Best Director Oscar Winners

By the time the Oscars started, narrative movies had already been around for roughly two decades. And this was the last big year for silent pictures. This film impressed me because the acting is less over-the-top than earlier silents, the story is good, and the camera work and use of tints to suggest different locations and emotions made for visual interest.

nominated for best picture oscar

nominated for best picture oscar

Hilarious! It deserved all the Oscars it got. Exceptional chemistry between Gable and Colbert. Iconic dialogue and scenes that bring images of Loony Tunes to mind.

The story grips you. The internal struggle of the main character is at once suffocated by guilt and uplifting.

The use of color and the grandness of scale of this movie, particularly in filming the lavish interiors, is still amazing. I can hardly imagine what the original audiences must have thought in '39. I have heard some people say they do not like the main characters, so they cannot enjoy the movie. The main characters are flawed, but I found them intriguing to watch and still very much enjoyed the movie.

The "I'll be there" monologue near the end is awesome. Very inspiring after seeing the whole of the movie.

More iconic lines and music. Love the shadowy film noir aesthetic of this film. "The problems of a few people don't amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world."

These social issue movies from the 40's really impressed me. Maybe it's cause I'm kinda naive and as I watched these award winners in roughly chronological order, it was as if I was viewing it with the eyes of the original 1945 audience. The topic and its portrayal was shocking and powerful, whereas by today's standards it would be tame. Someone had to deal with alcoholism back then though so we could get to the point we are today (and deal with today's issues). The filmmakers presented it very well in my opinion.

Another social issue movie of the 40's. A topic that continues to be an issue in society since, returning vets adjusting to home life. One performer stands out exceptionally- Harold Russel! He was not an actor, but a real vet, and you can tell his performance is pure truth. Even from WWII it was hard for the three main characters, as played by March, Andrews, and Russell, to overcome the inner conflict that has formed within each one. It's a battle with one's self having seen the things a soldier sees and remembering more innocent times, plus not knowing the reactions of those who stayed home. This movie ends romantically, the main characters find a way to adjust to civilian life without quite so much trouble as vets from later wars perhaps faced. But some strong forces that need overcome are portrayed. Awe inspiring.

I love the message of this movie. This I think is the best of several social issue movies from the 40's. Well written and really makes you think before you assume intelligent people would not be prejudice. Similar message to Crash, though not such complex intersecting storylines, it is just as powerful at times.

Bogie's character arc is unforgettable. He turns so ugly, from the inside out. The setting, the dialog, the characters, the imagery are all marvelous. The best study of greed.

The original 40 Year Old Virgin. Well I don't remember if the character was 40 years old, but you get the point. Much more subtly funny and dramatic. One of the first award winning movies I can remember that didn't deal with beautiful people. This was the first Oscar winning movie that was a remake of a TV movie.

Sweeping Lean! The acting is awesome. I love the battle of wills between the two top officers. POWs captured by the Japanese somewhere in Asia during WWII are ordered to build a bridge that will help the Japanese war effort. But then Alec Guinness decides to build his men's moral by taking on the building project and plans to leave the bridge as a monument to British resourcefulness and engineering skill. This movie has another charismatic performance from Holden too. After escaping, Holden must journey back toward the POW camp on a mission to destroy the bridge that the Japanese will use to transport supplies. You see two Allie forces working at opposite goals. Meanwhile, Hayakawa plays a Japanese General riddled with shame. And the ending is edge of your seat suspenseful without all the excessive special effects and stunts used in today's action dramas.

I had a hard time wrapping my mind around this one and appreciating this type of bawdy British humor and melodrama. There are some weird Keystone Cops kind of sped up action sequences that just left me thinking, "Huh?". I really thought I was going to find this a total waste of time till the movie got to about half way through. When Tom Jones leaves home by foot to see London and make his own way in the world it suddenly became much more interesting to me.

When I was young I would only pay attention to the parts with the kids. The nuns at the beginning and the nazis at the end were too much for me, too serious, too adult for me to understand.

