Michelle Le Blanc andColin Odell are film critics and writers.
Le Blanc and Odell are a married writing duo based in the United Kingdom. They first met at university. The two have been writing for Kamera Books's website since 2001,[1] and have also contributed toThe Greenwood Encyclopedia of Science Fiction and Fantasy (2005).[2]
The two wrote a book coveringthe filmography of the directorDavid Lynch in 2008. InFilm-Philosophy, the film scholar Liani van Straaten commended the book's structure and writing style for its approachability, but felt that it lacked the depth needed to be an academic study.[3] Stephen Rees ofLibrary Journal felt Le Blanc and Odell managed to find new critical angles on Lynch's work, but wrote it was "not the ultimate book" on the subject.[4]
In 2009, the duo published the reference workStudio Ghibli: The Films of Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata.[2] They spent several months researching for the book and travelled to Japan, where they visited theGhibli Museum and watchedPonyo (2008) before its Western release.[1]Library Journal's Terry Hong called the book "an excellent overview" ofStudio Ghibli,[5] andFilm Ireland's Michiko Yamada wrote it was "a must-have handbook for the Ghibli lover".[6]
The two wrote a book analysingAkira (1988) in 2014.[7]Paul Kincaid reviewed the book in theJournal of the Fantastic in the Arts alongside several others published by theBritish Film Institute as part of its "Film Classics" series, and found it to be "useful and accessible".[8] Reviewing forExtrapolation, Steven Holmes wrote that the book could have further exploredthe manga (1982–1990) and the film's social contexts.[9]