This morning I read an article about James Agee, the film critic; my only experience of him, and I realise now to my somewhat shame, was as the author of Let Us Now Praise Famous Men, a classic of the Depression era. I'd no idea of his life as a critic, and certainly none of just how wonderful a writer on film he was.

Visionary, insightful, a thoughtful critic, and blessed with great images. Take this one of Buster Keaton's face, so impassive and featureless, that "when he moved his eyes. it was like seeing them move in a statue"; or this one or Orson Welles in the role of Rochester in Jane Eyre "...his eyes glinting in the Rembrandt like gloom...."

I love that image, it's everything you could imagine of Rochester, dark, shadowy, furtive, hidden secrets, off stage mysteries. Great writing, certainly memorable writing depends on people like Agee and the images they mine from their creative depths.