The expression "everything old is new again" works well in movies. French film director Michel Hazanavicius had long fantasized he would make silent films. Movies made before the advent of "talkies" were considered to be of high quality because they were far more image driven than those using spoken words. Like black and white versus color film the crispness and attention to detail makes all the difference, producing higher quality without the distraction of color and flash.he Artist takes place between 1927 and 1931 in Hollywood. The silent cinema and subtitles is on the way out, being replaced with film that spoke to us in the audience. We no longer needed to pay attention to expressions on faces but could simply watch all the background action and appreciate the actor's fine voices. The voices also became problematic with some of the stars because they had unusually high voices or could not speak distinctly. Quite a few celebrities simply vanished from the scene once talking pictures became popular.tarring French actors Jean Dujardin and Berenice Bejo along with John Goodman as Al Zimmer, Penelope Ann Miller as Doris, and James Cromwell as Clifton."