Pauline Kael

Turns out I don't have a lot to say about the biography. Parts were fascinating, parts were surprisingly dull. The strength and weakness of the book is its focus on Kael's writing life. So the best part is the late 60s-early/mid 70s when movies exploded off the screen and her writing style blew up too. Kellow maintains a nice balance here between quoting reviews and cueing us into what happened in her life "behind the scenes." He did mega research yet in the end I was disappointed by the cursory treatment he gives her childhood. I'm enough of a movie buff and journalism junkie to understand why he skipped over events before she started writing but I'm also enough of a Freudian to believe that early family interaction shapes our lives. About half-way through Kellow writes, as an aside during a discussion of Kael's complex and troubling relationship with her daughter, that pauline and her two sisters were all emotionally distant from their children (according to one of her nieces). I was like, can we hear more about this please? It might explain some things. instead as the 70s turn into the 80s, the book winds down and becomes less life history and more chronicle of what movies she reviewed w/quotes. OK movies were her life and all but reading this sentence was rather ominous: "The summer of 1983 was an unrewarding time to be writing movie reviews." Of course burnout is an unavoidable occupational hazard for critics of any stripe so even the biography of a great critic has to reflect that, but I wonder if there wouldn't have been a way to render the second half of this book w/drama, narrative, anything besides "The first half of 1986 continued to bring few films that fully engaged Pauline."

Kellow shows admirable balance and restraint in dealing w/feuds, controversies and the paulette syndrome. Overall, if you're inclined to read this go ahead, you won't be disappointed. B+

"The first half of 1986 continued to bring few films that fully engaged Pauline."

oh barf. yeah, a biography really should require more than just having read her books

I'll still read it eventually, obv. But that part does sound lame.

Always think the second person is good from giving the feeling of a dream, nightmare, a ghost story.

i used to have a tape of a radio dramatization of 1984 where all the narration was converted into second-person: TEN YEARS IT HAS TAKEN YOU TO LEARN WHAT KIND OF SMILE LAY BEHIND THE DARK MOUSTACHE! O CRUEL, NEEDLESS MISUNDERSTANDING! O STUBBORN, SELF-WILLED EXILE FROM THE LOVING BREAST! BUT IT'S ALL RIGHT -- EVERYTHING IS ALL RIGHT. THE STRUGGLE IS FINISHED. YOU HAVE WON THE VICTORY OVER YOURSELF. pretty heavy stuff for a ten-year-old; i remember it way more vividly than the book.

Kellow is doing a thing at the Upper East Side B&N... tonight?... for interested NYers.

the second person V.O. worked really well in the film 'blast of silence.' really does make the film seem a little more nightmarish.

"The summer of 1983 was an unrewarding time to be writing movie reviews."

Lazy. You wouldn't know 1983 or 1986 were "unrewarding" from the quality of Kael's prose.

you would know it from the quality of some of the movies she reviewed though!

i kinda like that though. that she gave equal time and thought to a lot of stuff that came out around then that was just...terrible. nobody really even bothers anymore. to invest that much effort in deciphering hackwork.

I dunno, scott. We've discussed the singular dullness of eighties middlebrow Oscar bait but the real difference between the comedies and action movies of the seventies and eighties were the budgets.

I do understand a generational bias towards the '80s, which is no different than my generational bias towards the '70s. And when I list my favourite American films of the '80s, it's a really good list. Still, I think the majority of film critics would agree that there was more than budgetary differences between the two decades--that, in the aggregrate, the '70s were the better decade. (I'm not that big an action-film fan; you're probably right that action films were better in the '80s.)

I'm....wary of generalizations. It's possible that thirties comedy is superior to seventies (I do like more thirties comedies), but I won't let a writer off the hook by saying "1983 was less interesting than 1973." When these statements pop up in Pazz and Jop essays, they suggest burn-out and boredom. I roll my eyes and wonder why the editor keeps publishing the writer's work.

you're probably right that action films were better in the '80s.)

They weren't!

