Penelope Houston (9 September 1927 – 26 October 2015) was an English film critic and journal editor. She edited ''

Sight & Sound ''Sight and Sound'' (also spelled ''Sight & Sound'') is a British monthly film magazine published by the British Film Institute (BFI). It conducts the well-known, once-a-decade ''Sight and Sound'' Poll of the Greatest Films of All Time, ongoing ...

'' for almost 35 years.

Biography

Born in Kensington, London, she was the daughter of Duncan McNeill Houston and his wife Eilean (née Marlowe). Her father was a rubber broker, while her maternal grandfather was Thomas Marlowe, an early editor of the '' Daily Mail''. She attended Wimbledon High School, before winning a scholarship to

Roedean School Roedean School is an independent day and boarding school founded in 1885 in Roedean Village on the outskirts of Brighton, East Sussex, England, and governed by Royal Charter. It is for girls aged 11 to 18. The campus is situated near the Sus ...

, near Brighton; the school was evacuated to the Lake District during the war. In 1947, she was the first editor of the short-lived film journal ''

Sequence In mathematics, a sequence is an enumerated collection of objects in which repetitions are allowed and order matters. Like a set, it contains members (also called ''elements'', or ''terms''). The number of elements (possibly infinite) is calle ...

'' founded by

Lindsay Anderson Lindsay Gordon Anderson (17 April 1923 – 30 August 1994) was a British feature-film, theatre and documentary director, film critic, and leading-light of the Free Cinema movement and of the British New Wave. He is most widely remembered for ...

Karel Reisz Karel Reisz (21 July 1926 – 25 November 2002) was a Czech-born British filmmaker, one of the pioneers of the new realist strain in British cinema during the 1950s and 1960s. Two of the best-known films he directed are '' Saturday Night and S ...

and

Gavin Lambert Gavin Lambert (23 July 1924 – 17 July 2005) was a British-born screenwriter, novelist and biographer who lived for part of his life in Hollywood. His writing was mainly fiction and nonfiction about the film industry. Personal life Lam ...

Oxford University Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to th ...

, where she read modern history at

Somerville College Somerville College, a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England, was founded in 1879 as Somerville Hall, one of its first two women's colleges. Among its alumnae have been Margaret Thatcher, Indira Gandhi, Dorothy Hodgkin, ...

, and graduated from Oxford with a double first in 1949. For a year, she worked in Whitehall on research into the history of the

second world war World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

. In 1950, she joined ''

'', the journal of the

British Film Institute The British Film Institute (BFI) is a film and television charitable organisation which promotes and preserves film-making and television in the United Kingdom. The BFI uses funds provided by the National Lottery (United Kingdom), National Lot ...

, as Lambert's assistant. During this early period, she was involved around 1952 with initiating the feature for which the magazine remains best known, the critics' decade poll for the 10 best films ever made. Houston did not create the feature, which she described in September 1962 as an "impossible but intriguing game", but she was responsible for its high profile. Houston became the editor of ''Sight & Sound'', then a quarterly journal, in 1956 after Lambert departed for a career as a Hollywood screenwriter. She remained in the post until 1990. At the same time, she was a regular contributor to the ''

Monthly Film Bulletin ''The Monthly Film Bulletin'' was a periodical of the British Film Institute published monthly from February 1934 to April 1991, when it merged with '' Sight & Sound''. It reviewed all films on release in the United Kingdom, including those with ...

'' for many years until the mid-1970s. (The two magazines merged shortly after Houston retired). In the late 1960s and early 1970s she oversaw publication of the BFI's "Cinema One" book series. She also had a period as a film critic for ''

The Spectator ''The Spectator'' is a weekly British magazine on politics, culture, and current affairs. It was first published in July 1828, making it the oldest surviving weekly magazine in the world. It is owned by Frederick Barclay, who also owns ''The ...

'', deputised for ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' (f ...

'' critic and for ''

The Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', whose parent company Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993. First published in 1791, it is the ...

'' as C. A. Lejeune's deputy in 1957. She also wrote for ''

'' and, occasionally, for ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

''. Houston was the author of several books on cinema, including ''The Contemporary Cinema'' (1963) and ''Keepers of the Frame: Film Archives'' (1994). She also wrote a short book on a film directed by

Alberto Cavalcanti Alberto de Almeida Cavalcanti (February 6, 1897 – August 23, 1982) was a Brazilian-born film director and producer. He was often credited under the single name "Cavalcanti". Early life Cavalcanti was born in Rio de Janeiro, the son of a ...

, ''

Went the Day Well? ''Went the Day Well?'' is a 1942 British war film adapted from a story by Graham Greene and directed by Alberto Cavalcanti. It was produced by Michael Balcon of Ealing Studios and served as unofficial propaganda for the war effort. The film shows ...

'' (1942). Houston was an amateur player of golf and a follower of horse racing, on which she gambled. She commented in 2001: "I wouldn’t go into film criticism now if you offered me the top job on a plate. It is so boring. Who wants to spend their days looking at special effects movies from Hollywood made for 15-year-olds?" Her younger brother, Tom, survived her.

References

External links

*
In memoriam Penelope Houston: Sight & Sound's collection of material related to its former editor
{{DEFAULTSORT:Houston, Penelope 1927 births 2015 deaths Alumni of Somerville College, Oxford English film critics English journalists English magazine editors The Spectator people British women film critics Women magazine editors