The Artist - amazing connections to Chaplin, Keaton, et al.

[Michael O'Regan]

I think, Bob, that certain people looked at the movie with certain expectations: go into the theater and suddenly it would be as if silent films had never ended, as if it was still 1928.

Bob

I can't believe that any intelligent film fan would have had such expectations.

[boblipton]

Gotta say, guys. If this is indeed the explanation (and I'd like to think it's something less, well, trivial) it argues some serious and near-universal problems with egotism. The world does not care about you. You'll be much happier when you internalize that.

Hey, I never said I was bothered by it' or not. I was explaining the cultural phenomenon, not talking about me.

Bob

I was speaking in generalities, too, but let's face it--it is a thing.

Who said it wasn't?

The good news is that Justin Bieber is being Roasted on Comedy Central, where the has-beens are savaged by the never-wases.

Pay your dues, putzes all. Better to be a furrier at the Friars.
Bob

[greta de groat]

A lot of white guys have this problem with entitlement. They are entitled to access to women, the best jobs, both seats on the bus, the armrest, women shutting up and listening to them pontificate about random stuff they know nothing about, etc. And there's hell to pay if we don't show the proper deference.

greta

[Donald Binks]

A lot of white guys have this problem with entitlement. They are entitled to access to women, the best jobs, both seats on the bus, the armrest, women shutting up and listening to them pontificate about random stuff they know nothing about, etc. And there's hell to pay if we don't show the proper deference.

greta

You obviously don't know some of the women I do! "Entitlement"? Crikey! A swift back-hander would be the answer to that! Also I know a woman who could talk the pants off a kangaroo whilst underwater encased in concrete! So much for me trying to pontificate!

[Mitch Farish]

We are all aware now of the racist antics of the fraternity at the University of Oklahoma. On The Grounds of the University of Virginia, where I work, we've had problems with sexual assaults on women at Frat parties. I'm sorry to say it doesn't surprise me, but the fact is that, as Campuses become less white and male, fraternities are places where white men go to sooth their egos. In the 1920s the movies became a battleground for racial and ethnic conflict due in part to the Klan revival that BOAN helped facilitate. The new Klan, however, didn't just target non-whites, but foreigners - mostly Catholics and Jews. It doesn't surprise me that men outside of the cities of the east, the upper midwest, and the west coast with their large immigrant populations, would react negatively to Valentino, particularly if their girlfriends and wives were sexually attracted to him. That was then, but the problem lives on.

[Mike Gebert]

Okay, not sure what the last few turns of this discussion have to do with The Artist, but it's not going to end anywhere good. Let's bring it back to films.