http://www.popmatters.com/pm/feature/165416-the-critic-as-artful-gadfly-pauline-kael/
― Room 227 (cryptosicko), Thursday, 15 November 2012 15:43 (eleven years ago) link
another myth semi-punctured
http://blogs.indiewire.com/criticwire/actually-pauline-kael-did-sometimes-watch-movies-more-than-once
― saltwater incursion (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 20 November 2012 21:10 (eleven years ago) link
Yeah, I was pretty sure that one was BS from the get-go.
― Bobby Ken Doll (Eric H.), Tuesday, 20 November 2012 21:16 (eleven years ago) link
She said repeatedly in her reviews that such-and-such movie from the thirties played much better when she "last" saw it on TV.
― the little prince of inane false binary hype (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 20 November 2012 22:43 (eleven years ago) link
Actually don't remember that--can you think off an example offhand?
I can't take all this myth dismantling. Secret Last Year at Marienbad lover, lifelong obsession with split infinitives, Hampton vacations with Andy and Molly, who knows what awaits.
― clemenza, Tuesday, 20 November 2012 23:04 (eleven years ago) link
The Hect-MacCarthur comedies, All About Eve, and other films whose worth is mostly literary.
― the little prince of inane false binary hype (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 20 November 2012 23:09 (eleven years ago) link
*Hecht
― the little prince of inane false binary hype (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 20 November 2012 23:10 (eleven years ago) link
A clueless reviewer quoted Kael's annoyance at the repetition in Hiroshima Mon Amour ("we get it already") to mirror his feeling at the apparent repetitions (not textual so much as visual) found in Haneke's Amour.
Got to read this woman..
― xyzzzz__, Tuesday, 20 November 2012 23:16 (eleven years ago) link
I mean it must be laugh a page. I think I'm ready.
― xyzzzz__, Tuesday, 20 November 2012 23:17 (eleven years ago) link
Hitchcock fans will fondly recall Kael’s dismissal of the Master’s 1958 thriller Vertigo, now widely considered the crowning achievement of his illustrious career and, oh yeah, the Greatest Film Ever Made, according to the 2012 Sight and Sound poll. She deemed the movie “stupid,” though she did love Kim Novak, who was “touching in the dreamy-floozy Marilyn Monroe-like role.”
i have never read this before! honestly kind of surprising to me.
― (The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Tuesday, 20 November 2012 23:35 (eleven years ago) link
not me
― saltwater incursion (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 20 November 2012 23:37 (eleven years ago) link
Nor I
― Listicle Vogue (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 20 November 2012 23:45 (eleven years ago) link
Also: PK in Furtive Fassbinder Fanatic Shocka!
i know she wasn't keen on 'the birds' or the other later stuff but the depth of her de palma love makes it a bit bewildering to me that she didn't have any time for '50s hitch. did she hate 'rear window' too?
― (The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Tuesday, 20 November 2012 23:46 (eleven years ago) link
That I'm aware of she never wrote a line about Rear Window, although it's as easy to imagine her liking it as it is to imagine her loathing Vertigo.
― the little prince of inane false binary hype (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 20 November 2012 23:50 (eleven years ago) link
I'm having a hard time figuring out where I read her on Vertigo--I just checked I Lost it at the Movies, 5001 Nights, Conversations with PK, and Afterglow, and it's nowhere. But I have. I know she didn't care for it, but I don't remember the word "stupid."
― clemenza, Tuesday, 20 November 2012 23:51 (eleven years ago) link
Kael's the Nixon of ILX--she cannot be killed.
― clemenza, Tuesday, 20 November 2012 23:54 (eleven years ago) link
― (The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Tuesday, November 20, 2012 6:35 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark
you never read it before because its misattributed - she was talking about Kiss Me, Stupid, not Vertigo
― turds (Hungry4Ass), Wednesday, 21 November 2012 05:21 (eleven years ago) link
"...he used to be the master entertainer of the screen, because he could tease us so cleverly; we enjoyed being willfully manipulated to be tense and afraid and expectant...The plots were usually fantastic, and the "MacGuffin" was a mere pretext for the chases and excitations and thrills. He gave excitement to the world."
That's from her negative review of "Topaz". One can probably surmise (sorry, "we" can surmise) from that that "Rear Window" was one she liked.
― Faster than food (Myonga Vön Bontee), Wednesday, 21 November 2012 07:06 (eleven years ago) link
Doing a Google search to see if she'd ever written anything about Gorky Park, I came across this:
http://www.listal.com/list/kael
Nothing you didn't already know (with the possible exception of the first film listed), but funny-obsessive nonetheless.
― clemenza, Sunday, 3 February 2013 20:50 (eleven years ago) link
I'm waiting for someone to put her Cavett interviews on Youtube. The stock of Googleable Kael footage hasn't changed in years.
― jim, Sunday, 3 February 2013 20:55 (eleven years ago) link
Yeah, I'd love to see that stuff. All you can get is Jerry Lewis on Cavett saying how good Kael and Rex Reed (!) are, and blasting what seems to be Judith Crist, and using the word "totality".
― clemenza, Sunday, 3 February 2013 20:59 (eleven years ago) link
Did Kael ever write anything about My Bloody Valentine?
