A silent and black-and-white film directed by Michel Hazanavicius, starring Jean Dujardin and Bérénice Bejo. Dujardin won the Best Actor Award at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival, where the film premiered, and the movie so far has been acclaimed by the critics worldwide and won 5 oscars at the 84th Academy Awards including Best Music (Original score) - Best picture — Best actor.
Hollywood, 1927: As silent movie star George Valentin wonders if the arrival of talking pictures will cause him to fade into oblivion, he sparks with Peppy Miller, a young dancer set for a big break.
“Releasing a silent black-and-white French movie about a silent film star's struggles during the advent of the talkies is a major gamble in 2011. But the Cannes audience loved it. Like Avatar, this isn't a movie you're going to want to pirate and watch in low resolution on your computer at home. And like Black Swan, this is a movie you're going to want to see immediately so as not to miss out on the cultural discourse. As for the endless applause, it seems to be a sort of cathartic release for audience members. You've spent a little under two hours watching people onscreen working through a sensory-deprivation bubble. They talk, they drop things, they slap each other in the face, and the only sound that emerges is beautifully composed orchestral music from Ludovic Bource of the Brussels Philharmonic. Even when the people onscreen enter the age of talking pictures, the movie we, as a modern audience, are watching remains silent. In the end, you feel as though you're clapping and cheering for the many audiences you just watched who clapped and cheered in silence. To show your appreciation, you give them sound.”
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