ABSTRACT
When The Artist , directed by Michel Hazanavicius, was released in 2011 to universal acclaim, it renewed some viewers’ faith in fi lm to tell a story without the elaborate technological interventions that had come to be seen as essential to fi lmmaking in the twenty-fi rst century. The Artist was silent, but for musical accompaniment, and in black and white with intertitles. It invited audiences to accept the illusion of experiencing fi lm-going as it was in the beginning, in the silent world of light and dark.
