Carcanet Press - Philip French

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Philip French was born in Liverpool in 1933, and after service as an officer with the Parachute Regiment in the Middle East he read law and edited The Isis at Oxford before going on to study journalism at Indiana University. For over 30 years he was a producer for BBC Radio, specialising in programmes on the arts and American affairs. From the early 1960s he has been a regular contributor to numerous magazines and newspapers ranging from Sight & Sound to the TLS, and from the Financial Times to The Observer, where he’s written a weekly film column since 1978. His books as author or editor include The Age of Austerity (1963), The Movie Moguls (1969), Westerns (1973), Three Honest Men: Edmund Wilson, F.R. Leavis, Lionel Trilling (1980), Malle on Malle (1992), The Faber Book of Movie Verse (1993), Cult Movies (1999), and Westerns and Westerns Revisited (2005). He served on the jury at the 1986 Cannes Film Festival, was a Booker Prize judge in 1988, was given a life achievement award by the Critics Circle in 2003, received an honorary doctorate from the University of Lancaster in 2006, became the first critic to be made a Lifetime Honorary Member of BAFTA in 2008, and in 2009 was named Critic of the Year in the National Press Awards.

My friend the late Alexander Walker, the only film critic of my acquaintance to become relatively well off, made a great deal of money writing bestselling biographies of movie stars. read more

Now 78, British critic Philip French has spent most of his life writing about cinema for the BBC, The Times and The Observer . This book, its title a riposte to Pauline Kael, collates some of his chewiest think-places subjects ranging from Doris Day ('a professional virgin') to bombs in the movies.� read more

At a party more than a decade ago, the late literary essayist Lorna Sage once remarked to me of Philip French, film critic of The Observer newspaper since 1978, that his great gift - and curse - is that he cannot forget. read more

A movie critic whose 'words are worth a thousand pictures' .Who'd be so dim? read more

These essays from 1964 to 2009 explain why Philip French is the doyen of British film critics. read more

Murder In The Dark When the Observer critic Philip French started writing on the cinema in the early 1960s, he once explained in an interview, books about film were a rarity. read more

This collection of longer essays from 1964 to 2009 explains why Philip French is the droyden of British film critics. read more

Tom Yarwood, The Times Literary Supplement , Fiday 10th March, 2006 :
Khrushchev recalled that for film shows at the Kremlin, Stalin would select the titles himself; he liked cowboy movies especially. read more

Clive Sinclair. read more

The Guardian Review , 23rd April 2005:
Updated from its 1973 edition - or rather, supplied with a substantial sequel that tracks the genre forward from Robert Altman's cold, wet, grubby McCabe and Mrs Miller as far as HBO's very new television series, Deadwood (a dirtier riff on the Altman). read more

Jonathan Beckman, The Observer , 17th April 2005
Considering the limited variations on the accepted conventions, a large number of westerns have been made that continue to be enjoyed. read more

How the West was won George Perry, The Sunday Times , 17th April 2005
They are as old as cinema itself. read more

"Philip French's study 'Westerns' must be the definitive so far on that endlessly productive cinema genre." read more

excerpt from 'Three uncommon readers' by Valentine Cunningham in The Sunday Times 3 August 1980
As literary criticism proliferates it tries to shed its embarrassing similarities to what ordinary people do with books. read more

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Philip French Books by this author: I Found it at the Movies Westerns Three Honest Men: Leavis, Trilling, Edmund Wilson About Reviews Philip French was born in Liverpool in 1933, and after service as an officer with the Parachute Regiment in the Middle East he read law and edited The Isis at Oxford before going on to study journalism at Indiana University. For over 30 years he was a producer for BBC Radio, specialising in programmes on the arts and American affairs. From the early 1960s he has been a regular contributor to numerous magazines and newspapers ranging from Sight & Sound to the TLS, and from the Financial Times to The Observer, where he’s written a weekly film column since 1978. His books as author or editor include The Age of Austerity (1963), The Movie Moguls (1969), Westerns (1973), Three Honest Men: Edmund Wilson, F.R. Leavis, Lionel Trilling (1980), Malle on Malle (1992), The Faber Book of Movie Verse (1993), Cult Movies (1999), and Westerns and Westerns Revisited (2005). He served on the jury at the 1986 Cannes Film Festival, was a Booker Prize judge in 1988, was given a life achievement award by the Critics Circle in 2003, received an honorary doctorate from the University of Lancaster in 2006, became the first critic to be made a Lifetime Honorary Member of BAFTA in 2008, and in 2009 was named Critic of the Year in the National Press Awards. My friend the late Alexander Walker, the only film critic of my acquaintance to become relatively well off, made a great deal of money writing bestselling biographies of movie stars. read more Now 78, British critic Philip French has spent most of his life writing about cinema for the BBC, The Times and The Observer . This book, its title a riposte to Pauline Kael, collates some of his chewiest think-places subjects ranging from Doris Day ('a professional virgin') to bombs in the movies.� read more At a party more than a decade ago, the late literary essayist Lorna Sage once remarked to me of Philip French, film critic of The Observer newspaper since 1978, that his great gift - and curse - is that he cannot forget. read more A movie critic whose 'words are worth a thousand pictures' .Who'd be so dim? read more These essays from 1964 to 2009 explain why Philip French is the doyen of British film critics. read more Murder In The Dark When the Observer critic Philip French started writing on the cinema in the early 1960s, he once explained in an interview, books about film were a rarity. read more This collection of longer essays from 1964 to 2009 explains why Philip French is the droyden of British film critics. read more Tom Yarwood, The Times Literary Supplement , Fiday 10th March, 2006 : Khrushchev recalled that for film shows at the Kremlin, Stalin would select the titles himself; he liked cowboy movies especially. read more Clive Sinclair. read more The Guardian Review , 23rd April 2005: Updated from its 1973 edition - or rather, supplied with a substantial sequel that tracks the genre forward from Robert Altman's cold, wet, grubby McCabe and Mrs Miller as far as HBO's very new television series, Deadwood (a dirtier riff on the Altman). read more Jonathan Beckman, The Observer , 17th April 2005 Considering the limited variations on the accepted conventions, a large number of westerns have been made that continue to be enjoyed. read more How the West was won George Perry, The Sunday Times , 17th April 2005 They are as old as cinema itself. read more "Philip French's study 'Westerns' must be the definitive so far on that endlessly productive cinema genre." read more excerpt from 'Three uncommon readers' by Valentine Cunningham in The Sunday Times 3 August 1980 As literary criticism proliferates it tries to shed its embarrassing similarities to what ordinary people do with books. read more	Share this... Quick Links Aspects of Portugal Audio Books Carcanet Fiction Carcanet Film Carcanet Poetry Comma Press FyfieldBooks Lintott Press Lives and Letters OxfordPoets PN Review Sheep Meadow Press The Carcanet Blog Let's Gimbal! read more Carcanet New Poetry Showcase: The Audience Writes Back read more John Gallas: A Little Andaluciad read more Carcanet Poetry Showcase: 30th April read more The Manchester Writing Competition 2013 read more Six Sixty-Six: Infinity by Gabriel Josipovici read more
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