I wouldn't even call The Artist that good an emulation of the silent era. There's nothing in it as ambitious as what Chaplin, Keaton, Murnau, Eisenstein, Dreyer, etc. were producing on a regular basis. Granted, there were plenty of movies in that era that were right on the level of The Artist, but The Artist looks positively quaint when compared to City Lights,The General, Safety Last,The Passion of Joan of Arc, Battleship Potemkin, Nosferatu, Metropolis, Haxan, Nanook of the North, Intolerance, or Sunrise....Watched The Artist last night. It was good but not great. I think the thing I liked the best was the lack of dialog (obviously, since it was a silent movie for all intents and purposes). I'm always a fan of "showing not telling" (love the first act of Wall E) and they were able to convey some real subtle moments without saying a word. So I commend them for that and for having the guts to make a silent movie. But on the whole, even though the cinematography was great I didn't think the script was all that clever or terribly interesting which is keeping me from loving this movie.