Pauline Kael

Pauline Kael. She was an American film critic whose sharp, combative, and deeply personal writing for The New Yorker from 1968 to 1991 made her one of the most influential and polarizing voices in cinema. Championing the visceral energy of the New Hollywood movement while often clashing with the critical establishment, her work was characterized by its conversational prose, passionate advocacy, and merciless takedowns. Kael's collected reviews and essays, such as I Lost It at the Movies and Deeper into Movies, remain foundational texts in film criticism, and her mentorship of a group of critics known as the "Paulettes" extended her impact for decades.

Early life and education

Born in Petaluma, California, she was raised on a chicken farm and developed an early love for theater and film. She attended the University of California, Berkeley in the late 1930s, studying philosophy and literature but left without a degree. During the 1940s and 1950s, she worked various jobs, including managing a Berkeley art cinema and writing program notes, while publishing film criticism in small magazines like City Lights. Her first major break came when her essay on the decline of movie audiences was published in Partisan Review, catching the attention of editors at McCall's, where she had a brief, tumultuous stint.

Career at The New Yorker

In 1968, editor William Shawn hired her as a film critic for The New Yorker, a position she held, with one brief interruption, for over two decades. Her tenure there defined an era, as she published long, immersive reviews that often ran counter to the prevailing opinions of other major critics like Vincent Canby of The New York Times. She famously championed early works by directors like Brian De Palma and Robert Altman, and her review of Bonnie and Clyde is credited with helping to revive the film's commercial prospects. Her departure from the magazine in 1991, after publishing a controversial review of Thelma & Louise, marked the end of a singular chapter in American arts journalism.

Critical style and influence

Her prose was noted for its energetic, colloquial, and often first-person style, rejecting dry academic analysis in favor of conveying the immediate experience of watching a film. She was a fervent advocate for the auteur theory, though she applied it idiosyncratically, celebrating directors like Sam Peckinpah and Jean-Luc Godard while dismissing others like Stanley Kubrick. This approach, combined with her withering dismissals of films she deemed phony or middlebrow, earned her a reputation as a critic who wrote for the common viewer yet possessed formidable intellectual rigor. Her influence was institutionalized through her disciples, the so-called "Paulettes", who populated major publications like The New York Times, The Boston Phoenix, and New York magazine.

Notable reviews and controversies

Her review of Nashville was a landmark piece of ecstatic praise that helped cement Robert Altman's reputation. Conversely, her pan of The Sound of Music famously began with the line "The sound of money," and she dismissed Shoeshine as sentimental. A major controversy erupted from her essay "Raising Kane," which argued that the screenplay for Citizen Kane owed more to Herman J. Mankiewicz than to Orson Welles, provoking fierce backlash from the film community. Her passionate defense of Last Tango in Paris and her later, pre-release review of the disastrous Heaven's Gate also generated significant debate and professional criticism.

Later years and legacy

After retiring from regular criticism, she published several more collections, including 5001 Nights at the Movies, an essential reference guide. She received numerous honors, such as a George Polk Award and a special National Book Award for Deeper into Movies. Her legacy is complex; she is celebrated for democratizing film criticism with her vibrant prose and for her pivotal role in defining the cinematic taste of the 1970s, yet also criticized for a sometimes bullying style and for fostering a school of imitative criticism. Modern critics like Wesley Morris and institutions like the New York Film Critics Circle continue to grapple with her towering, contentious influence on the art of reviewing film.

Category:American film critics Category:National Book Award winners Category:Writers from California