Charming and debonair: The Artist sweeps the board

Discovering that you can still be captivated by a full-length silent black-and-white film, one moreover without any major Hollywood leads, is a revelation in itself. Audiences really do leave cinemas after seeing this with a smile on their faces and a skip in their step. You can't say that for Twilight: Breaking Dawn.

To be sure, it majors on charm but the charm is real. So the scale of its victory at the BAFTAs - with in all likelihood a similar triumph to come at the Oscars in a fortnight's time - can only be welcomed. Only Meryl Streep's electrifying impersonation of Margaret Thatcher deprived The Artist of one ot the main prizes, best actress, for which its heroine, the almost absurdly vivacious Berenice Bejo, had been shortlisted.

It meant there was nothing at all for We Need to Talk About Kevin, Drive, Shame, The Descendants, or indeed Tree of Life, which didn't even make the initial cut. British pride may have been salved by the prizes for Tyrannosaur, Senna and Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy but there's no mistaking the thrust of these awards.

It's the second year running, after his success with The King's Speech, that the producer Harvey Weinstein has swept the board. He was not responsible for the making of the film, only picking it up after it screened at Cannes, but he has had a decisive effect in converting a low budget, off beat movie into such a global phenomenon.

The Artist has, to put it mildly, not been undersold. Time for a backlash then? For once, surely not.

It could be faulted for its nostalgia, for not addressing any contemporary issues (the critics who have argued that it's about adjusting to new technology and thus an oblique take on present day experience are pushing their luck).

Moreover, it could be felt to be excessively self-regarding: cinema looking back over-fondly to its own past. There is an element of self-love to this, just as there is in all those novels about novelists and plays about putting on plays. It's part of the reason why The Artist is so specially adored by those within the industry, the voters for the BAFTAs and the Oscars. But then all cinema-goers are part of the movie business too - so The Artist is for us as well. It's a joy - and that deserves only celebration.