Silence

They say silence is golden. Sometimes it is. I like moments of silence, especially after a week of work. The absence of ringing phones is heavenly.

A hundred years ago, silence became golden on screen. The potential of moving pictures was discovered by those outside of it's invention. People realized stories could be told by what we today call movies. So, they started to create them: romances, adventures, horrors, drama. All on a huge screen in glorious black and white. Within just a couple of years, actors became stars and fan groups were started.

And it was all silent.

The actors of the early 20th century were silent. Not in reality, of course, but on screen. The addition of more than a live tinkling piano to moving pictures took several years to tweak. When it hit the movie studios, some doubted it would work. And to some, it did mean the end of a career. "Out with the old, in with the new." For "talkies" stuck...and have been around for 85 years. Most of us have never sat through a silent film.

Nor do we imagine doing so. When Haley and I flopped down in our living room on Wednesday evening to do nothing yet again (it's too hot to do anything...), the first thing Haley said was, "All right. Here we go. Think we can sit through the silence?" I was wondering the same thing. The movie is over an hour and a half long. And even though I was interested in seeing the winner of Best Picture this past winter, I had my doubts I could suffer that long through silence. Prejudging as we all tend to do, I was pretty sure The Artist won it's Oscar not because it truly deserved it but because it was unique.

I mean, it's 2012. Only those of us who are "old fashioned" watch black and white films anymore. People don't think "Lionel" when they hear "Barrymore" - they think "Drew". And actors that say nothing (unless they're cast as a mute) don't exist. You have to speak to act. Or do you?

I'm no film critic. I don't watch movies and then critique them to pieces. I have my opinions, of course. I like some actors and not others. I enjoy some plots and have felt a few to be a waste of time. But I do expect a movie to entertain. After all, that's what it's supposed to do.

So, the big question Wednesday night at my house was: would The Artist entertain? The big answer? YES!

Without any moment-by-moment critique, Haley and I completely agree: The Artist is amazing. It proves that, indeed, silence can be golden.