Most of the players give impossibly bad performances-they chew up the camera. Noté /5. Forgot your password? In this week’s issue, I write about Pauline Kael, who was a New Yorker film critic from 1968 to 1991, and whose reviewing helped establish several movies of the late sixties and seventies as classics. There will no doubt be many discussions of Kael's work and influence and with the publication of Brian Kellow's new biography Pauline Kael: A Life in the Dark, and the Library of America's forthcoming collection of her work. ad 15 of Pauline Kael’s Most Passionate Takes | IndieWire Or almost any of her collections, really, but wasn’t she at her best when she had plenty of movies to love? Retrouvez Taking It All in et des millions de livres en stock sur Amazon.fr. Her lengthy interrogation of the picture helped to change the tide of critical feeling about “Bonnie and Clyde,” which initially got a mixed reception (ultimately leading to a re-release, in early 1968). 25 quotes from Pauline Kael: 'Irresponsibility is part of the pleasure of all art; it is the part the schools cannot recognize. Much of the blame, in her view, lay with movie executives who oriented their ambitions around the box office. Below, a cross section of some of Kael’s most influential pieces from the magazine over the years. This was her last collection of reviews for the New Yorker before her retirement in 1991. Ebert Prime. The cast could hardly be better. Read Movie and TV reviews from Pauline Kael on Rotten Tomatoes, where critics reviews … (She died in 2001.) In this week’s issue, I write about Pauline Kael, who was a New Yorker film critic from 1968 to 1991, and whose reviewing helped establish several movies… Don't have an account? Copyright © Fandango. Pauline Kael was a respected film critic who was most active during the 1960s- 1980s. She's a sassy, opinionated woman, and for the most part her reviews are fun to read. Sign up for the Books & Fiction newsletter. The camera glides in and out and around the action; it moves as simply and with as much apparent ease as if it were attached to the director's forehead. 25 quotes from Pauline Kael: 'Irresponsibility is part of the pleasure of all art; it is the part the schools cannot recognize. The movie starts from a trash novel that is generally considered gripping and compulsively readable, though (maybe because movies more than satisfy my appetite for trash) I found it unreadable. Retrouvez Movie Love: Complete Reviews 1988-1991 et des millions de livres en stock sur Amazon.fr. Pauline Kael, Little, Brown, 1977. This picture is another of [producer] Lew Grade's international blockbuster packages; the deals are worked out in terms of story elements that will sell and of performers with followings in as many markets as possible. Pauline Kael had an overwhelming presence in a conversation. Here, then, is a handy collection of Kael’s best reviews – not exhaustive, mind you, but simply the best (and cheapest) way to experience Pauline Kael in all her glory. "Image" is not remotely an example of hack work - it's an example of a conceptual failure. Pauline Kael wrote for The New Yorker from 1967 until her retirement, in 1991. The concentration is on films from the 1970s (what she, and other critics I admire, have said was the true golden age of cinema), but one is also treated to films from the 1960s and 1980s. The most horrifying of all films about juvenile crime. To revisit this article, select My⁠ ⁠Account, then View saved stories. This shrewd, smoothly tawdry thriller, directed by Billy Wilder, is one of the high points of nineteen-forties films. John Cassavetes built this movie on a small conceit -- a love affair between two people who are wildly unsuited to each other -- and it doesn't take root. If ever there was a great example of how the best popular movies come out of a merger of commerce and art, The Godfather is it. At her best, Pauline Kael was everything a film critic should be: passionate, knowledgable, in love with the movies and writing about them, willing to defend her reviews, and vicious. Pauline Kael can be difficult to read because she's so cynical and superior at times. Paperback Movie Criticism: The Case of Pauline Kael. Steven Spielberg sent a telegram to New Yorker film critic Pauline Kael to tell her that she was the only critic who understood "Jaws." ... Robert Towne, shaped the role to Nicholson's gift for extremes, and it was the best full-scale part he'd had up to that time. It may also have been the piece that got her hired. If ever there was a great example of how the best popular movies come out of a merger of commerce and art, The Godfather is it. This was the volume that made a god awful 26-hour greyhound bus … Pauline Kael, whose film criticism anchored The New Yorker between 1968 and 1991, would have turned 100 on June 19. Pauline Kael was born in Petaluma, CA, in 1919, and attended the University of California at Berkeley in the 1930s. Each link contains between 20-30 reviews. Pauline Kael’s review of Interiors is full of the same holes, but goes a step further in the way it reverts to her classic brand of ad hominem, faulting Woody Allen for his supposed Jewish (or non-Jewish?) The best movie reviews, in your inbox. In 1968, shortly after the publication of her review of “Bonnie and Clyde,” she became the magazine’s film critic. T he best way to celebrate the one hundredth anniversary of the birth of Pauline Kael, one of the most influential film critics in the short history of cinema, is, of course, to read her work. Pauline Kael . She had a taste for violence in films, but only when it was purpose and she disliked movies she felt were superficial or … Movie Reviews Great Movies Collections TV/Streaming Features Chaz's Journal Interviews Cast and Crew Pauline Kael Find on IMDB. There are 2,846 in all, ranging from early silents to the early 1990s, when Kael retired. In the New York Times, Vincent Canby protested: “If one can review a film on the basis of an approximately three-hour rough cut, why not review it on the basis of a five-hour rough cut? © 2021 Condé Nast. This stylized movie of ideas is a lean, impressive piece of work. Pauline Kael was one of the most acclaimed, opinionated, and clever movie critics. Our identification with [Lorre] as a psychopath is so complete it's hard to believe that while appearing before Fritz Lang's cameras in the daytime, he was, at night, acting as a comedian in a farce. But it wasn’t until William Shawn took her on at The New Yorker that her work as a critic hit its stride. It's a traumatic poem of violence, with imagery as ambivalent as Goya's. From her rave of "Bonnie and Clyde" to her dismissal of "Chloe in the Afternoon," here are choice quotes from some of Kael's best reviews. and to receive email from Rotten Tomatoes and Fandango. The picture might have been a pop classic if it had stayed near the level of impudence that it reaches at its best. Some people pinned the strident review on her complicated feelings about her own Jewish background. in 1991 Hardcover Other ... Pauline Kael on the Best Film Ever Made - Raising Kane. This is Pauline Kael's ninth collection (and eleventh book) and it covers her film reviews from The New Yorker magazine from July 1985 to June 1988. At her best, Pauline Kael was everything a film critic should be: passionate, knowledgable, in love with the movies and writing about them, willing to defend her reviews, and vicious. Refine See titles to watch instantly, titles you haven't rated, etc Instant Watch Options George Roy Hill, furious about her review of "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" began his letter to her, "Listen, you miserable bitch." Kael was known for her "witty, biting, highly opinionated and sharply focused" reviews, her opinions often contrary to those of her contemporaries. Just before the movie appeared, Kael had been feeling gloomy about the sorts of movies Hollywood was turning out; she thought too few risks were being taken in the mainstream, and that over-burnished pictures were running tangent to American life. Get book recommendations, fiction, poetry, and dispatches from the world of literature in your in-box. Save this story for later. For 624 reviews, this critic has graded: 28% higher than the average critic. The original material if first printed as a book?” Kael’s “Nashville” review also shows her trying to fit movies into the canon of modern art. She tried and failed to work as a playwright in her 20s, and began writing film reviews as a freelance writer for film journals in the 1950s. Her reviews could be controversial and she left an impact on other critics such as Roger Ebert. The “Shoah” review garnered a furious response, not just from many readers but from other critics, some of whom usually admired Kael’s work.