The last reel

While Philip French's death has not come as a surprise given his age of 82, it means another magisterial critic has left us so soon after Brian Sewell's death.  French though was more in the realm of Sewell's late colleague at The Evening Standard, Alexander Walker, Walker and French being pillars of the film critic establishment in Britain.  French's 35-year tenure at The Observer showed that he served his profession well.
But he was not simply immersed in film to the exclusion of most other cultural pursuits.  Reviewing Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill Vol. 2, many respected film critics, like Peter Bradshaw, were both mystified and slightly disappointed that the writer-director had only one captivating monologue when compared to the "wit and gutter poetry" (in French's words) of his previous output.  French though showed the power of reading widely and deeply; not to disparage other critics who will be well-rounded in their cultural knowledge, but French had such a depth on which he could draw.  So, he exposes Tarantino as much as if French had ripped the clothes off the auteur, in the scene where the eponymous Bill delivers an exegesis on how all superheroes have their alter ego as the super-powered version bar Superman whose alter-ego hides among humans as Clark Kent.  In a few short words regarding this speech, French is devastating, "This has been lifted almost verbatim from Jules Feiffer's 1965 book, The Great Comic Book Heroes."  Tarantino often plunders other genres but here he is little more than a plagiarist rather than profound.
In his review of The Dark Knight Rises, French said Bane's seizure of the CIA plane at the start reminded him of the space capsule theft in You Only Live Twice.  A charming analogy that illuminates both films to their benefit.  French justifies his critiques of being more then ephemeral value.
In the last two years, he had hung up his critical glasses but still voraciously consumed cinema (though he could longer employ the critic's standard refrain on a poor motion picture - I'm being paid to watch this, you aren't).  He also had a weekly sideline in The Observer, intent on keeping his mind - and ours - sharp to the end.