Pauline Kael

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."

Kael's the Nixon of ILX--she cannot be killed.

i have never read this before! honestly kind of surprising to me.

― (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

"...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.

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.

I'm waiting for someone to put her Cavett interviews on Youtube. The stock of Googleable Kael footage hasn't changed in years.

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".

Did Kael ever write anything about My Bloody Valentine?

The movie or the band?

(in either case, I'm guessing no)

Kael was more a C86 lady than a Shoegazer.

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.

Well, she never stopped tilting at the auteurist windmill.

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.

as Boggie did

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.

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?

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.

Yeah, I remember hearing that, but I don't recall what they were.

Is it time to post that SCTV clip with John Candy again?

Is it ever not?

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.

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).

(The Power and the Glory is wonderful, but I think I'll buy the DVD soon.)

Went looking but found this instead:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOmYEssdXg8

the Gaslight blurb is classic; so are most of the Bette Davis ones, particularly The Letter.

Think this is what I want
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mgH286eOni4

Gianni Pavarotti bonus:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=fvwp&v=n1P9eI1kEK8&NR=1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=fvwp&v=n1P9eI1kEK8
(got rid of NR=1 let's see)

Nope.

But no John Marley

Try embedding one more time:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1P9eI1kEK8

ok, for once i'll say ENOUGH w/ yr CandyWelles obsession.

(also there's trivia in Jersey City tonight)

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.)

plus, it's embarrassing watching Hepburn choking on the cee-gar.

It's not an obsession and I wasn't even going to post it but Eric asked for it. I won't post anymore not even if I find the one with John Marley.

Sorry, I can't make the trivia much as I'd like to reunite the team. Oh wait, we were never actually on the same team. We had too many people so you and donna rouge formed a team and I was on a team with Laurel and dmr, a variant on a previous team I was on down on Atlantic- what was that place's name?- with Laurel and jbr.

yeah, she said of WotY "many of the famous" T/H films are "not very good" xp

that was Sharlene's i think

I did really like the last scene in the kitchen, which she didn't seem to ("the slapstick resolution has an air of desperation"). (xpost)

Yes, Sharlene's in the Slope was where we had the two teams. Place on Atlantic at the bottom of Brooklyn Heights, can't remember. Run by some, um, hipsters. Oh wait, Magnetic Fields, I think

Just one FIeld. No Stephin Merritt.

I'll bet you don't remember the names of our trivia teams, do you?

Hint: one: was a Sturges reference and one a Star Trek.

I do!

That was fun. Despite my many curmudgeonly caveats, I feel a little sorry for the people on this thread: This is the thread for ILXors who have never met any other ILXors in person

Although to this day I still feel a little guilty that I talked Laurel out of the correct answer to one question because I didn't know Khufu and Cheops were the same guy.

http://www.gonemovies.com/WWW/XsFilms/SnelPlaatjes/Birthdemarestwilliam.jpg
Positively the same guy!

I saw Demarest in a Vitaphone short the other day where he does the same pratfall he did 15 years later in every Sturges film.

"Lemme aks you a hypothermical question...."

xpost:
Although perhaps you've grown weary of my William Demarest/Ambrose "Muggsy" Murgatroyd obsession as well.

"So long, Lulu. I'll send you a postcard."