The Artist (2011)

Today's film is The Artist.  George Valentin is a silent film action star that is very successful. He meets Peppy, who is a fan who eventually becomes a star in her own right.  As technology progresses from silent films to films with talking, or "talkies", her fame surpasses his.  Will he be able to adapt to the ever-changing world of film, or will he hold tight to his nostalgia?

  

So this is mostly a silent film. I've seen lots of silent films, and most of them I would not consider spectacular. This one is.  Even people who would not normally ever watch a silent film will enjoy this.  I heard a lot of smack-talk during the Oscars, "How dare a silent film win in the day and age. That's so pretentious." Bitch do you even know what that word means?  A film is meant to tell a story.  The story is of a man who loses everything because he can't cope with change.  The change just happens to be the transition from silent films to ones with sound. Honestly, there were silent film actors who could not make this change.  So the obvious choice is to tell his story from his point of view, which is a silent film. This makes perfect sense. Besides, it's not entirely silent.

George starts to lose it when silent films go out of style, and his wife asks him why he refuses to talk.  He hears all the normal sounds you would hear in a room, such as a telephone ringing, and it grows louder and louder. He loses his possession to auction, and later loses his home.  Peppy, who is now successful, invites him to stay at her house, which is of course his old house, so that has to be really awkward.  He goes into a room with everything covered in white sheets. As he lifts the sheets up, he discovers that all of his old stuff was bought at auction by her. That scene was so creepy.  But Peppy makes up for it by trying really hard to get him back in the acting business. I will give this movie a 9/10.