The Artist (2011)

French director and writer Michel Hazanavicius does the impossible, or seemingly impossible, and that's make a silent film about the silent golden age of Hollywood in the loudest and most bombastic period in film history.  This is at time when movies like Transformers 3 blasts our ears numb and dialogue kings like Aaron Sorkin and David Mamet tongue-tie the best actors in the business.  What wacko producer approved the funding of this film?  The answer: a man who understands story and that audiences want more than crafty words and exploding sound effects.  Story, the most important aspect to any film, something the silent film makers of the '10s and '20s understood and that many film makers today don't get anymore.  Film is about imagery, not sound, and with a wonderful story and intoxicating characters, audiences will be entertained.  I certainly was and so was the crowd of movie goers who saw it with me.  What's specially enjoyable about seeing this film in the theater is hearing the audience absorb the magical romance between George Valentin (Jean Dujardin)  and Peppy Miller (Bérénice Bejo) unfold, laughing, sighing, and cheering together at all the right parts.   This is one of those movies that ends and the audience claps afterward, a rare but beautiful response to any film (considering no one who made the movie can actually hear the applause.)   Skeptics will say, it's a gimmick and that only people who understand film history will care.  I disagree.  This is one of the best films of the year and it will become a classic for generations.   Dare I say it?  It will probably win the Oscar for Best picture too.  That's pretty amazing considering its black and white, silent and the leads are all unknowns.  Grade: A