Silent Era makes a comeback. Review on The Artist Movie

The golden era of Silent movies is brought back by The Artist. Silent movies got relegated to the road side when technology made an entry and it possible to fombine voice with screen acting.

What makes The Artist such a treat to watch is its simplicity. The story is of the reining super star of the silent films George Valentin, protrayed by Jean Dujardin.

George's every film is a hit with audiences flocking to theatres not to just watch his film, but also to catch a glimpse of George. In one such encounter, he meets the beautiful actor and Dance Peppy Miller and is infatuated by her. He prefers acting with her in his films. Then comes the twist in the film when technology of talkies is introduced. George finds it difficult to adapt to the talkie technology and hence refuses to accept the changes of the film making world. On the other hand Peppy transitions smoothly or rather glides from the silent era to the talkies and becomes one of the hottest stars of the town. The Artist is the story of George the star of silent movies and his battle with his pride, ego and refusal to adapt to changes leading to his fading into the background.

Deservedly so it won at the Oscars inspite of being pitted against another great movie The Descendants. Though George clooney is my favorite, I don't regret a bit when Jean Dujardin walked away with the best actor trophy for his role as George in The Artist. Black and White movies are now a distant memory and many of us don't even know about the silent movies except for the various reruns of Charlie Chaplin. It isn't easy acting in a silent movie, where the emphasis is more on the body language and expressions to convey the story and in The Artist , all the actors have done superbly.

It's definitely worth a watch and welcome break from the monotony of today's movies.