No words?

For today’s modern and sophisticated cinema audiences you’d think answering that question in the negative would be a bit of a deal breaker. Films nowadays have everything: 3-D special effects, screen trembling action and cutesy, heartfelt dialogue, although granted not necessarily all in the same production. The idea of a film with no words – a silent movie – would seem a little out of place, wouldn’t it?

It seems the answer to that is no, that is if you believe the current Oscar hype that’s going on around the black and white, wordless melodrama The Artist. Set in the 1920s in a world of flappers and accentuated facial expressions, the film tells the story of George Valentin a silent movie star who has dismissed the new talkies as a fad. The Artist follows him as he goes about trying to make his own silent film. The love interest, Peppy Miller, is one of his enthusiastic chorus girls.

Directed by Frenchman Michel Hazanavicius and bought by Hollywood executive Harvey Weinstein in Cannes this year, The Artist is already the 9-4 favourite to win the Oscar for Best Film next year. The lead actor in the production, Jean Dujardin, who plays Valentin, is also being tipped for the Best Actor Oscar for his performance.

Hazanavicius described silent films as “really the purest way to tell a story, just with images. The lack of sound makes room for the audience ... You don’t have all of this explosion and effects and shouting noises.”

The Artist is not the first silent film to be produced in recent times. The animated movie Wall-E contains long periods of silence and few words, while British director Derek Jarman made War Requiem in 1989 starring Tilda Swinton – a film with no spoken dialogue, only music and lyrics.

You have to go back to the 1920s to find the majority of silent films. Then Hollywood was dominated by dramatic piano sounds and over-the-top acting techniques. From films such as The Big Parade in 1925 to the silent version of Ben Hur, which was released the same year, there was a time when film audiences were drawn in their thousands to silent films.

That all changed in 1927 when The Jazz Singer, described as the first feature-length film with synchronised dialogue sequences, heralded the era of the talkies. Produced by Warner Brothers this film included six songs, performed by Al Jolson, and exploited the new Vitaphone sound technology.

After the release of The Jazz Singer, Life magazine’s Robert E Sherwood described the spoken dialogue in the film as “fraught with tremendous significance ... I for one suddenly realised the end of the silent drama is in sight”.

The melodramatic acting in silent films is renowned. Arched eyebrows, flailing arms and every gesture given a larger-than-life presence helped to keep the audience informed of the plot’s twists and turns. By the mid 1920s, many Hollywood silent films had adopted a more naturalist style.

As a result of The Artist’s success some critics are heralding the return of the silent film. We’ll find out if they’re right on February 26 at the Oscars.

.... silent films