Trailer: The Artist

[Geezer]

I don't mind black and white. I mind silent, I think its a dramatically worse way to tell a story. Its like watching mime for a long period of time, and that gets highly annoying to me.

[silversurfer19]

Of course if that's your opinion that's fine,but I don''t think it''s a regressive way of film making. I think implying such restrictions allows for further exploration of other dimensions within the media of film, much like with music that is instrumental (from Explosions In The Sky to Bach), or with The White Stripes' implemented limitations. Art as a media can flourish in numerous ways, obviously one way in particular appeals to you, but I think it''s narrow minded to see any other expression of film as somewhat backward.

[Geezer]

I think it is regressive. If making films with dialogue was not the better way of making films, then why are 99.99999999999999999999999999999999% of films made with dialogue? Do you believe that if filmmakers of the arly days of film had the ability to make films with dialogue, they still would have chosen to make films silent? I think there's not a chance in hell. The ability to record sound on film is a Godsend to the industry, and I don't see a reason to go back, other than a pompous filmmaker's way of challenging himself by doing something that is counter to the mainstream, which certainly doesn't mean the film will be good, and is more selfish than anything else. Sometimes this can work, but generally I find that it fails, and that is why it doesn't happen often. I'm sorry, I just can't see how a film benefits from not having any dialogue.

[Chienfantome]

You've still got a long way to go, Geez, as a film lover, if you only expect movies to go the way everybody expects them to go, and if you think that there is a timeline and that cinema is an art of technology and the way that technology evolves.
Cinema is emotion, and emotion through any form imaginable

[silversurfer19]

Back in the early days of cinema there was no choice, and granted, many of them probably would have preferred to use audio over silent, but what we have now is choice. It doesn't make a director pompous, that's like suggesting doing anything other than the mainstream is pompous. Again, going back to music, while we can all probably agree digital is probably the best format of recording music nowadays, and listening on an mp3 player probably provides the best quality. But is there no place for vinyl? While it is technically limited in various aspects, it also has many other qualities which you can't get with digital music.

What I'm getting at is that you can create an atmosphere with silent, there are certain things with silent cinema which you just cannot get with audio added. This most obviously became apparent in Wall-E, with what for me was 20 minutes of some of the most beautiful cinema I've seen for the last decade. I know you hated it, and that is obviously where our point of view differs. I see cinema as being able to create an expression of art and emotion, you see it as pure entertainment. I don't think either opinion is wrong, but obviously we just come at our movies from a different point of view.

[Buscemi]

And regressive isn't necessarily a bad thing.

[MisterInformative]

Except in cases where we're depicting racial stereotypes, then being regressive is shameful and ignorant. Right?

[Buscemi]

That's an exception. What I meant was cinema and science, it's not bad. Socially, it's bad.

[MisterInformative]

I wouldn't say in cinema, that using older tactics is regression. More homage.