Bérénice Bejo makes screen romance feel playful without making it trivial. In The Artist, her physical expressiveness and warmth give us people to care about, rather than just a silent-film technique to admire.
Fi1m perspective
Bérénice Bejo makes attraction readable in The Artist (2011) without needing spoken explanation. As Peppy Miller, opposite Jean Dujardin, she is lively without making the romance feel slight. We were charmed by their exchanges because the mischief never cancels out the feeling. She has the comic timing to make those encounters entertaining, and enough warmth to stop Peppy seeming merely decorative. It is an accomplished performance in a film whose unusual presentation could easily have distracted us from the actors.
The pairing with Dujardin and director Michel Hazanavicius was already established in OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies (2006). The Artist brought Bejo international recognition, but the comedy partnership was not a discovery made for that film. Her performance draws on 1920s Hollywood mannerisms, including Joan Crawford's. Borrowed gestures can leave an actor looking busy with an impersonation; Bejo makes them useful to the romance instead.
The period romantic comedy Populaire (2012) kept her in lighter material, while The Past (2013), in which she plays Marie Brisson, gave her an intimate relationship drama. The latter makes room for the emotional depth that can be overlooked when an actor is so good at being lively. There is no need to treat serious drama as a promotion from comedy. Making attraction matter while keeping a scene funny takes its own judgement.
The frustration in The Artist is that Hazanavicius does not give the central pairing quite enough time. The middle dwells on George's wounded pride, and we would gladly exchange some of it for more of Bejo and Dujardin together. The film remains a pleasure, but her contribution makes its self-pity harder to indulge. Bejo supplies warmth without asking the film to stop and acknowledge it. Go to The Artist for the romance; be prepared to wait while George attends to himself.
Biography
Bérénice Bejo is a French-Argentine actress. Born in Buenos Aires on 7 July 1976, she moved to France at the age of three with her family.
She began her career with roles in French television and film in the 1990s. Bejo appeared as Christiana in A Knight's Tale (2001) and as Larmina El Akmar Betouche in OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies (2006). She is best known for playing Peppy Miller in The Artist (2011), directed by her husband Michel Hazanavicius, for which she received the César Award for Best Actress and a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.
Bejo won the Best Actress prize at the Cannes Film Festival in 2013 for her performance in The Past. Other credits include Populaire (2012) and Under Paris (2024).
