Day-Lewis, ears adorned with his trademark gold hoops, his hair trimmed a little, of his director.

Although No Country was clearly the evening's big winner, it won only four Oscars, far fewer than most best picture winners. That left more Oscars to be handed out as consolation prizes to many of the year's other top films.

British hope Atonement won best original score; Sweeney Todd won art direction; Elizabeth: The Golden Age took costume design; The Bourne Ultimatum won best editing and sound mixing; even The Golden Compass, a commercial flop in the US, won something - best visual effects. Only The Diving Bell and the Butterfly came away empty-handed.

Juno, the year's crowd-pleaser, which some had feared might win best picture, took just one Oscar - best original screenplay for Hollywood's newest writing

sensation, ex-stripper Diablo Cody.

The scatter-shot spread of the Oscars perhaps reflected the Academy's feeling that this was a strong roster of films, perhaps the strongest since the 1970s. Both No Country and There Will Be Blood seem to have reflected the dark mood of a country mired in war and about to go into recession.

Yet neither film has hit a chord with middle America, and it's unlikely that last night's Oscar broadcast, expected to be one of the lowest-rated in years, and the award of acting Oscars to mainly unknown Europeans, will change that. Especially when Daniel Day-Lewis, asked back-stage what he does to unwind, snapped: "The great thing is, I don't have to talk about that, I can just do it," he said. "Why? Because it's none of your f-ing business, that's why!"