So how did “The Artist’’ — a slight, black-and-white French comedy with virtually unknown stars that practically no one in this country has seen — end up as the first film with virtually no dialogue to win Best Picture since the academy’s initial ceremony in 1929?
Blame the “least objectionable programming’’ theory advanced by an NBC exec in 1971 to explain how people picked TV shows in those analog days: They kept clicking until they found something they didn’t hate.
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This year, Oscar voters were faced with an unusually polarizing set of nine Best Picture nominees. Each had passionate support from at least 10 percent of the 5,600 academy members (or they wouldn’t have been nominated).
But eight of the nine had aspects that turned off large blocs of voters
“The Help’’ won for Best Supporting Actress, but trivialized the civil-rights movement. “The Descendants’’ snagged Best Screenplay but played too much like a TV movie for some. “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close’’ and “The Tree of Life’’ had more gravitas, but were strictly love-it-or-hate-it propositions.
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In the end, the strongest competition to “The Artist’’ came from “Hugo,’’ another tribute to silent films — basically an American production set in France — that captured five Oscars in minor categories.
A front-runner from the moment it premiered at last May’s Cannes Film Festival, “The Artist’’ became the default choice.
It is not a film for the ages, but for the academy this year, it was probably the least objectionable choice — if a thoroughly baffling one for most Americans.