Jonathan Melville: Silence is golden as The Artist is saluted

After all the hype, excitement and bluster, the Oscars are over for another year, with The Artist and Hugo surprising nobody by taking away the lion’s share of the awards and even my old pals, The Muppets, winning a gong.

For anyone who’s managed to miss French silent comedy/drama The Artist there are still lots of opportunities to see it around town this week, with most cinemas showing it to capitalise on the awards buzz. If you’re looking for a feelgood movie that proves dialogue doesn’t make a film great, I’d recommend checking it out before it hits DVD.

If you want to go a step further then you could head to the Filmhouse over the next few days, where they’re marking the bicentennial of Charles Dickens’ birth with two special events.

On Saturday, there’s a programme of silent adaptations of Dickens films from before 1914, including Scrooge, Oliver Twist and an extract from 1913’s David Copperfield.

Then on Saturday and Sunday you could watch a 1922 version of Oliver Twist starring Lon Chaney and Jackie Coogan. The latter showing is preceded by a talk from Edinburgh University’s Liz Hare.

Meanwhile, if silent movies aren’t your thing, you might want to search out the Oscar-winning Muppets.

OK, so it was only one of the songs that won an award, but it might be a while before Kermit and pals make it back to the big screen and you owe it to yourself to see this one. Or is it just me?

@jon_melville

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