Subtitled ‘Selected Film Reviews 1963 to 2013’, this posthumous collection by the doyen of British film critics has been selected by members of his family: Kerstil, Karl, Patrick and Sean French (the latter, of course, is celebrated as one half of the crime writing duo Nicci French, along with his partner Nicci Gerrard). But for those who – like this writer – grew up reading Philip French in the pages of such magazines as Sight and Sound, there is a firm, unshakeable conclusion: that his writing always shone as a beacon of intelligence and perception, with the widest possible breadth of film erudition. As in previous collections of French’s work, we are given a lucid examination of popular films alongside arthouse classics, and the tone of voice alternates satisfyingly between the amiable and the acerbic. What distinguished French from so many of his colleagues was the sheer elegance of his writing – he simply could not set down a poorly written sentence to save his life. Notes from the Dream House is a fascinating collection, and will have readers rushing to watch again some films they may not have paid the closest attention to on a first viewing. And isn’t that one of the key rationales of film criticism?

Barry Forshaw

Notes from the Dream House by Philip French is published by Carcanet