The Regular Wife and I saw The Artist a few weeks ago and loved it. I'm not sure it ranks up there with the best Best Picture winners ever -- if you look at the period 1957-1962, for instance, you have The Bridge on the River Kwai, Gigi, Ben-Hur, The Apartment, West Side Story, and Lawrence of Arabia... wow! And while Jean DuJardin won the Best Actor Oscar, the movie in my mind was driven by the unique look and personality of its leading lady, Berenice Bejo, who unaccountably was only nominated as a supporting actress (and didn't win). She wuz robbed.
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By the way, while I was looking at old Best Picture winners, it occurred to me to look for the best movies that were nominated but didn't win. Imagine these non-winners (and the movies they lost to) in the competition this year: Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (Gone With the Wind), It's a Wonderful Life (The Best Years of Our Lives), Anatomy of a Murder (Ben-Hur), Judgment at Nuremburg (West Side Story), Dr. Strangelove (My Fair Lady), Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (Midnight Cowboy), Cabaret (The Godfather). I can't say that there's any of those that ought to have won in those particular years. But any of those second-place movies would easily win any recent Best Picture contest.
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