A Loving Homage To The Era Of Silent Movies And Early Talkies. An Artistic Triumph All The Way.

Rating: 10/10 (28 February 2012)

After showing in limited release since November, "The Artist" was FINALLY released nationwide on Christmas Day. I was initially attracted to this movie because the poster bears a resemblance to the Broadway one for Disney's "Beauty And The Beast." Then when I saw that it was a black-and-white and silent movie (the likes of which has not been produced for over 75 years), my curiosity reached its peak, and I knew this was a film I JUST HAD to see. I finally saw it early last month.
This film is definitely reminiscent of classic silents "The Gold Rush," "The Mark Of Zorro" and many others. Only fans of black-and-white and silent films would appreciate this movie, but it's definitely a crowd-pleaser, with something for everyone. Clean comedy ala "The Thin Man" starring William Powell and Myrna Loy, chaste romance in the vein of "The Gold Rush" starring Charlie Chaplin and a great story like the best silent and sound movies ("The Mark Of Zorro" starring Douglas Fairbanks, "Singin' In The Rain," "All About Eve," Sunset Boulevard," "Casablanca," the 1923 and 1956 versions of "The Ten Commandments," the 1925 and 1959 versions of "Ben-Hur," "Gone With The Wind"and the list goes on). There's also a nice dash of "Vertigo" in here. Excellent acting, writing, music and direction. Everything about this movie is top-notch. I definitely plan to add this movie to my DVD collection.
Biblically speaking, there's only one scene where a woman flips a main character off, a brief disturbing image at the beginning, and a mild curse word towards the end of the film which shows up in the inter titles, which is actually comical and not meant to shock. No sex, violence, or strong language, this is definitely a movie straight out of the 1920's and 1930's. Could easily have been rated PG instead of PG-13, but apparently, I think the MPAA thought that a higher rating, despite the minimal content enumerated above, would attract more people. (Rated PG-13 for A disturbing image and a crude gesture? Seriously? The "Disturbing image" has been used in the Frankenstein films of the 1930's and '40's and other movies, and there have been harder images in movies, IE. the violence in the 1983 Scarface)
Congratulations to writer & director Michel Hazanavicius and the rest of the cast & crew for making such a wonderful movie. And especially congratulations to them for winning all the awards they've won, and for winning Best Picture. It so earned every award it's won, unlike Titanic in 1997 which was given the 11 Oscars. This is a movie you'll love from beginning to end. The movie should have been rated PG.