The wife and I wanted to see a movie one afternoon while this was playing (after it had won best picture) and we were underwhelmed, to say the least, at the selection playing at our local multiplex cinema. After painfully trying to decide which was the lesser of the twelve potentially boring evils we finally agreed that The Artist couldn't be all bad if it won best picture. Boy were we in for a rare treat! Mesmerizing is the first word that comes to mind, also, it's really "sweet" in a not cheesey way. Best mainstream film I've seen in a long time.
I wonder if this was loosely based on Rudy Valentino, 'cause the same thing happened to him when the talkies came about with English not being his first language and all?