wonderful unusual cinema experience

Rating: 10/10 (17 March 2012)

It's always telling when the cinema audience bursts into applause at the end of a film, as they did when I saw The Artist. It was a joy to watch, a lot of fun, and the time passed really quickly. Laugh out loud funny and with pathos, with strong likable characters, it was surprisingly more complex than I expected given the silence. I really liked the clever touches of the old style of the credits and the filming dimensions of the screen. The wardrobe/costumes were great too. I'm glad the actor who played George Valentin got an Oscar - he deserved it, I think.
The story is of a movie star of silent films who feels he has nothing to contribute as talkies become popular as new technology is developed, and younger stars are becoming famous in Hollywood. The film is interesting as a look at Hollywood in the 1920s when the Studios ruled in the "Golden Years". Whilst the two leading players were awesome, with a strong supporting cast (John Goodman was great), the star of the piece was most certainly the incredible little dog!
I would recommend this film to anyone. Not only is it a great film, it's also interesting as a different cinematic experience, for novelty. I don't think it's trying to be comparable to the silent films of yesteryear, this is clearly just something different, but it is reminiscent of the innocence and simplicity of plots back then without gratuitous violence language or sexuality where a man just fell in love with a woman and danced around a bit - like in old Debbie Reynolds films or Fred and Ginger where the only "naughty bits" were the Butler seeing a lady in her negligee! This is just a really nice, fun, entertaining film. No subtext other than a hearty hello and well done to ol' Hollywoodland.