Two French Movies Vie for Best Film

Whether they are really French is irrelevant, one was filmed in Paris and the other was a French production, tous les deux are Gallic.

Hugo deserves as many awards as it can get. The Artist should be Best Picture because it is so novel. Michel Hazanavicius, as its director, should take the Oscar.

Both leads in The Artist also should win, Jean Dujardin for best actor and Berenice Beijo for best supporting actress.

Virtually every performance of Glenn Close is Oscar-worthy. Meryl Streep has plenty of Oscars, and the role of the Iron Lady should have gone to Helen Mirren.

Viola Davis gave The Help what it needed to lift itself up from previous civil rights movies and deserves best actress.

Kenneth Branagh deserves best supporting actor. A true renaissance performer on stage, on screen or producing and directing.

For musical song, head south for the samba. Rio in Rio.

This year seems to have a surplus of excellent and original movies, including “The Tree of Life” and “The War Horse.”

The Artist has an old-fashioned kicker, a surprise ending not to be revealed here.