In The Artist, a vaguely pretentious silent film about a movie star refusing to change with the times upon the invention of talkies. Just yesterday, it won Best Picture at the Oscars.
But it is not the first film to gamble commercial odds on a medium as outdated as the silent black and white film.
The last attempt was City Lights: Chaplin’s last stubborn gamble for the soul of the silent picture (before he, like The Artist’s artist, grudgingly adapted to the talkie.)
Chaplin ventured his fortune, risked his career, and spent three years of his life perfecting the film. The result was the greatest masterpiece of the time.