80s vs 70s action movies is pretty tough. you want to instinctively say the 70s were better, but if you stack em up movie by movie...

lol i just did the 'you' thing eugh

btw, in that Canadian TV interview I posted last week, she praises this screenwriter to the skies, who is probably best known for The Parallax View and her beloved '76 King Kong, but made his breakthrough as one of the chief writers on the Adam West Batman series:

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0783913/

(He's 88 and long retired, it appears.)

when are we gonna do the ilx action film ballot poll

we got plenty of comic book adaptation threads already

Currently, Semple and retired agent and producer Marcia Nasatir review movies on YouTube as the Reel Geezers.

haha awesome, i gotta check that out

Kael seems to be a huge fave for people who either have no interest in or hate ambitious cinema.

that guy worked on some pretty good movies. and he wrote flash gordon, which means its possible hes responsible for this line of dialogue:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msocV1aUlek

cool dude

i cant imagine who you're talking about...

don't feed the morbzbot

i mean i love the morbz just don't feed him...

Remember what happened to Hou Hsiao-Hsien when he showed up at Kael's door with a print of The Puppetmaster.

I don't! But Edward Yang's A Brighter Summer Day is getting its first-ever week's run in NYC, after 20 years.

I didn't mean anyone in particular, I jusdt wonder if The Wages of Fear and Seven Samurai are "action movies" (loathsome term).

When these statements pop up in Pazz and Jop essays, they suggest burn-out and boredom. I roll my eyes and wonder why the editor keeps publishing the writer's work.

I agree that non-stop complaining gets tired very quickly--it's a cliche by now, going back to Bangs's '81 or '82 ballot--but I don't agree with the idea that you ought to pack it in if what's going on now doesn't mean as much to you as what went on 10 or 20 years ago. If you still have something valid to say, and can say it in an interesting or funny or smart way, well, keep a goin'. (Admitting that I have to believe this, else I'm out of here.)

well, I've been saved, cuz there have been a huge number of quality films shown in NYC compared to '09 and '10, which I think were the worst two years I can recall.

I didn't mean anyone in particular, I jusdt wonder if The Wages of Fear and Seven Samurai are "action movies" (loathsome term).

― Dr Morbois de Bologne (Dr Morbius), Monday, November 7, 2011 3:22 PM (8 minutes ago) Bookmark

seven samurai would definitely (deservedly) win that hypothetical poll. curious what you find loathsome about the term

Cuz movies ARE action by nature?

lol i hate that (x) year/decade was better than (y) stuff. what i hate most of all is when someone rhapsodizes about an album or film being reflective of/essential in/important for "these uncertain/troubled times"

that's another thread entirely maybe.

I'm troubled and uncertain as to how I feel about this.

It was a bombshell for the Rutles. They were shocked... and stunned.

i guess i was reminded of that tedious cliche by this film review subheader on the village voice site.

Barely Skating By in Dragonslayer

A new kind of youth movie for these uncertain times

By Karina Longworth

what i hate most of all is when someone rhapsodizes about an album or film being reflective of/essential in/important for "these uncertain/troubled times"

truth

Dragonslayer is a pretty weird movie

I'm with morbz re: the term "action movie" tho

what i hate most of all is when someone rhapsodizes about an album or film being reflective of/essential in/important for "these uncertain/troubled times"

oh man that Big & Rich album got me through the turbulent mid-2000s

"These troubled and uncertain times" are probably the last five words I would ever expect to turn up in a Kael review.

i feel like maybe at one point albums actually did reflect that sort of thing, but people seem to really stretch for finding meaning as it pertains to current events sometimes. that rolling stone review of the new coldplay album is p hilarious in that regard.

I'm with morbz re: the term "action movie" tho

― The Uncanny Frankie Valley (Shakey Mo Collier), Monday, November 7, 2011 3:46 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark

i dunno i feel like its useful to have a term that encompasses all kinds of movies where dramatic conflict is rendered as a physical struggle. its like how a zillion different types of movies get to be 'comedies'

actioner

when was the "action movie" genre term coined...?

movies where dramatic conflict is rendered as a physical struggle

like when Andre Gregory and Wallace Shawn got into that fistfight at the end of My Dinner With Andre rite

inaction movie^^^

I doubt "action movie" was widely used until the industry had decided it had to aim for the priorities of a Schwarzenegger vehicle or Bad Boys instead of, say, Frankenheimer's The Train.

that's my guess/hazy memory too - I can't recall this term ever appearing prior to the 80s

my dinner with andre is psychological thriller.

I think the 80s also spawned my favorite genre term ever, the "erotic thriller"