Pauline Kael

Pauline Kael
Rollins Maxwell · Public domain · source
Name	Pauline Kael
Birth date	March 19, 1919
Birth place	Petoskey, Michigan
Death date	September 3, 2001
Death place	Great Barrington, Massachusetts
Occupation	Film critic, essayist
Years active	1950s–1990s
Notable works	"Notes on the New Cinema", "I Lost It at the Movies", "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang"

Pauline Kael was an influential American film critic and essayist whose sharp, opinionated reviews reshaped film criticism in the United States. Writing primarily for The New Yorker from 1968 to 1991 and for numerous other periodicals, she championed directors of the New Hollywood era while fiercely disputing auteurist orthodoxy favored by contemporary critics and scholars. Her prose combined vivid sensory detail, cultural commentary, and combative taste-making that affected audiences, filmmakers, and publications such as The New Republic, McCall's, and The New Yorker.

Early life and education

Kael was born in Petoskey, Michigan and raised in Marquette, Michigan, where her family background included ties to Poland and the broader Eastern Europe immigrant experience. She attended University of Michigan before transferring to University of California, Berkeley and later enrolling at Columbia University in New York City for graduate work. During her early years she lived in cultural hubs such as San Francisco and New York City, where she encountered the work of filmmakers and critics associated with institutions like Museum of Modern Art and festivals such as the Venice Film Festival.

Career beginnings and film criticism

Kael began writing about cinema for local San Francisco publications, contributing to outlets including McCall's and regional magazines before gaining national attention. Her 1965 anthology "I Lost It at the Movies" helped establish her voice alongside contemporaries like Andrew Sarris, Bosley Crowther, and Roger Ebert. In 1968 she joined the staff of The New Yorker, succeeding critics who had written for publications such as The New York Times and Time (magazine), and became a prominent voice commenting on directors including Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola, Alfred Hitchcock, Jean-Luc Godard, and Ingmar Bergman. She wrote notable essays about films and filmmakers featured at events like the Cannes Film Festival and the Berlin International Film Festival.

Writing style and critical approach

Kael's style blended conversational cadence with polemical urgency, often invoking cultural touchstones such as Jazz, Rock and Roll, and contemporaneous literary figures like Truman Capote and Norman Mailer. She critiqued auteur theory promoted by critics associated with Cahiers du Cinéma and analysts like André Bazin, responding to proponents such as Andrew Sarris with an emphasis on emotional response, psychological detail, and moral imagination. Her reviews engaged with films from movements including French New Wave, Italian Neorealism, and New Hollywood and addressed works by artists such as Stanley Kubrick, Orson Welles, Charlie Chaplin, John Ford, and Akira Kurosawa. Kael's essays often debated cinematic realism and formal innovation exemplified in films like "2001: A Space Odyssey" and "The Godfather", while referencing institutions such as Columbia Pictures and Warner Bros..

Major controversies and public reception

Kael courted controversy through public feuds with critics and filmmakers: her arguments with Andrew Sarris over critical criteria, her disputes with Stanley Kubrick admirers about "A Clockwork Orange", and her contentious take on Citizen Kane provoked responses from figures like Orson Welles and scholars at UCLA and Harvard University. Her 1971 essay "Trash, Art, and the Movies" and later polemics about films such as "Bonnie and Clyde" and "Star Wars" generated backlash from readers, columnists at The New York Times, rivals including Pauline Kael criticizers and supporters among directors like Robert Altman and Paul Schrader. Major media outlets including Time (magazine), Newsweek, and The New York Review of Books debated her positions, and her influence affected awards patterns at institutions like the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and Major festivals such as Cannes Film Festival.

Later career, legacy, and influence

After retiring from regular criticism at The New Yorker in 1991, Kael continued publishing collections and occasional pieces collected in volumes such as "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang" and "Reeling". Her influence endures in the work of later critics including Emanuel Levy, Andrew O'Hehir, and David Denby, and in academic discussions at institutions like Yale University, Columbia University, and New York University. Filmmakers such as Martin Scorsese, Quentin Tarantino, Paul Thomas Anderson, and Steven Spielberg have acknowledged the cultural climate she helped shape, while film studies programs at universities from UCLA to Stanford University continue to teach debates she engaged with about interpretation, taste, and the role of the critic. Pauline Kael's archives and correspondence are held by repositories and special collections associated with places like Harvard University and regional libraries, ensuring her essays remain central to discussions of 20th-century cinema and cultural criticism.

Category:American film critics Category:20th-century American writers