Oscars 2012: Silence Is Golden: ‘The Artist’ Takes Oscar’s Top Awards

(LOS ANGELES) — At the very first Academy Awards ceremony back in 1929, the best picture winner was a silent film called Wings.  And Sunday night at the 84th annual annual Academy Awards, the best picture winner was, once again, a silent film.  The Artist, a black-and-white love letter to the golden age of movies, took the evening’s big prize, while its director Michael Hazanavicius was named best director. Its star, Jean Dujardin, beat out the likes of George Clooney and Brad Pitt to win the best actor prize, becoming the first Frenchman ever to do so.

“I love your country!” said Dujardin at the podium, and thanked legendary silent-film actor Douglas Fairbanks, among others.   Dujardin finished by saying that if his character, George Valentin, could talk, he’d say, “Genial! Merci! Formidable! Merci beaucoup!” which means “Cool! Thank you!  Fantastic! Thank you very much!”

Sadly, Uggie, the dog who stole nearly every scene in The Artist, failed to win his own prize, but he did get to come up onstage and eat treats while the humans accepted the best picture trophy. Overall, The Artist, which went into the telecast with 10 nominations, scored five, the same as the evening’s top nominee Hugo.

Meanwhile, Meryl Streep won her third Oscar for her uncanny portrayal of former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher in The Iron Lady.  Streep, who has had 17 nominations — more than any other actor — is now one of only five performers ever to win three or more Oscars.  Jack Nicholson, Ingrid Bergman and Walter Brennan are all three-peaters; Katharine Hepburn nabbed four. 

It was Streep’s first win since 1982, and many felt she’d lose to her friend Viola Davis, star of The Help.   When Streep received a standing ovation from the audience, she said, “When they called my name, I had this feeling I could hear half of America going, ‘Oh no…come on…her!'”  In an unusual move, she thanked her husband Don Gummer first, so his name wouldn’t get cut off. She said “I want him to know everything I value most in our lives, you gave me.”  Streep also predicted, “I’ll never be up here again,” and added, “This is such a great honor, but the thing that counts the most to me is the friendships and the love and the sheer joy we have shared making movies together.”

As for the best supporting actor categories, no surprises there: Octavia Spencer won for The Help, and Christopher Plummer for Beginners, as every single pundit had predicted.  “Thanks for putting me with the hottest guy in the room!” said Spencer, before sobbing with happiness.  Told to wrap up, she said, “I’m wrapping up!  I’m sorry, I’m freaking out!”  Plummer, who at 82 is now the oldest performer ever to win an Oscar, grabbed the golden statuette and said to it, “You’re only two years older than me, darling. Where have you been all my life?”

Of note, Whitney Houston was included in this year’s In Memoriam segment; in the past, stars who died just before the Oscars occasionally had to wait until the following year’s ceremony.  The segment ended with Elizabeth Taylor.

The slot where the best original songs are usually performed was taken up by a Cirque du Soleil performance that attempted to show what it was like to go to the movies.  Cue performers flying over the audience on trapezes and insanely difficult acrobatics.

The just-a-tad-over-three-hour Oscar telecast marked the return of Billy Crystal, who stepped in to host the show for the ninth time after the previous host, Eddie Murphy dropped out.  And those nostalgic for Crystal’s patented Oscar bits weren’t disappointed — he opened the show by inserting himself into about 10 movies, from The Artist and Moneyball, to Tintin, The Help and Bridesmaids.  One of the funniest moments came when he popped up in Midnight in Paris — he walked over to a car, looked in the window and saw none other than Justin Bieber, who said he’d dropped in to help Crystal capture the “18-24 demo.” A scene from The Descendants, meanwhile, had George Clooney kissing Crystal and waking him from a coma.  Later, Crystal told Clooney’s girlfriend Stacey Kiebler, who usually gets to kiss Clooney, “You’re a lucky girl.”

Crystal also reprised his famous “It’s a Wonderful Night for Oscar” song — “What, you didn’t think I was going to do this?,” he cracked — by singing little ditties about all nine best picture nominees.  Another favorite bit, in which Crystal predicts what the stars in the audience are thinking, was amusing, especially when they cut to a shot of Uggie the Dog, and Crystal said, “If I had ’em, I’d lick ’em.” Other than that, Crystal kept the show running smoothly, but it wasn’t a non-stop laugh fest.  Noting that the evening was all about the escapism of the movies, he said, “Tonight, enjoy yourselves, because nothing can take the sting out of the world’s economic problems like watching millionaires present each other with golden statues.”

There were several other comedic moments scattered throughout the broadcast:

— The cast of Bridesmaids presented the short film awards by saying, “Size does matter, but not length,” and then made a string of additional male-anatomy metaphors.  They also did shots when someone in the audience yelled out, “Scorsese!”  And earlier, nominee and Bridesmaids star Melissa McCarthy was shown trying to seduce Crystal backstage, saying, “Why don’t we make this dressing room into an un-dressing room?”

— Crystal announced “rare footage of the first-ever movie focus group,” which turned out to be black-and-white footage of Christopher Guest and all the actors who usually appear in his movies, including Jennifer Coolidge, Eugene Levy and Fred Willard, all critiquing The Wizard of Oz. “I wasn’t really into it until the flying monkeys,” said Willard.

— Will Ferrell and Zach Galifianakis announced the best original song Award dressed in white tuxes and white gloves, loudly clanging cymbals on their way up to the stage.

— Joining Gwyneth Paltrow at the podium to present best documentary, Robert Downey Jr. came onstage with a camera crew and announced he was making a documentary called The Presenter.

— Sandra Bullock announced that she’d present an award in Mandarin Chinese, but warned that her Chinese had a slight German accent.  She then gave a mini-speech in fluent German, which she grew up speaking.

— In an unintentionally funny moment, Michael Hazanavicius, director of The Artist, thanked Uggie the Dog, the amazingly talented and smart co-star of the film, and added, “I’m not sure he understands what I say.  He’s not that good!”

— TJ Martin, one of the documentary filmakers who won for Undefeated, got bleeped for saying the win was “f**king awesome.”  According to E! Online, he’s the second person ever to drop the F-bomb live at the Oscars; actress Melissa Leo, last year, was the first.

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio