"The Artist" and "Hugo": A very French Oscars

It was like an episode from "The Twilight Zone." The Academy Award for best picture went to a silent film in black and white. The unstoppable "The Artist," which had nothing going for it but boundless joy, defeated big-budgeted competitors loaded with expensive stars because … well, because it was so darned much fun. Its victory will send Hollywood back to its think-tanks.

"The Artist" and "Hugo" tied by winning five Oscars apiece, but "The Artist" won for the top categories of best film, actor and director, while "Hugo" cleaned up in the technical categories — appropriate for a movie that depended heavily on special effects and awesome visuals.

Both films evoke Hollywood's past. Michel Haza­navicius' "The Artist," a loose retelling of "Singin' in the Rain," was about the transition from silent to sound. Martin Scorsese's "Hugo," a lavish family fantasy about a young orphan who lives in a railroad station and ends up rescuing the work of the French inventor of the cinema, Georges Melies.

In the night's biggest upset, Meryl Streep picked up her third Oscar, winning best actress for her portrayal of British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in "The Iron Lady." "When they called my name, I could hear half of America going, 'Oh, no — her again,' " said Streep, perhaps acknowledging the front runner had been Viola Davis for "The Help." Then she teared up while singling out for thanks her husband, sculptor Don Gummer, and "my other partner," the makeup/hair artist J. Roy Helland. He also won an Oscar for "The Iron Lady," and Streep noted they had started together on Broadway, and he'd done the hair and makeup on every single one of her films.

Best actor winner Jean Dujardin exclaimed: "I love your country," adding, "so many of you here tonight have inspired me." He also singled out the first Oscar host, silent-film star Douglas Fairbanks, for inspiring his performance in "The Artist."

The show unfolded as top-heavy with wins for "Hugo," which at one point led "The Artist" by five to one. Cinematographer Robert Richardson, who won his third Oscar for "Hugo," after previous wins for "JFK" and Scorsese's "The Aviator," summed up the telecast's early mood: "Marty, you're a genius as usual."

After years of plummeting ratings for boring Oscarcasts, this year's show was an unqualified improvement. The whole show seemed to hark back to Hollywood's golden age, in a theater dressed to resemble a traditional movie palace. Producers Brian Grazer and Don Mischer were brought in after original producer Brett Ratner was dropped after making a derogatory comment about gays. It seemed clear from the top that they were an inspired choice. The fast-paced show was enriched by classic film clips and testimony by stars talking about how the movies inspired them.

The pressure was on host Billy Crystal to come up with something great as the pinch-hitting emcee for Eddie Murphy — and he did, recruiting scenes, effects and stars from many of this year's nominated films. Then he added a song-and-dance number, a salute perhaps to "The Artist," incorporating the titles of all the best picture nominee. After last year's sleepwalking emcees Anne Hathaway and James Franco, Crystal was a shot in the arm, continuing with prepared sketches and zingers all evening. As probably the most popular Oscar emcee, he astonished the audience by topping himself.

A roar went up when Octavia Spencer's name was revealed as the supporting actress winner for "The Help." In tears at the podium, she began to thank people, and then, urged to wrap up, said, "I'm sorry. I'm freaking out." But she was clearly on the edge of saying what was really in her heart.

Spencer played one of the maids in an Alabama town whose experiences inform a best-seller by a local white woman. The film was disparaged by some African-American viewers for providing yet another screen portrait of blacks as domestics. But the characters involved, played by Spencer and Viola Davis, dramatized the hidden side of that stereotype.

The most-predicted win probably went to Christopher Plummer, supporting actor for "Beginners." At 82, the oldest winner in Oscar history, he observed: "You're only two years older than me, darling. Where have you been all my life?" He was greeted with a standing ovation, no surprise, because earlier he joked with a red carpet interviewer that if he didn't get a standing O, he would demand one.

The animated film Oscar went to "Rango," a high-energy comedy set in the Old West and toying with a playbook of Western cliches. It was the first animated film by Gore Verbinski, who directed Johnny Depp in the first three of the "Pirates of the Caribbean" movies. One of the film's distinctions was that, at a time when most animated films are shot in 3-D, it was unapologetically in 2-D.