Midnight Voices - Print Page


    
      
        Midnight Voices
        (https://www.peteatkin.com/cgi-bin/mv/YaBB.cgi)
      

        Not Pete Atkin >> Off-topic >> Philip French Aug1933- Oct 2015
        
(Message started by: Kevin Cryan on Today at 12:25)

Title: Philip French Aug1933- Oct 2015
Post by Kevin Cryan on Today at 12:25

Philip French, film critic, born 28 August 1933; died 26 October 2015

Obituary (http://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/oct/27/philip-french)
The Guardian

Derek Malcolm
Tuesday 27 October 2015 17.13 GMT

Clive James on Philip French

Quote:

....Philip French is one of the hidden presences behind this book and behind the career of almost every serious literary journalist for two generations.

The Metropolitan Critic (http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Metropolitan-Critic-Clive-James/dp/0330340204) (1974)

Quote:

...in the early days I wrote a lot of scripts for BBC radio and Philip French and my other producers helped to teach me the difference between easy-seeming eloquence and mere rambling on...

The Dreaming Swimmer (http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Dreaming-Swimmer-Clive-James/dp/1447271467) (1992)

Kevin Cryan

Title: Re: Philip French Aug1933- Oct 2015
Post by Kevin Cryan on 01.11.15 at 09:23

The Observer (http://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/nov/01/philip-french-tributes-mark-kermode-clive-james-claire-tomalin)

Writers, directors, actors, colleagues and friends remember an exceptional critic who never fell prey to phrase-making and who loved and lived the world of film
Sunday 1 November 2015 08.00 GMT

Clive James, critic and broadcaster

Quote:

In my early days as a pundit on BBC radio arts programmes, Philip was often my producer, and there was never a better one, although he had a sharp temper if he caught me slacking. The stammer which he lived with so bravely kept him from being the broadcaster he might have been, so he made sure his contributors were at their best on his behalf. He was brighter and better-informed than any of them.

His only weakness was to believe that Heaven’s Gate was an unjustly neglected masterpiece; but that might have been an example of his generosity of appreciation exceeding, for once, the bounds of reason. Otherwise he was impeccable, and his diligence was a chastening example to all of us. I read his Observer column every week, wondering how he did it. Love helped: he was mad about the arts, which is always the best start to being sane about them.

Kevin Cryan