― clemenza, Sunday, 3 February 2013 21:00 (eleven years ago) link
The movie or the band?
(in either case, I'm guessing no)
― Public Brooding Closet (cryptosicko), Monday, 4 February 2013 03:30 (eleven years ago) link
Kael was more a C86 lady than a Shoegazer.
― Big Sambola & The Tailspinners (C. Grisso/McCain), Monday, 4 February 2013 06:47 (eleven years ago) link
I've been reading Kiss Kiss Bang Bang on the subway lately... her defense of Welles in one essay is quite stirring (Chimes at Midnight >>> Makiewicz's Julius Caesar), all the stranger that the double-edged sword of "Raising Kane" came about 5 years later.
― saltwater incursion (Dr Morbius), Monday, 18 February 2013 18:17 (eleven years ago) link
Well, she never stopped tilting at the auteurist windmill.
― Stranded In the Jungle Groove (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 18 February 2013 18:19 (eleven years ago) link
It's been years and years since I've read "Raising Kane," and I don't remember it being a scathing takedown of Welles unless you thought the man was G-d or something.
― Zero Dark 33⅓: The Final Insult (Eric H.), Monday, 18 February 2013 18:21 (eleven years ago) link
as Boggie did
― the little prince of inane false binary hype (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 18 February 2013 18:25 (eleven years ago) link
I guess it's no surprise that in the Gallo wine phase of his career the usually erudite and thoughtful Welles succumbed to self-pity.
― the little prince of inane false binary hype (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 18 February 2013 18:26 (eleven years ago) link
Was she dismantling Welles, or his champions?
Boggie? Oh, I get it. Once saw him do a Barnes and Noble in-store promoting a new edition of his bio. His discussion of his relationship with him was kind of a masterpiece of rhetoric.
Is it time to post that SCTV clip with John Candy again?
― Stranded In the Jungle Groove (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 18 February 2013 18:29 (eleven years ago) link
well, PK seems to try hard to minimize Welles' contribution to Kane, which is pretty silly even if you think his collaborators deserve credit.
also i think she is just grossly unfactual about a few things.
― saltwater incursion (Dr Morbius), Monday, 18 February 2013 18:30 (eleven years ago) link
Yeah, I remember hearing that, but I don't recall what they were.
― Stranded In the Jungle Groove (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 18 February 2013 18:32 (eleven years ago) link
Is it ever not?
― Zero Dark 33⅓: The Final Insult (Eric H.), Monday, 18 February 2013 18:32 (eleven years ago) link
xp, she referred to G-d as "Welles." Big no-no.
Speaking of Kane, thinking about jumping on the train to see the 2:50 Power and the Glory.
PK seems to try hard to minimize Welles' contribution to Kane
At worst it's an immodest attempt at Herman Mankiewicz reappraisal, but she's clear about who the genius was.
― the little prince of inane false binary hype (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 18 February 2013 18:33 (eleven years ago) link
otoh KKBB has "notes" on 280 movies, most of which are longer than those online blurbs, and some of them are wonderfully concentrated and astute (ie, winning the Oscar resulted in William Holden making "mostly clinkers" afterward, at least til his Wild Bunch resurrection).
― saltwater incursion (Dr Morbius), Monday, 18 February 2013 18:33 (eleven years ago) link
(The Power and the Glory is wonderful, but I think I'll buy the DVD soon.)
― saltwater incursion (Dr Morbius), Monday, 18 February 2013 18:34 (eleven years ago) link
Went looking but found this instead:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOmYEssdXg8
― Stranded In the Jungle Groove (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 18 February 2013 18:35 (eleven years ago) link
the Gaslight blurb is classic; so are most of the Bette Davis ones, particularly The Letter.
― the little prince of inane false binary hype (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 18 February 2013 18:37 (eleven years ago) link
Think this is what I wanthttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mgH286eOni4
― Stranded In the Jungle Groove (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 18 February 2013 18:40 (eleven years ago) link
Gianni Pavarotti bonus:http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=fvwp&v=n1P9eI1kEK8&NR=1
― Stranded In the Jungle Groove (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 18 February 2013 18:43 (eleven years ago) link
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=fvwp&v=n1P9eI1kEK8(got rid of NR=1 let's see)
― Stranded In the Jungle Groove (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 18 February 2013 18:44 (eleven years ago) link
Nope.
But no John Marley
― Stranded In the Jungle Groove (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 18 February 2013 18:46 (eleven years ago) link
Try embedding one more time:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1P9eI1kEK8
― Stranded In the Jungle Groove (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 18 February 2013 18:48 (eleven years ago) link
ok, for once i'll say ENOUGH w/ yr CandyWelles obsession.
― saltwater incursion (Dr Morbius), Monday, 18 February 2013 18:48 (eleven years ago) link
(also there's trivia in Jersey City tonight)
― saltwater incursion (Dr Morbius), Monday, 18 February 2013 18:49 (eleven years ago) link
Watched Woman of the Year last night for the first time in a while, loved the first half-hour, liked it overall, found the second half a little flat. I couldn't remember if Kael loved it or not, knowing her fondness for Hepburn; "The chemistry is great, but the plot and the tone are wobbly." Ditto. (It was Pat and Mike she really loved.)
― clemenza, Monday, 18 February 2013 18:49 (eleven years ago) link