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The Artist

I was just thinking the other day how bored I am by today's celebrities, how they all seem to look the same, and how the few actors and actresses who actually do work worth caring about are just too few. This also says a lot about the movies that are out there, but there are legions of mediocre films because we watch them in spades. This is why a film like The Artist is such a breath of unbelievably fresh air, and yet it's just the sort of air that we must be told and told and told again to go breathe. If you have heard that you should see The Artist and yet have not, please do it. It is breathtaking, not just in beauty, but in whatever-it-is that makes a person sit taut in their seat with their fingers to their parted lips and their eyes wide and unblinking toward the motion picture. It's also lovely, and charming, and a number of other words that don't quite come close. I hope it wins all the awards that are awarded to films of any nature.

*Regarding the leads - For those who are wondering, "Why haven't I seen either of these actors in anything before?" it's because they are from other countries and do not act in your grand movies. Except once, Berenice Bejo was in A Knight's Tale, that most fascinating and fabulous work of cinematic oddness, as Shannyn Sossamon's maid. This should not be held against her. She rocked that role too.

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