'The Artist' - Best Picture, Silent Movie

I haven't seen The Artist, winner of the Oscar for Best Picture, "love letter to Hollywood."

But I have seen many silent movies, movies that were made before sound changed cinema. They aren't "love letters to Hollywood." They were Hollywood.

From the New York Times:

“The Artist,” a love letter to Hollywood, got hugs, kisses and the best-picture Oscar on Sunday at the 84th Academy Awards ceremony here. The film also took the awards for best actor and best director, in a minisweep that found the movie industry paying tribute to not just the movie but to its own roots as well.

“I want to thank Billy Wilder, I want to thank Billy Wilder and I want to thank Billy Wilder,” said Michel Hazanavicius, the film’s director, in keeping with a self-referential theme that ruled the evening.

Thomas Langmann, the producer, accepting his award for a mostly silent, black-and-white fable about an actor’s struggle with the end of silent film, said the achievement was dedicated to his father, the deceased French director Claude Berri.

Until Sunday no silent film had won the top Oscar since “Wings,” at the first Academy Awards ceremony in 1929.

I want to see The Artist. Eventually, I may get around to it.

I recommend seeing the original silent films.

Experience the real deal, not for historic or educational value but for pure enjoyment.

And watch Billy Wilder's movies.

Great art is timeless. It speaks to generations.