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

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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.