I've just seen the movie again after many many years and there was so much I wasn't aware of before. There is beautiful scenery and architecture, catchy songs of course, the charming and disarming Julie Andrews, and a surprisingly strong message about climbing every mountain until you find your dream. A seasonal inspiration!

Very sexy and at the same time awkward. The humor comes out more and more with repeated viewing. At least it did for me. Now that I'm done with school that feeling of just floating aimlessly in a pool or just sitting motionless under the surface is truly a scary thing to face in ones future. Sowing wild oats is just a distraction, but when considering what one will do for the rest of one's life, I feel that today as much as then in the 1960s many feel direction-less.

Call me naive, as naive as Voight's character through most of the movie. Man, he runs into some messed up people as a male prostitute in New York. Hoffman gives another impressive performance. And by the end I was surprised by how much I cared for the two friends. When the song "Everybody's talkin' at me" comes on and Hoffman's character appears too sick to make it to their dream destination, it was more powerful than I expected. It brought a whole new meaning to that song. It made me think of Death of a Salesman and A Raisin in the Sun, two plays I had read recently also about the disappointment of lost dreams.

This movie version is a little psychedelic at times, but the music is good and the themes are important to understanding how Naziism came to power in Germany during this time.

Fun movie! The Scott Joplin music makes it bounce right along causing the ending to be even more surprising.

McMurphy puts himself in a mental institution thinking it'll be the easy life. He represents anti-establishment with nothing else apparently wrong, but it's a tragic irony that the powers that be in the hospital are more sadistic and cold-hearted than the world he came from. Or is it really so different?

I didn't expect to like it that much, but I was caught up in the rise of the underdog boxer Rocky. It is not just about boxing, it is about the characters. After we see the way Rocky has been treated it is thrilling to see him train and climb those steps triumphantly. His relationship with Adrian is awkward through most of the movie. Still this success story, this wish fulfillment, is a good little movie from Stallone when he was fresh out of tiny budgeted indie flicks and not yet a big action star.

There's a reason why Sean Penn's character quotes this movie in I Am Sam. It's like a court case precedent that was set for single fathers raising children.

Wow, Sutherland, Moore, Hirsch, McGovern, and Hutton all gave such touching and in touch performances. A boy struggles with feelings of guilt, which a lot of people probably feel in one way or another, but which rarely are spoken aloud. Moore is as chilling as some horror movie monster, but I believe she is portraying someone very real. That may be a bit harsh. She plays an emotionally distant mother who tries to keep control of her life by bottling all her hurt over the family tragedy inside herself. Thankfully the boy (Hutton) has a committed therapist, a girlfriend with potential, and a loving father.

I liked some of Warren Beatty's performances when he was younger. In his mind he wanted to be as well respected as Charlie Chaplin and Orson Welles in the way they became actors and writers and producers and directors to bring their visions to the movie audiences. But in my opinion he's just not that good. I usually really get into epic historical pics, but I had a hard time getting through this one and understanding it all.

Another movie I first watched in school. The style and production values are mesmerizing. Who would have thought the guy from Animal House and with that annoying laugh would pull off such a historical music genious.

First, let me recommend the Director's Cut though it is 3 hours and 20 minutes. There is so much historical and political content that I found a second viewing helpful too. The costumes, sets, cinematography, and music are all sumptuous.

The movie covers almost 60 years of Chinese history from the perspective of one person. The last emperor, Pu Yi, lived through so much history during the first half of the 20th century. I don't know how much of the story is completely historically accurate, but the changes of the decades and major historical events seem to be presented authentically. The story reminded me at certain points of the movie and book, The Good Earth. While that story shows some of the cultural changes in Chinese history from the perspective of peasants out in the fields, this story is told mainly from within the walls of the Forbidden City or the walls of a Communist re-education camp. There is a strong imprisonment theme! The story is told in flashbacks, and I thought this device was well crafted with interesting parallels.

Pu Yi's life is incredibly tragic and yet I found all the drama enthralling. He becomes Emperor at 3 years old and so hasn't formed any ideas for himself. Even later in his life you can't really say that he ever gained much experience as a leader. Earlier in China's history this might have worked out better to have a leader start so young without much conflict, but with all the changes preparing to take place in the 20th century it is inevitable that Pu Yi would become a tragic figure. He becomes spoiled because every want and need is taken care of for him. He's a puppet controlled by many others through his life. Early in his life China becomes a Republic and he no longer has any real power, but traditions stay the same inside the Forbidden City. Just before WWI O'Toole arrives as a Western tutor and Pu Yi begins to learn about the modern world. Eventually he tries to reform the traditions of imperial China, but he still takes a wife and a consort (a second wife). China then becomes a Communist country and some people turn against the Manchurian part of northern China. Since Manchurian is the Emperor's heritage, he and his remaining staff are kicked out of the Forbidden City. He ends up being welcomed by Japan in the early 30's before WWII and they feed him some misinformation. At this point he still craves the power of being Emperor and there is a lot of political intrigue as Manchuria becomes independent (but, Japan is really pulling the strings). He has relationship issues with his wife and consort, one feeling like a third wheel in the more westernized Japan and the other becoming addicted to opium. After WWII the Communist powers in China change a bit and in 1950 we catch up to the "current" events where Pu Yi and all the other imperial supporters are being re-educated. Ying gives an impressive performance and human face to the "Governor" of the camp. It is an amazing, in depth, dramatic conflict from the American audience perspective when you realize that Pu Yi was working with the Japanese, one of the Axis powers of WWII, and the Communists are trying to turn him into a comrade. Between a rock and a hard place. There's a good portion of Americans that wouldn't see either side of this conflict as worth cheering for. But still I found it very engaging to watch John Lone portray the struggle.

One of my favorite quotes: The Governor- "You are responsible for what you do! All your life you thought you were better than everyone else. Now you think you're the worst of all!" There's also a quote about how all the new generals and changes in the communist regime are just like the battling war lords of tribal society. There's a sense that the differences between the old and young in society will lead to history repeating itself, and in fact power keeps on shifting but nothing in history really changes.

Yet another iconic character from Dustin Hoffman. He hasn't done anything as big since, but I'm not going to hold it against him. And this was back when Tom Cruise was likable, when you could see him as a truly talented actor.

This movie left me shaken and choked up! It pays homage to The Best Years of Our Lives and perhaps some other films about vets returning home. But specifically Best Years, I think, with the shot of Ron Kovic after he has become paralyzed and finally returns to his parents' house staring at his high school wrestling picture in his old room. Harold Russell in Best Years does the exact same thing becoming lost in the old picture from his high school athletics career when he felt he was a whole person. Both of these movies deal with men who have lost some part of themselves and have to discover how to gain strength and courage and acceptance to be a whole man again. By exploring Ron's youth, Born on the Fourth of July shows that the story is really about pressure and failure and confusion and how we deal with those things. This is an epic story with a tremendous supporting cast. It's about a boy who becomes a soldier, a soldier who becomes paralyzed, a paraplegic who becomes an outcast all the while searching for his humanity!! Sometimes it takes an outcast to speak the truth, someone who has been paralyzed to really stand for something, a soldier to fight for life, and of course it's the natural progression of things for a boy to triumphantly become a man!

Costner as John Dunbar, a Union Civil War officer, is suicidal. He'd rather lose his life than lose his foot, but miraculously he survives to be sent to the outermost western post that the army has on the frontier. His sense of purpose in life has been renewed.

The green and brown and yellow of the rolling hills and rare blue of a stream below and the blue and pink and orange with white puffs of clouds above is an epic setting! The frontier is a grand place to tell this story of two cultures.

It is about a man who becomes physically separated from anyone else of his race. And seeds have been planted in his mind that many of his race are crass and foul. He has a loyal horse and a wolf who hangs around without vicious intent as his only company. He perseveres in cleaning up the fort and keeps a journal of memories with some sketches. It is important to notice that his first instinct is not to shoot or attach something he does not understand unless for protection, but to be curious and observe and try to communicate. Maybe he does this because he understands he is a small person in this big frontier and yet he shares a connection with everything.

