Philip French – the Observer’s much‑loved film critic of 37 years’ standing – died in October, and last Sunday night at the London Critics’ Circle’s prestigious annual film awards ceremony, his critical colleagues offered a public tribute before a starry audience including Kate Winslet, Judi Dench and Kenneth Branagh and French’s own family at the May Fair hotel in London.
The professional body of leading UK critics, of which French was a longtime member, renamed one of their 16 competitive award categories the Philip French award for breakthrough British/Irish film-maker. In an extended tribute prior to the award’s presentation, French’s friend and fellow Circle member David Gritten acknowledged his influential promotion of rising local talent over the years.
The first winner of the award under its new identity, beating such names as Alex Garland and Emma Donoghue, was Beta Band musician turned film-maker John Maclean, for his brooding, brutal, revisionist western Slow West, which starred Michael Fassbender.
As Gritten stated, it’s a choice that French, given his much-documented enthusiasm for the western genre, would have heartily endorsed. In his four-star Observer review of the film, French’s successor Mark Kermode described Slow West as a “blackly comic oddity [balanced] on the generic knife edge between the western and the musical”.
Other winners on the night, honouring 2015’s finest in cinema, included George Miller’s stunning action spectacle Mad Max: Fury Road, which was handed the prizes for film of the year and director of the year, rounding off a good week on the awards circuit for the beloved blockbuster; three days earlier, it had earned a whopping 10 Oscar nominations, including one for best picture.
Andrew Haigh’s small, perfectly formed marital drama 45 Years pocketed three key awards: it was named British/Irish film of the year, while its leads, Charlotte Rampling – herself a newly minted Oscar nominee – and Tom Courtenay, were named actress and actor of the year.
Meanwhile Gritten’s tribute for Philip French concluded with touching news of a further mark of respect, celebrating his regular attendance at the weekly national press screenings – from which he reviewed forthcoming cinema releases for the Observer. French’s favourite front-row seat at the Soho Screening Rooms is to have a simple plaque bearing his name.
