Pauline Kael

I don't think you have to get drinks with an artist to play the "I overrated your last thing so I'm gonna slam the next one" bit. It's pretty familiar in any critic who became a fan.

it's just the other side of the "I belatedly realized you're good so I'm overrating your new movie" deal

I know my friendship with Tim Powis has caused me to hold the Surfin' Tapeworms from Venus' surf version of the Chariots of Fire theme in too high esteem.

it's just the other side of the "I belatedly realized you're good so I'm overrating your new movie" deal

haha -- this is actually Christgau's trick.

her pan of The Shining is OTM ("the first pompous haunted-house movie")

as is the rave for Temple of Doom.

I know my friendship with Tim Powis has caused me to hold the Surfin' Tapeworms from Venus' surf version of the Chariots of Fire theme in too high esteem.

― clemenza, Sunday, October 30, 2011 10:29 AM (8 hours ago) Bookmark

lol

I liked the Ween redo.

scott seward, da croupier fully otm in this thread

also agree with tipsy that her taste was interesting. if o'hehir never understood what she was talking about maybe he's just not a very good reader.

I'm offended I'm not otm :(

haha you were also otm, scott + da croupier were just pushing my favorite "jealous dudes" angle. it's true!

You tried too hard for a nuanced approach
(xp)

haha it's true

nuance?! Kael's critics deserve beheading.

alfred completely otm

Now you're doing a John Candy as Orson Welles ham on rye performance (xp)

and Jessica Lange will play Madame Defarge.

does this bio have a comprehensive list of kael's reviews? i always had the impression there was a lot of stuff from the early pre-new yorker days that never made it into her books.

I have a yellowed paperback copy of Kiss Kiss Bang Bang I found on the street, and that's all pre-New Yorker! (Atlantic, McCalls, etc. And isn't that the second book?)

Has donna rouge mentioned if the Pacifica archives have her radio reviews?

Now you're doing a John Candy as Orson Welles

wait did this actually happen? was it some sctv thing?

if o'hehir never understood what she was talking about maybe he's just not a very good reader.

Not always so; her main objection to Goodfellas seemed to be that there's no 'hero' a la Cagney (or even Harvey Keitel, I guess). That makes no sense to me.

but it seems like o'hehir was saying she had no big insights beyond her surprising taste, which is just crazy talk to me.

she also hated gays.

Except those she let impregnate her.

unpublished photo of the kael household circa 1958

http://www.maniacworld.com/mommie-dearest-with-extra-slapping.jpg

My household on Fri night tbh.

morbs looks very pretty there

I do love the image of her changing the marquee at a rep house w/ Wild Turkey on her hip.

4-part interview:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jtGCjGgecOs&feature=related

^^^ saw it last week. I love her comments on Paul Newman.

The famous first meeting between Kael and Sarris over a drink:

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_wu6Z_RmeXD4/SyvfEcQmPmI/AAAAAAAAAeE/Jbet5NAS3xk/s320/robinson.jpg

"The far side of what? Oh, please."

It's been said before here -- Sarris took their "feud" way too fuckin seriously.

speaking of auteurs (this is for strongo)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_ehxdlAlHQ

I may have posted this another thread, I'm not sure. But if you skip ahead to the last minute, this brings Kael and SCTV together:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDdfD8nHbok

itt renata adler outed as a jealous dude

That Linehan guy who interviews Kael was parodied by Martin Short on SCTV, too.

boy he loves his consonants and sybillants doesn't he

Linehan is beyond legendary here. Short nailed him, especially the five-minute preface to every question.

anyway i finished james wolcott's memoir today. still digesting but there's a lot about pauline kael, sounds like wolcott was her screening sidekick for a good chunk of the 70s. i don't know, wolcott has some perspective on kael but the fairy dust still clouds his vision. for all his un-sentimentality about the 70s clearly wolcott never took the message of "kill yr idols" to heart

he's never been a Sonic Youth fan.

he name-checked lydia lunch and said he liked new wave, though

wolcott's portrait of pauline whet my appetite for the bio; guess i was surprised by how enamored - verging on gushy - he was. but hey, if martin amis took me under his wing when I was 23...

per the Frank Rich review, Kael making loud wisecracks and snorts during screenings should've elicited a "Cool it, auntie" imho.

don't most of us do that though???

hahaha - she does that multiple times in wolcott's book, including at a 42nd street porno

"we" don't do that

"we" just watch The Dark Nought without a thought.

don't most of us do that though???

not unless we want a clout on the head from me, no.

we'd be like the sinners trapped in ice chewing each other's heads, right

per the Frank Rich review, Kael making loud wisecracks and snorts during screenings should've elicited a "Cool it, auntie" imho.

― Dr Morbois de Bologne (Dr Morbius), Sunday, October 30, 2011 10:04 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

yeah that would be maddening if it was happening in a movie you were enjoying

Morbs: they do! She broke the news of her quitting there on the air without apparently warning anyone in advance (following her Lawrence of Arabia review). She had some pretty choice words for the 'liberals' there.

well, that's a trove that needs to be made available.

also, what megalomaniacal film kingpin named a villain in one of his late '80s productions after her?