Dunbar meets Kicking Bird (Greene), a holy-man, and Wind In His Hair (Grant), a warrior of the Sioux people. He finds Kicking Bird's inquisitiveness easy to identify with. Wind In His Hair's first instinct is always anger and so they do not grow as close as quickly. He eventually meets the wise chief Ten Bears who listens to all the opinions of the lead men in the tribe before making a decision. The Sioux people are efficient in moving camps, not wasteful of anything, have a strong family and community structure as illustrated with Kicking Bird's wife and children in particular, and become good friends to Lt. Dunbar. Dunbar also meets Stands With A Fist, a white woman who when she was very young was the only survivor of a Pawnee attack on her family's farm. She was found by Kicking Bird and has been living with the Sioux for some twenty years. She becomes a translator to help with communications. Of course a romance forms and Dunbar/Dances With Wolves is married to Stands With A Fist. Dances With Wolves participates in a Buffalo hunt and in protecting the tribe from an attack by the warring Pawnee. Dances With Wolves is ready to leave the fort and live with his new wife and the Sioux people, but he has one more encounter with some US soldiers. He has changed allegiances and to the soldiers that brands him a traitor. They don't understand life on the frontier in the same way he now does. It's about a man who learns a new life and gets a new name.

I thought all the performances were wonderful. The Sioux's ritual chants were deep and connected to the world. John Barry's score was soaring and triumphant. "The only word that comes to mind is harmony."

Foster and Hopkins give star performances. Levine is creepy as Buffalo Bill. But, this movie simply did not impress me as much as the other two movies to hold the honor of winning the Oscar big five awards. The movie didn't give me a sense of release, a sense of "Oh Wow" when Foster finds her way to Buffalo Bill's house independent of her boss at the FBI. I didn't understand the prevalence of close up shots of the actors' faces. There are a lot of foreheads half cut off in this movie. I guess it heighten the suspense a bit to see the sweat and muscle twitches in the characters' faces. But for a thriller it didn't have any amazing twists that really make you appreciate the writing. At least I didn't think so. The lambs, the moths, the sewing, the cannibalism were all supposed to be mysterious elements that suggest a creative and disturbing story, but it didn't all add together to something greater than the parts. Dr. Hannibal Lecter making his escape was probably the most fascinating, terrifying, and shocking part.

This movie is about redemption and the fragile state in which that redemption can be lost again. This movie doesn't shy away from the prostitution and crime and murder of the wild west. Unlike most of the bright cheery TV westerns from the 60's and 70's, this movie doesn't gloss over the sheer brutality that probably existed. It is about hero-worship and the exaggeration of tall tales. Saul Rubinek is not one of the four top billed actors on the poster and DVD cover, but I especially liked every scene in which he appeared. The idea of the writer creating the western myths amidst the brutality was very clever. The movie is about loss of innocence and what it takes to take a man's life. It's about impulsive youth and the quiet serenity and purpose that can be found later in life. Hackman plays an excellent character. It's a great symbol that he tries to build his own house. Everyone knows he is a crappy carpenter. In the same way, the west has very little connection to the laws of the east coast, so Hackman as the sheriff is free to make up his own rules. And he admits he'll be going to hell for what he's done, but still he bullies his town into staying under his control. He favors the rights of the cowboys over the rights of the prostitutes. The only people allowed to carry firearms in his town are his deputies and when he finds someone who legitimately missed the sign he has no qualms about kicking and beating them to a bloody pulp after removing their pistol. Eastwood seems to make an abrupt change when he decides he must exact revenge for his friend Freeman's death, but with the swig of alcohol, his character makes perfect scary sense.

Gut-wrenching! Inspiring!!

