist’ into every film festival and letting word-of-mouth seems to be working. The film has won audience awards in at least three film festivals around the world so far.