I didn’t manage to get to the cinema when the Artist was showing.  I heard all the hype about how fabulous it was and felt that I should have seen it.  Then when it cleaned the floor with a squillion film awards I knew I’d missed out.

However I did wonder why.  I mean we had black and white silent movies many years ago and they lost out to the newer ‘talkies’.  I considered getting the DVD at home to watch but was urged that it wouldn’t be the same on a small screen.  So I did nothing… well until I spotted that the Royal Albert Hall were showing the film with the score live from the London Symphony Orchestra!

Well that’d be a big enough screen, right?

Tonight we took our perfectly located seats in the circle, dead centre to the big screen and awaited the orchestra’s arrival.  The orchestra arrived and tuned up.  Much celebration from us all when the pianist and conductor came out.  Then the credits rolled and the music started.

Incredible film.  Cleverly reminded us how actors don’t actually need words to communicate a story.  For some parts there were subtitles and others we lipread.  There were points when I didn’t know what was being said but it didn’t matter as the actors expressions and gestures told us what they meant.

The sensory aspect of the evening was by watching a film without words.  The music being played beautifully from an orchestra below the big screen.  Then to really confuse us, there was a couple of points when the silent movie became a ‘talkie’ – it managed it.  It actually seemed odd to hear words being uttered by the actors!

So very pleased I’ve now seen The Artist.  So very much more pleased that I’ve seen it with a live orchestra in such an incredible setting.

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Classical-Music