Good story. Exciting battle scenes. It bothers me that there are soooo many historical inaccuracies. Primarily that Princess Isabelle did not step foot in England to marry Prince Edward until after William Wallace had died. Too bad, because the French princess pledging loyalty to the English crown while secretly respecting the Scottish rebels' efforts as well as Wallace showing her his education in languages and culture made for some of the best human drama. The other thing that kept me from loving this epic was all the inconsistent continuity. I didn't get into the epic story so much, like I usually do with this type of movie, that I don't even notice continuity problems. There were several that stuck out like a sore thumb on first viewing.

Michael Ondaatje, who wrote the novel, took a real life person named Almasy and wove this fictional story out of the historical background and his own romantic ideas. WHO IS Almasy, the English patient? A hint- he is not really English. He has been labeled by several nationalities. Socially and morally, what type of person is he? He has been committed to nothing but his work and a passionate affair with a married woman.

Anthony Minghella has said that he wanted the picture to move. The novel's story was loosely structured with different poems, letters, dialogue, and historical descriptions. The movie's plot follows Almasy's life just as WWII is ending and flashes back often to the 1930's and the years leading up to WWII. The jumps in time and place are quite abrupt. This is what Minghella meant by having the picture move. You often don't know when a cut has taken you back or forward in time and for that matter you don't know if you can trust most of the characters. Fiennes as Almasy is shot down in a biplane and burned very early in the movie. His whole body is scarred, he has trouble breathing, and he claims he doesn't remember who he is. His only possession is Herodotus' histories in which he has slipped photos and letters from his life. He is transported through Italy by the Allies. Juliette Binoche is a nurse who takes special interest in making his last days comfortable. She has lost many friends in the war. Willem Dafoe mysteriously shows up at the abandoned church where they are staying and starts pushing Almasy to remember his past. Naveen Andrews is an Indian bomb expert serving the Allied forces by defusing bombs the Germans have planted. He and Binoche's character begin a sweet little romance. As the back story on Almasy is gradually revealed, we see that he was an archeologist working in Egypt during a time when men of many different nationalities worked together on uncovering ancient cultural artifacts in the desert. On one expedition he meets Mr. and Mrs. Clifton played by Colin Firth and Kristin Scott Thomas. What starts off as annoyance that a woman would get in the way of the expedition eventually turns into a passionate love affair with Katharine. After several ups and downs in their relationship, Colin Firth's character becoming suspicious, and national lines being drawn as WWII appears on the horizon, the life and death quotient rises. Through one part of the story the audience wonders if the patient will survive long enough to tell his story. Dafoe's character and not knowing if the war is over are also threats. But of course, he must. Through the flashback parts of the story the main suspense comes from seeing how Almasy ends up in the situation we see in the opening scenes. I was kept interested by the last segment of the movie especially as it rapidly spun more and more tragic set backs to Almasy's love for Katharine.

There was so much hype about this when it first came out. Seems like everyone had seen it, maybe multiple times. I once felt compelled to lie, in high school Spanish class, that I had seen it rather than reveal myself to be the one loser who had missed this PG-13 romantic event movie. Two or three years later when I began my Oscar list I knew I would get around to this one eventually. Now nearly fourteen years later I have finally seen Cameron's massive epic.

I was given a new appreciation for this story after reading The Writer's Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers by Vogler. Cameron has crafted a story, which uses the symbolism and structure of the hero's journey to moving effect. Having seen seventy years of Oscar winning movies, I must confess that I enjoy the sort of movies that traditionally attract the Academy. The acting, characters, period detail, effects, themes and epic scale of this movie all impressed. The romantic moments, the scenes that DeCaprio and Winslet shared alone, were at times the most difficult parts to believe. They were lit and scored and written with such over-heightened sugariness that I couldn't wait for some other character to break in and bring the scene back to earth (um, I mean, to the deck of the ship). Like I said though this was only the case at times. Sometimes the cultural divide between Jack and Rose and being faced with the imminent disaster kept their scenes very truthful. With its longer run time and variety of characters Titanic really puts you in touch with life in 1912. And with Gloria Stuart and the modern day explorers as bookends, you get a realistic feel for the cultural fever that existed concerning uncovering details about that point in history.

