From Silent Films to Manufactured-People Films?

           The superbly quirky, clever, surprising, and touching movie, The Artist, takes audiences back to the late-1920s when the movie industry almost overnight transitioned from silent films to “talkies” (films with synchronized, recorded dialogue).  It was not a bloodless evolution.  Actors, whose larger-than-life acting techniques or personal idiosyncrasies did not translate well to talking pictures, fell by the wayside.  This pitiless development is depicted lightheartedly in the movie musical classic, Singin’ in the Rain, and treated with a bit more emotional punch in The Artist. 

           What strikes me is that the movie industry might be undergoing another profound, if not overnight, transition.  More and more animated films are appearing (some so lifelike it’s eerie, like Polar Express and Avatar).  Are we seeing another upheaval in cinema that’s trending toward films in which, ironically, only the voices of actors are used?  And what happens when computer technology “progresses” to the point where computer-generated speech is perfectly identical to human speech?  Between computer-generated images and computer-generated speech, film acting as a profession could become a thing of the past.  Even in many of today’s live-action films (as opposed to animation), it’s virtually impossible to distinguish between computer-generated background images and scenes shot with flesh-and-blood actors on location.  A tempest in a teakettle?  Don’t tell that to the various actor unions which are scrambling to decide how to deal with this burgeoning threat to their profession. 

           Maybe decades from now we’ll see entertaining and touching animated films portraying the quaint old early 21^st century when the movie industry transitioned from real-people films to totally computer-made, manufactured-people feature films.