Leaving aside my oft-vented feelings about the Oscar worthiness The Artist, I succumbed to the charms of Jean Dujardin and Berenice Bejo during Saturday night’s appearance at Santa Barbara’s Arlington Theatre. Their visit was my final Santa Barbara Film Festival event, and it was probably the most pleasant. The word is actually “fizzy” — they gave off a kind of contact high. I sat down in my seat thinking “oh, God, here we go” and left with a very different attitude.

Tweet #1: “What I got from Dujardin and Berenice Bejo tonight was something along the lines of ‘we’re Europeans…all the praise & hoopla is fine but what do you expect us to do?’ Tweet #2: “It’s very nice to be loved and applauded, but this is all bullshit, no? It’s fine & we like it but can we get real? No?” When a reader expressed astonishment, I replied that “I’ve never said Dujardin or Bejo or The Artist aren’t likable or charming. It’s the excessive Oscar adulation I can’t stand.”

I was driven back to Los Angeles early this morning by Brigade’s Adam Kersh. We left SB at 4:30 am. I was dropped off at the corner of Riverside and Coldwater at 6 am. (Kersh had a 7 am plane to catch.) West of Memphis principal Mark Byers shared the ride.