Like Titanic from the same Oscar season this movie presents us with bookends to the story consisting of an aged character looking back. As many critics and veterans have already stated, the recreation of D-Day on the beach at Normandy is an amazingly realistic portrayal. The core of the movie is when Tom Hanks as Captain John Miller forms his squad to locate and bring home Private Ryan though. The ensemble cast is full of dynamic personalities. Burns, Sizemore, Davies, Goldberg, Pepper and Ribisi all impressed me. Several other well known faces make brief appearances as Captain Miller and company trek through France. There are many thrills and moments of quieter drama throughout.

want to see this because it won best picture with the NYFC

want to see this because it won best picture at the oscars and best drama picture at the golden globes

want to see this because it won best picture with the NYFC, best drama picture at the golden globes, best picture with the BAFTA, and best picture with the LAFC

want to see this because it won best picture at the oscars

Slow-paced, grusome, and suspenceful! Chigurh=Fate!! It is by Fate that we all die eventually. For me the story was allegorical. Brolin and Macdonald represent youth and want to beat fate. The Mexican gang represents people who try to compete with fate, but are sad wannabes. Root, the bureaucrat, tries to manage things with the gang and by hiring Harrelson. Harrelson represents some Jesus figure (in the white cowboy hat). Jones is the old man of the title struggling with memories of his father and realizing that he has out-lived him. How Jones had such a close brush with fate and lived is the question! A more recent thought I had is that Jones and Harrelson never have a scene together. Jones even speaks cryptically once about not finding religion or God, yet he is a law enforcement officer. This movie provides so much to think about!

I also really enjoyed this movie even though you can see a lot of the plot coming. The colors are vibrant and even though much of the movie is set in the dusty corrupt slums, where in American gritty urban pics the images are often extremely dark and without color, this movie is always visually interesting. The action is often so fast that colors appear smeared or streaked across the screen and that's not a bad thing. I thought the editing and camera work was done very well especially with the constant flashbacks to different points in Jamal, Salim and Latika's lives. The few adult characters, in particular the game show host, the police interrogators, the gangsters, and the brothers' mother listed here on Flixster, gave solid supporting performances. Dev, Madhur and Freida as the oldest teenage versions of Jamal, Salim and Latika give good performances, but I actually liked the younger actors who played the three main characters better.

The early parts of the movie are filled with both really funny moments that people of any culture could appreciate and troubling tragic moments that are also universal. Jamal, the always good hearted romantic, Salim, the older and opportunistic brother, and Latika, the beautiful girl who Jamal spends his life pursuing are orphaned around the ages of 6-8. They are the Three Musketeers! They have lots of adventures together, but at times the brothers are separated from Latika. Eventually they grow up to be pre/early-teens and the adventures continue. Life on the streets is tough, filled with scams, fleeing from the authorities, and revenge, but Jamal always has the hope that he will find Latika. I recently learned a bit about Charles Dickens and so his famous stories with strong elements of social justice were fresh in my mind when I saw this. All the scenes with the children or pre-teens living on the streets and doing what they can to get by as controlled by a couple local gangsters definitely invoked Dickens, especially Oliver Twist.

It's no spoiler to anyone who has read a little about this movie that Jamal is interrogated on suspicion of cheating to win money on India's Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. This is where the story begins to unfold. However, all of Jamal's life experiences connected in his mind to his brother or his love help him legitimately pick the right answers. And through the way the script was written and the film was edited it is shown that all three orphans are always linked together to the end. And there are little things you'll notice on repeated viewings. I must say, the movie didn't make me feel a rush of emotions when Jamal and Latika are reunited like I expected it might, but still it is a little movie that has had a long road to the recognition and kudos it has been receiving.

Is it just me, or do filmmakers seem to be making more interesting end credits in these past couple years? When it gets to the more technical positions it still may go to a black screen with white scrolling text, but this movie has a fun Bollywood dance number intercut with the credits for some of the major players working on the film. It helps keep more people in their seats to actually pay attention to who the filmmakers were. Maybe it's just the number of animated movies I've seen this year that is making it seem like Hollywood is getting more creative with credits.

