Best film of the 21st century

Rating: 10/10 (1 January 2012)

The critics have been raving about the new silent film "The Artist" (2011), and in my considered opinion they are right to rave. "The Artist" is the absolute BEST film I have seen, made in this century!
If you ask, what is this movie about? and someone tells you, "oh, it's a black & white film about what happened when the movies went from being silent to having sound..." then you will have a general idea, but you still won't have a clue as to the greatness of this film.
Producer-director Michel Hazanavicius recaptures silent cinema in ways no talkies film maker has before. For one thing, he shoots his picture at 22 frames per second, making the viewing experience resemble the look of a silent film to today's audiences. For another, he uses visual metaphors, such as a scene shot in L.A.'s downtown Bradbury Building, where we can see the heroine (Berenice Bejo) ascending one flight of stairs while the down-on-his-luck actor George Valentin (Jean Dujardin) is descending another.
Yes, it's a movie about two movie actors, one male and one female, showing the male's descent from public favor while the female grows in popularity. But no, this is not just another re-make of "A Star is Born" (1937). While that picture ended tragically, this one is a romantic comedy... and Hazanavicius makes no effort to tie them together.
Back in about 1950, we could hear silent screen queen Norma Desmond smirk, "Who needs words? We didn't need dialogue. We had FACES!"
You may be willing to agree with her, once you've seen and enjoyed "The Artist." It is filmed in black & white, in the old boxy 4:3 format we knew before Cinemascope came along. And - - get this -- there is NO dialogue we can hear. Well, just a couple of lines as a gag; but they have no bearing on the story, which is magnificent.
As for those "faces" that Norma Desmond idolized, one of them is plainly suggested by Jean Dujardin as the lead character. He has such an open, expressive face, you come to believe he belonged in silent pictures. But his talents have also graced modern spy spoofs such as the recent OSS 117 comedies, both of them warmly received by the critics. As for Mlle. Bejo, she is near perfection as the 1920s' flapper George Valentin comes to love.
Of course, "The Artist" has background music and sound effects, much as the later silent films did.
In New Yorker magazine, critic Anthony Lane wrote "silent cinema really was the purest and most binding incarnation of the medium, one from which we have torn ourselves, to our detriment, ever since."
The critics are raving about "The Artist." You will too.
Cheers, Dan (daneldorado93@yahoo.com)