This elegy for the death of the old European aristocracy is one of the true masterpieces of the screen. Don't have an account? 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. “Her friend George Malko, who accompanied her to it, recalled her as being ‘drenched’—unable even to go out for a drink with him to discuss it afterward,” Kellow writes. 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. Noté /5. No other film has ever dramatized urban indifference so powerfully; at first, here, it's horrifyingly funny, and then just horrifying. 25 quotes from Pauline Kael: 'Irresponsibility is part of the pleasure of all art; it is the part the schools cannot recognize. Find on Wikipedia. It's a traumatic poem of violence, with imagery as ambivalent as Goya's. (0-100 point scale) Pauline Kael's Scores. 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. Movie genres. It's far from a dull movie, but it's certainly a very strange one; it's an enshrinement of the mixed-up kid. Last Updated on May 5, 2015, by eNotes Editorial. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Condé Nast. But it's a triumphant piece of filmmaking-journalism presented with the brio of drama. Sign up for the Books & Fiction newsletter. On the basis of a screenplay? The best movie reviews, in your inbox. It’s in pieces like this that the widespread caricature of Kael as a relentless champion of pop culture and audience pleasure begins to seem thin. They are so delicately modulated … that romance and rot are one.” “Tango” is a classic Kael rave, celebrating the shock and glorious discomfort of “a movie you can’t get out of your system.”. Pauline Kael can be difficult to read because she's so cynical and superior at times. For a more extended discussion, see Pauline Kael's book Reeling. Each brief story has a different comic flavor. The New Yorker may earn a portion of sales from products that are purchased through our site as part of our Affiliate Partnerships with retailers. 15 of Pauline Kael’s Greatest Takes June 05, 2019, 11:22am Pauline Kael, perhaps the most passionate and formative of all American film critics, was able to … It's a bit much, but it works like magic. Pauline Kael . Action. [Bergman] gives us a movie within a movie, but he seems hardly to have made the enclosing movie, and then he throws away the inner one. Pauline Kael' Reviews by antoniomendes1222 | created - 14 Jul 2014 | updated - 23 Nov 2014 | Public Refine See titles to watch instantly, titles you haven't rated, etc. Here she takes stock of American movies in the aftermath of the counterculture. Word Count: 860. Menu. Kael began drafting her review that same night. For 624 reviews, this critic has graded: 28% higher than the average critic. She digs deep into a movie and dissects the heck out of it to such an extent and with such a critical eye that one often has to step back and wonder if she ever really fully enjoyed any film. Pauline Kael (/keɪl/; June 19, 1919 – September 3, 2001) was an American film critic who wrote for The New Yorker magazine from 1968 to 1991. I don't think so. Steven Spielberg sent a telegram to New Yorker film critic Pauline Kael to tell her that she was the only critic who understood "Jaws." The funniest epic vision of America ever to reach the screen. ... 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. Pauline Kael . “Bonnie and Clyde” restored her faith in Hollywood’s audacity. Farran Smith … She was unshy about throwing her support behind rollicking mainstream entertainment (she was a fan of “Shampoo”), and her aversions sometimes cut against the grain of public taste (she hated almost everything by Fellini and Hitchcock, and once described “The Sound of Music” as “the single most repressive influence on artistic freedom in movies”). 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. When people respond favorably to her work, it’s often the chatty, urgent, and unrestrained tone of the reviews that draws them in. ... Oscars Best Picture Winners Best Picture Winners Golden Globes Emmys STARmeter Awards San Diego Comic-Con New York Comic-Con Sundance Film Festival Toronto Int'l Film Festival Awards Central Festival Central All Events. The collection includes the long, prophetic, analytic essay 'On the Future of Movies' that proved contentious in its criticism of the Hollywood system, which Kael thought debased its audience and ignored its artists. It's a story of obsessive love, and von Sternberg's version is certainly obsessive. Get the freshest reviews, news, and more delivered right to your inbox! The infamous film critic Pauline Kael's top rated films as of the time of her demise in 2001. It may also have been the piece that got her hired. The book that I checked out from the library includes her reviews from 1972-75. Hardcover Other ... Pauline Kael on the Best Film Ever Made - Raising Kane. With so many styles incorporated, it's no wonder that the film has no style, nor does it have anything that might pass for aesthetic structure. Island Pictures. Bellocchio makes it all rhyme. Paperback Movie Criticism: The Case of Pauline Kael. The Internet is responsible for the minting of hundreds of new critics. Pauline Kael was a wonderful writer whose best writing was in the 1970s, when cinema was worth writing about. 70% lower than the average critic. “Sacred Monsters.” Kael’s review of “Shoah,” which she found “logy and exhausting,” was one of the most publicly controversial pieces she ever wrote. Kael was known for her "witty, biting, highly opinionated and sharply focused" reviews, her opinions often contrary to those of her contemporaries. Pauline Kael wrote for The New Yorker from 1967 until her retirement, in 1991. By creating an account, you agree to the Privacy Policy Copyright © Fandango. She notices how they walk, how they toss their hair, even how they slouch, which she goes to great lengths to show in her review of TOP GUN. Pauline Kael was probably the best film reviewer ever to put pen to paper. Caligari, the most complete essay in the décor of delirium, is one of the most famous films of all time, and it was considered a radical advance in film technique, yet it is rarely imitated -- and you'll know why. (Some think it's the best part he's ever had.) (“I ask the forbearance of readers for a dissenting view of a film that is widely regarded as a masterpiece.”) Her objection to the movie was chiefly aesthetic, but she also complained at one point that the film’s director, Claude Lanzmann, “could probably find anti-Semitism anywhere”—a baffling knock against a documentary about the Holocaust. Celebs. 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