Pauline Kael
Pauline Kael
Pauline Kaelwas an American film critic who wrote for The New Yorker magazine from 1968 to 1991. Earlier in her career, her work appeared in City Lights, McCall's and The New Republic...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionJournalist
Date of Birth19 June 1919
CountryUnited States of America
Pauline Kael quotes about
directors sometimes repetition
It's sometimes discouraging to see all of a director's movies, because there's so much repetition. The auteurists took this to be a sign of a director's artistry, that you could recognize his movies. But it can also be a sign that he's a hack.
nuts people
Really, it's not people who don't understand us who drive us nuts—it's when those who shouldn't, do.
getting-older way vulnerable
What is getting older if it isn't learning more ways that you're vulnerable?
sarcastic flair
Her only flair is in her nostrils.
mistake worst movie-making
The worst thing about movie-making is that it's like life: nobody can go back to correct the mistakes.
stupid believe dirty
Good movies make you care, make you believe in possibilities again. If somewhere in the Hollywood-entertainment world someone has managed to break through with something that speaks to you, then it isn’t all corruption. The movie doesn’t have to be great; it can be stupid and empty and you can still have the joy of a good performance, or the joy in just a good line. An actor’s scowl, a small subversive gesture, a dirty remark that someone tosses off with a mock-innocent face, and the world makes a little bit of sense.
movie believe care
Good movies make you care, make you believe in possibilities again.
funeral ifs knows
I felt as if I had attended the funeral of someone I didn't know.
perfect
Great movies are rarely perfect movies.
should-have play hair
Kevin Costner has feathers in his hair and feathers in his head. The Indians should have called him 'Plays with Camera.
children simple small-changes
Before seeing Truffaut 's Small Change, I was afraid it was going to be one of those simple, natural films about childhood which I generally try to avoid I'm just not good enough to go to them. But this series of sketches on the general theme of the resilience of children turns out to be that rarity a poetic comedy that's really funny.
movie mean people
We may be reaching the end of the era in which individual movies meant something to people. In the new era, movies may just mean a barrage of images.
movie finals desperation
Economy, speed, nervousness, and desperation produce the final wasteful, semi-incoherent movies we see.
doors years people
Watching old movies is like spending an evening with those people next door. They bore us, and we wouldn't go out of our way to see them; we drop in on them because they're so close. If it took some effort to see old movies, we might try to find out which were the good ones, and if people saw only the good ones maybe they would still respect old movies. As it is, people sit and watch movies that audiences walked out on thirty years ago. Like Lot's wife, we are tempted to take another look, attracted not by evil but by something that seems much more shameful -- our own innocence.