Biography

He was also a well-known arts journalist in Britain. He contributed much film criticism to the British Film Institute's publications, especially "Sight And Sound" magazine; his greatest cinematic enthusiasm was for the films of Francois Truffaut, and he committed suicide shortly after hearing of Truffaut's death.

He was the grandson of the poet and writer Hilaire Belloc, whom he intensely disliked.

In the early 1980s, he interviewed Pauline Kael at some length for the TV arts programme, "The South Bank Show".

He once interviewed Evelyn Waugh for an American magazine, "The Paris Review". The interview took place at a London hotel where Waugh, who normally resided in rural Somersetshire, was staying. Jebb's arrival at the hotel reception desk coincided with Waugh's arrival and registration. They went to Waugh's room together and Jebb recorded, with some astonishment, that the great novelist's first action then was to undress, put on a pair of pajamas and get into his bed. He made no comment on this and the entire interview was conducted with Waugh sitting up in bed.

In 1982, he listed his ten favorite films for "Sight And Sound" magazine (like several dozen other critics across the world) and included four films directed by his favorite film-maker, Francois Truffaut. These were "Les Quatre Cent Coups", "La Peau Douce", "L'Enfant Sauvage" and "La Nuit Americaine" (better known as "Day For Night"). The other films on his list were: "Le Genou De Claire"; "Otto E Mezzo", "Persona", "L'Avventura", "La Baie Des Anges" and a Marx Brothers comedy ("A Night At The Opera").

[reviewing "Tristana", 1971]: The great director's signature on this, his most sober film, is to be detected in its pace and irony, and those are in every frame.

[on "Le Dernier Metro", 1981]: The most purely thrilling film that Truffaut has yet directed and co-authored, the most tightly-plotted and ingeniously-made.