Directed and Written by Michel Hazanavicius
Starring Jean Dujardin and Berenice Bejo
Unlike my wife and daughter, I am no movie snob. For my wife, she refuses to see anything that requires subtitles – so no Truffaut and Herzog for her. For my daughter, anything in black and white is out the window, which means just about any movie made before 1960 is out. It makes me sad to think of the great films her snobbery will deprive her of.
Anyway, though I’m not snob, and though I love silent films as much as anybody – my particular favorite is The General, though I’m also partial to Harold Lloyd – I’ve got to acknowledge that watching a silent film is exhausting. Unlike a ‘talkie’, where the story is told in sounds and images, silent films require so much more attention and fidelity to the image on screen that it can literally where you out.
This, ultimately, is my problem with The Artist. Continue reading
