Brilliant Salute And Homage to the Silent Movie Era

Rating: Null/10 (11 September 2013)

After "The Artist" won five Academy Awards, there was kind of a joke going around on Twitter that it was one of the most praised movies that no one ever bothered to go see, so, I just had to rectify that by renting the DVD at my local movie place, and I am glad to say that the people making those jokes really don't know what they're missing. No, people don't go see Silent Movies anymore, and that's a crying shame because among the movie-going public, there are those among us who actually miss the Golden Years of Hollywood before we were inundated with sequels, computer-generated effects, bathroom humor, movies based on television shows and endless god-awful references to drugs, alcohol and pornography. There's a reason it's called the Golden Age of Hollywood, and Jean Dujardin and Berenice Bejo demonstrate that so eloquently in this movie by creating characters that we both love and reach out to without uttering a single line. What they have created is not just a modern Silent Film, but also a profile of a fictional Silent Film star and an analysis of the era in general. Contrary to the movie, several Silent Film stars actually went on to bigger success under sound once they embraced the technology, but a few, like Dujardin's character, faded into obscurity and later became icons of a lost age now finally appreciated by film students and aficionados of the old classic movie. "The Artist" shares moments of great humor and sincere drama with levels of extreme pathos, all without a single character saying a word. If this movie was taken back in time to pre-1925 Hollywood, I think it would have fit in very well with the works of Douglas Fairbanks. Errol Flynn, Harold Lloyd and Buster Crabbe. If you haven't seen "The Artist" yet, what's keeping you?