Incredibly thrilling and heart pounding. I think you are right, kunam88, there is a Kirk and Spock dynamic to the characters played by Renner and Mackie. Renner plays James as an anti-hero with a special skill for disarming bombs. Mackie plays Sanborn as a high strung, by the book kind of guy. Geraghty is memorable too as the lower ranking soldier with fear of death always on his mind. The three men at the center of this story need each other, especially James and Sanborn. Without both types defending the safety of everyone their efforts would not be as successful. Once we get a glimpse of hell on earth when the men are called to investigate an area where a bomb has already detonated, and there is fire and carnage all around. But the symbolism through the story is that the team of specialists are there to defuse bombs. It's very hopeful to know that there are people trying to prevent explosions and damage from creating hell on earth. On the other hand this illustrates that there are a lot of people trying to cause hell on earth. A tense independent film.

Near the end you get to see Renner's character return to family life. I love this theme of soldiers adjusting to civilian life, but you don't often see a movie that shows the difficulty veterans have in adjusting to home life and then shows them going back to what they are good at through life risking missions. Renner's character is someone who loves his job.

Hopeful and inspiring. Interesting look at history and developing technology in 1930's Britain. Colin Firth is touching as the would be king who is afraid of speaking in public. Geoffrey Rush is amusing as the Australian speech therapist who helps the king find his voice. "Bertie" is stubborn and at first only wishes to work on mechanics. The most powerful scene for me was probably when "Bertie" sits down for a stiff drink with Lionel over paint and a model airplane. Lionel begins to become friend and counselor to "Bertie" because the death of his father brings up buried feelings of inadequacy from his childhood. Eventually they can start dealing with the whole issue. And there are many light-hearted quips to keep things from getting too heavy. Still when Britain declares war on Germany in 1939, the idea of speaking to so many people across the British empire through the "wireless" is quite intimidating. To arrive at the end and hear the King's rallying speech after so much work was very uplifting. The entire supporting cast plays their roles admirably as well.

Hazanavicius, Dujardin and Bejo reunite after making the Bond spoof OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies. I haven't seen it yet, but I hear it is also good.

This love letter to Hollywood brilliantly captures the time period when movies were transitioning from silents to talkies. Whereas Singin' in the Rain covers the same transition with peppy music and dance and technicolor, this film delivers its story silently (though still accompanied by music) and in black and white. A form most movie audiences today have little exposure to, but which had a long, well developed history that is familiar to some. The basic plot outline is similar to the often recycled A Star Is Born. This movie visually represents that classic romantic plot with the use of stairs. Jean Dujardin is silent matinee idol George Valentin. Berenice Bejo is young talkie sensation Peppy Miller. Valentin is on his way down and passes Peppy as she is on her way up. They are both so expressive and charming in this delightful moving picture. My favorite scene was when Valentin dreams that the sound has been turned on in the world surrounding him, but his voice just won't speak. There is still no dialog. It is a bit like a Jacques Tati movie. Goodman, Cromwell, Miller, Pyle and Uggie (the dog) as well as the rest of the supporting cast blend in very well.

A few inaccuracies kept this from receiving a perfect rating from me. It bothered me that when Valentin is filming one of his last silent pictures, they show a clap board being used to start the scene. A board with the scene, take, title, director, etc. would have been used, but in the silent era there was no need for a clap to synch the visual with the audio. When Valentin hits his lowest of lows and decides to destroy his films, he lights them on fire while standing in the middle of the pile in his house. This requires tons of suspension of disbelief. Having studied film preservation I have seen examples of nitrate film catching on fire. There wouldn't have been so much of his house left and no one would be pulled out of there with such minor injuries. It bothers me a little that in transitioning to talkies the movie doesn't transition to more sound, but I understand the movie maintaining congruity. Then it was thrilling when Valentin and Peppy perform a dance number for Goodman's producer character in his office, but when they fade to the art deco film set for the end there was no doubt that Dujardin and Bejo are not Astaire and Rogers. They don't make use of the whole stage and the ending feels strangely anti-climactic.