The Artist wins five Oscars

The charming French silent movie - The Artist - won five Oscars last night, including Best Actor, Best Director, Best Picture. When Jean Dujardin won for Best Actor he broke into his native French shouting: "Wow, victory!" "Thank you to the Academy. It's funny because in 1929, it wasn't Billy Crystal but Douglas Fairbanks who hosted the first Oscars ceremony. Tickets cost $5 and it lasted 15 minutes. Times have changed."  The Artist reminds me of that line in Sunset Boulevard by Norma Desmond:  "We didn't need dialogue. We had faces." 

1929 was the last year that a silent movie won an Oscar.  Yet another case of history repeating. 1929 was also the year of the Wall Street Crash in October of that year...following a decade of wealth and excess during the "Roaring 20s":  Wikipedia: The Wall Street Crash of 1929, also known as the Great Crash, was the most devastating stock market crash in the history of the United States, taking into consideration the full extent and duration of its fallout. The crash signaled the beginning of the 10-year Great Depression that affected all Western industrialized countries and did not end in the United States until 1947.

And the best dress on the red carpet - for my money - was Jessica Chastain wearing a classy Alexander McQueen number. She reminded me of a Pre-Raphaelite painting: