The sound of the soles of their shoes tapping on the ground kept ringing, and with this sound, two slender figures were tapping briskly in the hall.

They look so light and so rhythmic, you can't help but want to sway with them.

Finally, the two finished dancing, and applause rang out, and then the man took a light breath and came to another man in front of the onlookers: "This is the whole dance, Mr. Tang." ”

"Thank you for your performance, Mr. Dacas, it was wonderful, you gave me more confidence." Sean shook his hand, smiling all over his face, but secretly complaining in his heart.

Needless to say, this tap dance is wonderful, as long as you see it in its entirety, you will applaud well, but if you want to practice, it is not an ordinary difficulty, especially if he has not skipped it at all.

This is the hard work I said before, since a dance is prepared at the end as the end, then of course the hero and heroine have to dance together to have a shocking feeling, right?

"I'm going to prepare a long shot here, and the hero and heroine have to jump from beginning to end, without stopping, so that it can not only show the professional quality of the actors, but also keep the tension of the picture until the end, after all, 90% of the time, this is a silent movie." That's what French director Michael Hazanavicius, who was hired by Harvey Weinstein, said this when he communicated with Sean.

Indeed, because it is a silent film, most of the time it can only rely on the soundtrack and the body movements of the actors to attract the audience, so Sean began to watch those classic silent movies after the filming of "Sherlock Holmes".

I have to say here that no matter how unbearable Chaplin's private life is, but in silent movies, he is still a master among masters, "Gold Rush", "City Lights", "Modern Times" These movies can still amuse people when they watch it now, and the rich body language full of comedy is not something that can be imitated if you want to.

Back to "The Artist", the biggest attraction of silent films is the body language of the actors, how to convey emotions to the audience without hindrance with only expressions and body language, which is a compulsory course for actors in that silent era.

So, although the original preparation of "The Artist" was for the purpose of writing a love letter to the Oscars, but now, Sean really has the idea of wanting to challenge, for an actor, especially an actor who has been praised by others, is there anything more worth trying than challenging a new way of acting?

He now not only has to prove that he can not only play any movie image, but also a silent film role.

Therefore, how to express the feeling of Hollywood's golden age through body language in this movie has become the most important thing, especially the dance scene at the end, which is the climax of the whole play. It's okay to shoot piecemeal and then edit it in montage, but then the tension of the image will be reduced.

If it's another movie, there is dialogue before and after, which can be more convenient to arouse the audience's emotions, and fast-paced montage editing can make them more enjoyable to watch. But if the silent film is like this, one is not grasped well, the editing is not in place, and the audience is more likely to be disgusted.

After all, movies don't have lines most of the time, and even if it's a sound movie, if the emotions accumulated by the audience are not released well before that, it can be messed up, let alone a silent movie.

Besides, in this way, you can also create some topics, such as the hero and heroine who have been training for months to shoot this scene in one go.

In fact, in the final analysis, you still need a director who is good enough to control the overall situation and turn the script into a picture.

And Michael Hazanavicius, a French man with black-rimmed glasses like Scorsese, is a good candidate, although he is only in his early 40s, and his works are not much, the only well-known work is "French Agent 117" two years ago, and it is also a comedy.

But he has been in the film industry since '88, and 20 years have allowed him to accumulate a wealth of experience, and more importantly, he had a vague idea of making a silent film before that, so when Weinstein was looking for a suitable French director, he recommended himself, and Weinstein recommended Sean after talking to him.

Although he is younger than many well-known French directors, he does have a lot of ideas, and not to mention the tap dance long shot in one go, Hazanavicius also gave two important proposals.

The first is to create such a picture when the sound movie comes, and the male protagonist is doing something, and he casually puts a tool on the table, so the tool makes a bang, which indicates that the sound movie has arrived. Then the actor was startled, and when he stepped back, he touched something and made a louder noise, so the actor left the place in a hurry, which indicates that he is not comfortable with sound movies.

The whole movie, just here and at the end of the dance, and the praise of the people after the dance, has a sound, which is very eye-catching.

The second is that he suggested that a pet character could be added, such as a puppy or something, which could increase the excitement of the movie. "The Artist" is not a comedy after all, and it is impossible for Sean to learn from Chaplin and show body language in an exaggerated way.

