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'The Artist' named best picture at UK film awards
Britain's equivalent of the Oscars rewarded the French homage to old Hollywood
- Los Angeles Times with inputs from AP
- Published: 09:54 February 13, 2012
- Image Credit: EPA
- The Artist’s Jean Dujardin, producer Thomas Langmann and director Michel Hazanavicius.
The break-out silent movie The Artist continued its unscripted run of awards glory on Sunday when it was named best film and claimed six other trophies at the British film awards, including director and lead actor.
Frenchman Michel Hazanavicius, who shot the movie in black and white, also won for his original screenplay, a less expected honour for a film of few words.
"I'm very surprised," he said. "So many people thought there was no script because there was no dialogue.
"So English people are very clever. Congratulations to you," Hazanavicius said, drawing laughter from the glittering audience gathered inside London's Royal Opera House in Covent Garden.
Lead actor Jean Dujardin said it was "incroyable" — incredible — to win a prize in the homeland of acting titan Laurence Olivier, William Webb Ellis — the inventor of rugby — "and Benny Hill", while Hazanavicius thanked presenter Brad Pitt for pronouncing his name correctly.
Dujardin, who plays a silent screen icon eclipsed by the talkies, said the appeal of The Artist lay in its accessibility. "It's a simple story," he said. "It's a love story. It's universal. And there's a cute dog" — Jack Russell terrier Uggie, who almost steals the film from his two-legged co-stars.
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The Artist also won prizes for cinematography, costume design and for Ludovic Bource's sprightly musical score. All told, The Artist made good on seven of its field-leading 12 nominations, and with wins at the Golden Globes last month and from various critics' associations, is now a clearer favourite for best picture at the Academy Awards later this month. It boasts 10 Oscar nominations, one fewer than Hugo.
Meryl Streep overcame any prejudice facing a Yank playing a Brit by winning the lead actress award for her portrayal of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in The Iron Lady.
All the winners in the major categories are nominated for Oscars as well, though the awards from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (Bafta) have not been foolproof predictors of Oscar success. Streep beat Viola Davis, who has won numerous awards for her role as a maid in The Help, including the SAG lead actress award two weeks ago.
A flustered Streep lost one of her spiky pumps on her march to the podium, which gave presenter Colin Firth the chance to slip it back on her foot like a blushing Prince Charming. Streep noted that her mother's family traced its roots to the same English county where Thatcher was born.
"Half of me is Streep, but the other half is Wilkinson from Lincolnshire," Streep told the mostly British audience, which gave her a warm ovation. "So I come by it, honestly, this part."
Streep's victory added to a recent trend of major awards going to actors playing British leaders. "The ambition of this film was to look at the life of the Iron Lady from the inside out, and to locate something real — maybe hidden but truthful — in the life of someone we've all decided we know everything about already," Streep said.
Octavia Spencer, one of the maids in The Help, won the award for supporting actress, and Christopher Plummer was lauded as supporting actor for his portrayal of a widower coming out as a gay man late in life in Beginners. Both are the odds-on favourites at the Oscars after dominating their categories throughout this awards season.
Oppression is universal
Spencer said The Help had been called "an American movie about American problems and American history".
"I am so grateful to you for seeing past that," she said. "Because surely oppression knows no gender, no sexual orientation, no country."
Presenting the award for special effects, Cuba Gooding Jr paid tribute to singer Whitney Houston, who was found dead in a Beverly Hills hotel on Saturday.
"Whitney, I will always love you," he said — a reference to one of her best-known songs.
The effects prize went to Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows — Part 2, the final film in the magical franchise and the top-grossing British movie of the year.
An amusing moment came when writer Peter Straughan nabbed the award for adapted screenplay for Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, originally a novel by John Le Carre.
"I'd just like to thank The Artist for not being adapted from a book," Straughan joked.
He then thanked his absent co-winner, his wife, Bridget O'Connor, who died of cancer in 2010 before the film was completed. "She wrote all the good bits, and I made the coffee. Bridget, I love you, I miss you and this is for you."
Although Scorsese didn't win the director's trophy, the veteran director enjoyed a good night. He was nominated in two categories — the second was for his documentary on George Harrison of the Beatles — and was presented with a Bafta fellowship, the organisation's highest accolade, given each year to an individual for outstanding and exceptional contribution to film.
Veteran British actor John Hurt was given an honour for outstanding British contribution to cinema for a career that includes memorable roles in Elephant Man, The Naked Civil Servant and Alien.
Hurt said his advice to young people would be the same as Noel Coward gave to him when he was an aspiring actor: "Press on, and don't let anybody get in the way of your instincts," Hurt said.
The Hollywood star quotient was particularly high this year, in contrast to years past, when some American nominees skipped the trip across the Pond. Fans braved near-freezing temperatures to scream at the actors, who fluttered their way down the red carpet, the men snug in black tie but some of the women at risk of hypothermia in their shoulder- and cleavage-revealing dresses.
"This country turns out a lot of brilliant actors, and to be even recognised by this awards body is beyond my wildest dreams. And to win it — oh my God," Spencer said, fondling the bronze trophy shaped like a classical theatre mask.
"This little guy's gonna lay next to me on the pillow tonight."
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Did you know?
Actor-turned-director Paddy Considine and producer Diarmid Scrimshaw took the best British debut prize for the wrenching domestic drama Tyrannosaur.
Kidulthood actor Adam Deacon won the rising star prize, the only category selected by public vote.
Senna, a portrait of the short, sensational life of race car driver Ayrton Senna, was named best documentary and also won the editing prize.
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