The Artist (2012)

To me, this movie is perfection.

Thanks for the memories!

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Would you like to see A Star Is Born with a happy ending? Then don't miss this film! It was a huge risk to produce a B&W silent movie in this day and age, but they've done a magnificent job. It carries you along with charm and wit, and even plays a little with the silent concept, for added spice. The French leads are delightful and involve one right from the start. The acting is superb, right down to the supporting cast, as indeed it has to be to transmit the message without sound. A special mention for James Cromwell, who can be a really nasty character in some of his roles, but here turns in a wonderfully nuanced performance as the loyal chauffeur.

I'll be short and unusually sweet.I like the way this movie was made. I like it even more that others have not tried to replicate it since (so far). I'll keep my 'talkies' thank you very much.From a technical side, the 'full screen' aspect ratio didn't take too long to get used to, in part because the film itself didn't take too long to get into. The design of the picture, everything about it, brings you back and allows you to believe. That's the great thing about movies, they can carry you to a time and era you've never experienced just so you can experience it.I noticed right away how 'plain' the set decoration and lighting were back then. It would pain me to light a project like this because it's so simple and dull. The DP, Guillaume Schiffman, did do a fantastic job, and like the actors, had to learn a new technique to do his job I'm sure. It's so simple, it works on every level.About half way through I began to realize how difficult acting in a silent film really is. As an actor in a silent picture you have to work really hard at getting your point across to the audience in actions, and not words; "mugging" as character Peppy Miller puts it. In saying that, the actors in this film would have had to train a little differently at being a silent film actor because all they've ever known are 'talkies' and their training as actors follow that basic necessity of today's movies - sound! In today's world, acting is more than just movement.The Oscar for Best Picture is well deserved. Although this isn't a movie I'll watch over and over, it was a nice switch.

I had this movie on my watch list for at least 5 years but I never got fully persuaded to watch it until now. Funnily enough it took hearing a podcast talking about how it had been forgotten to remind me. And maybe it does have that forget-ability built into to movie but that doesn't mean it is without charm. It's a simple enough story of movies transitioning into the 'talkies' from the silent era and how a man doesn't know how to change with the times.Being a silent movie the visuals and music is all you get so initially a bit jarring. But quickly I found the viewing experience to be engaging in a different way than seeing a modern movie. It enjoyable as a true film rather than just being an homage to that era of film.It is worth seeing despite it quickly fading from the public's memory. It's a fascinating movie but probably only worth one viewing. Sorry George.

Where do I begin, well for starters I can say that I am a huge fan of Jean Dujardin. However, as I lack any artistic bones in my DNA the black & white silent style of this movie just did not appeal to me. The silent era as well as that of B&W, is a bygone era and for a good reason, it has been surpassed by better technology. I can certainly appreciate B&W photographs, for the most part, I prefer to shoot them that way. That, however, does not mean I want to watch a movie in this format.Even as a kid I found Mel Brooks' Silent Movie to be somewhat annoying, but in the end, it was entertaining and funny - that said I only watched it once. The Artist was neither - perhaps it is my fault though as I fast forwarded through the majority of the film.