Pauline Kael Passed away
09-04-01, 01:04 AM
#1
Senior Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Oct 1999
Posts: 870
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Pauline Kael Passed away
Pauline Kael passed away. A seminal and unique voice from the world of film criticism. She retired from writing in 1991 due to age and her battle with Parkinson's disease.
If you haven't experienced her mighty intellect pick up some of her books and read them.
an excerpt from aarp.
www.aarp.org/mmaturity/march_april98/kael.html
MM: It seems you and your writing have evoked great controversy. Is there any particular reason why? Do you think you've gotten so much flak because you're a woman?
Kael: Well, the president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences once did call me "a miserable bitch." But generally it was because I didn't agree with the consensus of criticism that had formed about a movie. This cycle usually begins with a studio's marketing department and wends to the press. By the time a movie is authenticated in The New York Times, it's accepted as a wonderful work. Then if my review says, "This is a pathetic tissue of moldy ideas," it deeply offends those who came out for it.
Also, most movies I cared about didn't get good reviews. Bonnie and Clyde, Mean Streets, even The Godfather initially did not get good press. Now critics refer to them as classics and don't say what their original opinion was.
MM: You were perceived as someone who could literally make or break a movie.
Kael: That was a goofy perception. But movie companies did bar me from screenings--they thought I was influencing other critics even though I never talked to them about a movie before they reviewed it. But I think my influence was largely in style, not substance. Other critics sound like me because my writing has influenced them. They've rarely agreed with me about movies.
MM: Do you think your criticism has changed movies or affected filmmakers?
Kael: I'd rather not say. If I say yes, I'm an egotist, and if I say no, I've wasted my life. Although I've been told I have influenced some people to become directors. Unfortunately, most of them are lousy.
MM: What was your goal when writing criticism?
Kael: I aimed for something more than just an opinion--to evoke a movie and its qualities, to indicate where it falters and where it succeeds, to know what the movie is really about and what it means to people. For example, Dirty Harry was emotionally effective even though it created all sorts of right-wing fantasies.
If you haven't experienced her mighty intellect pick up some of her books and read them.
an excerpt from aarp.
www.aarp.org/mmaturity/march_april98/kael.html
MM: It seems you and your writing have evoked great controversy. Is there any particular reason why? Do you think you've gotten so much flak because you're a woman?
Kael: Well, the president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences once did call me "a miserable bitch." But generally it was because I didn't agree with the consensus of criticism that had formed about a movie. This cycle usually begins with a studio's marketing department and wends to the press. By the time a movie is authenticated in The New York Times, it's accepted as a wonderful work. Then if my review says, "This is a pathetic tissue of moldy ideas," it deeply offends those who came out for it.
Also, most movies I cared about didn't get good reviews. Bonnie and Clyde, Mean Streets, even The Godfather initially did not get good press. Now critics refer to them as classics and don't say what their original opinion was.
MM: You were perceived as someone who could literally make or break a movie.
Kael: That was a goofy perception. But movie companies did bar me from screenings--they thought I was influencing other critics even though I never talked to them about a movie before they reviewed it. But I think my influence was largely in style, not substance. Other critics sound like me because my writing has influenced them. They've rarely agreed with me about movies.
MM: Do you think your criticism has changed movies or affected filmmakers?
Kael: I'd rather not say. If I say yes, I'm an egotist, and if I say no, I've wasted my life. Although I've been told I have influenced some people to become directors. Unfortunately, most of them are lousy.
MM: What was your goal when writing criticism?
Kael: I aimed for something more than just an opinion--to evoke a movie and its qualities, to indicate where it falters and where it succeeds, to know what the movie is really about and what it means to people. For example, Dirty Harry was emotionally effective even though it created all sorts of right-wing fantasies.
Last edited by Smog; 09-04-01 at 01:13 AM.