Therefore, if there is a smart, empathetic pet in the movie, even when the male protagonist is alone, he will never leave him, just like Bai Xue in "The Adventures of Tintin", in addition to making the whole movie more warm, it can also add many highlights to attract the audience's attention.

From here, it can be seen that Hazanavicius did study the production of silent films, so Sean also asked him to direct, and naturally agreed to tap dance training, and then-

"Remember my rhythm? You have to be able to keep up. ”

"Alright, Sean, we're just doing the simplest training now."

Naomi, as the heroine, also has to train for tap dancing and cooperate with Sean, so the two of them blatantly appeared together in the training room during this time, although they can't openly flirt, but ridicule like the above pretend posture abounds.

Although Naomi always shows no words, it is all an illusion, and it is quite enthusiastic when they get along in private. As time goes on, although she is still very dependent on Sean, she is also very independent, and her feelings will inevitably fade.

It's not that Naomi wants to leave him, it's just that she's used to her current life, alone or with her children's independence, and pouring more affection into her children.

In addition, Sean has other women to deal with, and there will not be too many feelings for Sean, but as they practice tap dancing together, the fire in their hearts is unconsciously hooked again.

The two of them seem to have returned to the time when they first met, and there are always endless topics to talk about when they are together in private, and there are all kinds of intimacy when they are grinding their ears and temples, and it is not enough to linger in bed, which proves that in Naomi's heart, Sean still has a great place.

Of course, Naomi denied this.

"Do you really think you're charming? If you weren't Avery 's father, you would have been kicked out long ago. She said so after Sean hinted a little.

This is really rare, you must know that Naomi has always been low-key and humble in both work and life, when has she ever had such a proud image. Although it is also related to the fact that when she said this, she had just finished a strenuous exercise and won a small game, and was crawling on top of Sean naked covered in sweat and clutching his things, but it was enough to prove that her relationship with him had never changed.

Of course, Sean then pulled one back, and not only lowered his posture to coax Naomi to blow a shot, but also threw it in her mouth.

Without further ado, in short, it was a good idea to have Naomi play the heroine, and as for the height, it was not a problem, although this issue caused the first conflict between Sean and director Hazanavisius. Well, it's not to the point of conflict, it's more appropriate to describe it as an argument, Hazanavicius thinks Naomi is too short, she's only 5 feet 4 inches tall, although that's the standard body for women, but Sean is almost 6 feet tall, and the contrast is slightly bigger when standing together, so he wants to change the actress.

Of course Sean refused, what are you kidding, the reason why he invited Naomi, in addition to cooperating with his lover, was also to praise her a little, how could he change people? However, Hazanavicius was working with Hollywood for the first time and didn't know much about Sean, so he immediately argued after he refused.

It's a bad thing, Sean can't say it explicitly, she's my lover, so I'm going to use her, it's too unprofessional, even if similar things abound in Hollywood and the entertainment industry, but like some things, you can do it and can't say it.

So he can only emphasize that Naomi is very good as an actor, and her experience is also very suitable for the role, and he specially asked her to come over and audition once. It's a pity that because of preconceived ideas, Hazanavisius is still stubborn and calculating, which annoys Sean quite a bit, because he estimates that the reason why he is like this is probably because he wants to use a French actress.

After all, in order to make the film more pleasing to the film school, Weinstein brought in a French film company and turned it into a co-production between the Americans and the French - the film school must have been happy to see the French surrender in full, albeit only on the big screen - so it is not surprising that Hazanavicius would think so.

However, Sean was definitely not going to let go, so they had a bit of a stalemate during that time until Weinstein came out to mediate.

Then, everything went smoothly, quite simply, and Weinstein gave Hazanavicius a hint. This implies that not only is Sean the reason for using Naomi, but also Sean's current status in Hollywood, as a person in the entertainment industry, Michael Hazanavicius, who is also French, quickly understood Sean's insistence, and also understood that Sean tolerated him because he really had a lot of ideas about this silent film.

So, the Frenchman, who had previously insisted that Naomi was unsuitable, decided not to mention it again.