Pauline Kael

I think the Kael thread is over.

it was over when they started talking about boring novelists

can't remember if there was any 'flippant banter' in this one lol

(actually i'd like to see a poll of what morbs calls "ambitious films" upthread -- though the battle to establish an agreed-on definition might destroy us all)

just like aguirre!

Nashville, first two Godfathers, Intolerance, the Apu trilogy, On the Waterfront, The Wild Bunch, The Unbearable Lightness of Being...whether or not you think they did what they set out to do or fell woefully short, they're all pretty ambitious, no?

I dunno if Waterfront is *that* ambitious, at least as ambition is defined by the other films listed there. I love it and all, but its a fairly straightforward drama no matter how much emphasis you choose to place on Kazan's issues.

it's likely one of the first A-pictures cast almost entirely with NY Method actors.

I was being a bit disingenuous yesterday, in that I agree with Morbius that she had less patience for high ambition the last few years of her career. I don't think it's a fair charge through the '60s, '70s, or most of the '80s.

I was talking mostly about ppl who latch onto her NOW -- yay, she likes American junk and not that weird Antonioni shit. But she doesn't seem to have liked many '60s European auteurs besides Godard (to a point).

She loved L'Avventura, The Leopard, some Truffaut films, Bellochio, Bertolucci, Chris Marker, other stuff; not Fellini, Resnais, Pasolini, or most of Anotonioni's output. She was back and forth on Bergman. I agree she's now thought of as being anti-European-art-film, and that some people gravitate to her for that reason, but I think it's an exaggerated characterization.

i can't remember her writing about bunuel, but she must have somewhere, right?

The one criticism of Kael I'll accept is that she didn't bother with Fassbinder or Ozu – how could you review film in the seventies and not write about the six or seven Fassbinder films playing in a given year?

She loved Buñuel - one of her favorites.

i can't remember her writing about bunuel, but she must have somewhere, right?

her rave for discreet charm made me check it out

I wasn't sure whether to mention Bunuel--yes, Spanish born, Mexico later. Anyway, I think she generally wrote favorably about Bunuel.

well there ya go he was ambitious and arty and european. and tons of fun.

Her long review of Simon of the Desert contains some of her most considered judgments.

if he were around today hollywood would have lured him here to direct chris tucker movies.

It was Fassbinder she never wrote a single word about, the last I heard.

She alluded to him in a Sirk review.

i never hear anyone anywhere talking about fellini anymore. or pasolini or antonioni or any of those guys. maybe i hang with the wrong people. 70's american movies though? i hear about that stuff all the time from people. all kinds of obscure american 70's movies.

i'm the same way though, sadly. dr morbz' nightmare american film fan. when was the last time i watched a fassbinder movie? 20+ years? something like that.

All That Heaven Allows

US (1955): Drama
89 min, No rating, Color, Available on videocassette

A trashy love story about the attraction between a natural man (Rock Hudson, as a New England tree surgeon) and a frustrated-by-respectability rich widow (Jane Wyman) who is some fifteen years older than he and has two grown children. Hudson and Wyman are hardly an electric combination, but this Ross Hunter production is made with so much symbolism that some people actually see it as allegorical. Its reputation derives from the slurpy, peculiarly glossy intensity of Douglas Sirk's direction-the same sort of pop spirituality that he had brought to Ross Hunter's MAGNIFICENT OBSESSION, with the same two stars, the year before. Sirk's blend of Germanic kitsch and Hollywood kitsch was a major influence on the young German director Fassbinder, whose work is a further formalization of Sirk's schematic sentimentality.

Did she ever review (or mention) Tarkovsky? I think she missed him too.

Did she ever change her mind about anything in later life and realized that she had missed something, for instance see that Douglas Sirk had a little more than just "a talent for whipping up sour, stylized soap operas in posh settings"? Oh wait, she couldn't since she never watched anything more than once, or has that been debunked?

"a talent for whipping up sour, stylized soap operas in posh settings" isn't wrong though!

It's not wrong, but it's kind of damning with faint praise.

Tarkovsky and Fassbinder both tiresome bores

granted the only Fassbinder I've tried to watch was Berlin Alexanderplantz

that's deep, Shakes.

at least they're both dead

http://www.inspiredcardandgift.co.uk/images/graphiccontribution.jpg

The strawman awakes

all that heaven allows is a very weird movie. jane wyman bums me out in a big way. blah.

do guys really want me to go in on Berlin Alexanderplantz cuz I will

xp

when was the last time anyone watched a lina wertmuller movie?

do guys really want me to go in on Berlin Alexanderplantz cuz I will

I didn't get past the third episode but he's got 15,000 other movies in every genre, so man the fuck up and start watching.

heck, when was the last time someone watched a roberto rossellini movie? actually i could kinda go for one right about now. he made so many movies that i've never seen.

You might actually like World on a Wire, Shakey. It's got some Jerry Cornelius stuff going on.

Not really, but you still might like it.

Shakey really raising rongness to new heights lately.

Lotsa people watched Rossellini after reading this:

http://www.slantmagazine.com/dvd/review/roberto-rossellinis-war-trilogy/1653

looks like World on a Wire is not available in the US...?

i think i have still never seen any rossellini films

shakey it just had a theatrical run in certain cities (its first US one, i think? it was made-for-tv), i imagine criterion will be putting it out soon since janus distro'ed it

Too bad you're not Jonathan Rosenbaum, Shakey.

i would buy that war trilogy set if i ever saw one. i doubt i'll see one around here anywhere, but you never know. i might have to go to the dreaded newbury comix in northampton.

I watched Germany Year Zero a few years back and was bummed out for days.

Did she ever change her mind about anything in later life and realized that she had missed something,

offhand i can't think of a notable example mentioned in the bio. maybe. she placed tremendous importance & pride on only seeing movies once, tho

did any of her interviewers ask her about this?

there's something in afterglow about it