The 84 th Academy Awards ceremony saw the triumph of two motion pictures, The Artist and Midnight in Paris , which have the power to transport the viewer to a (seemingly) innocent, less distracting time. Both films celebrate the golden twenties, reminding us that there was in fact a time period when men and women of a certain class were meticulously dressed, and speech was a carefully cultivated art form. The modern audience connects with this, as is evident from the accolades both films have been receiving. It may very well be possible that inside every one of us (above the age of thirty or thirty-five), there beats a heart that secretly longs for the irretrievable past which turns a little rosier with every passing year. Nostalgia keeps our imagination alive and makes present-day reality bearable. The Artist is an unabashed homage to the short-lived silent movie era, whose luminaries included names such as Greta Garbo, Rudolph Valentino, Douglas Fairbanks, Buster ...