Jean Dujardin's charm offensive in Hollywood is in full swing. One of France's biggest film stars, he was a virtual unknown in the Anglo-Saxon world, bar a few fans of world cinema who had caught his wonderful spy spoof OSS117 films. Obviously all changed since that legendary morning screening of The Artist at the Cannes Film Festival this year where his suave charm was unleashed into the world of cinema.
At the moment George Clooney, who is pretty much Hollywood royalty, is still the favourite to walk away with the golden statue on the 26th for his part in The Descendants. Yet I am pretty confident Jean will eventually take it. Clooney's turn is not quite groundbreaking enough to give him the edge, no matter how much respect he has garnered over the years. But Jean Dujardin is new and fresh, and we all know how much Hollywood likes the novelty value. It does help that he is also absolutely wonderful in the part, a much more original performance than any of his opponents.
It is still difficult for Hollywood to assess the extend of his acting skills on the back one of film. Thankfully, a hilarious video posted on the website Funny or Die is about to change that. Or maybe not actually. Following the well worn path of European actors playing villains in American blockbusters (although Brits, Germans and Russians are usually the nationality of choice), Jean Dujardin will now take on every single baddie part of every single blockbusters in the next few years.
So get used to seeing a suave French villain when you go and see Die Hard 5, Skyfall, Transformers 4, as well as the even more anticipated Smurfs sequel, Jack & Jill sequel... Watching this, he makes me think of a thinking man Jim Carrey, with the same rubber face but with a more grown-up, suave air to him. So enjoy...
No comments:
Post a Comment