Thoughts on a silent film against the backdrop of the 21st century life.

A silent film in the 21st century is winning awards. The Artist, to me, is the most sagacious commentary on modern society since Fight Club. In my yoga classes, I talk about stripping away the outside noise and the internal chatter. I encourage people to unplug. That being said, I could barely sit through this silent film. I was losing my damn mind! The plot creeps along at the pace of the original films of the silent era. Nothing explodes, no one has sex and it is in black and flipping white! For my “Facebooking while texting and watching T.V.” generation this was painful. Sure, the intellectual part of my mind was thinking, “This is great, a moment of silence in this crazy world!”

However, was I enjoying the silence or just enduring it?

Um, the latter I think. I do not have all the modern bells and whistles that some possess…iPads, iPhones, iPants? But, I am definitely still a part of the technology tornado of contemporary life.

The Artist plays with the audience in a way that they find themselves constantly waiting for a voice to emerge from the silently moving lips. I found myself begging for the words to become audible but they remained only a few words of text on a black screen. Yet, in my daily life, I communicate with everyone in the form of text. No voices to be heard from the people I care about. Is everyone begging to be heard and no one is listening? Are we really communicating? Without the benefit of facial expressions, tonal inflection or even the silent film’s triumphant music, what are we really saying? The juxtaposition of a movie without talking and the loud overly stimulating world we are used to…well, it blows my mind.

So, this yoga teacher will spend a teensy bit less time online and a little bit more time enjoying the silence.

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Corey Jean Jones is a budding yoga teacher and struggling rock climber in the Reno/Tahoe area. http://www.flowinglotusyoga.com/