Pauline Kael: Self - Critic
Photos
Quotes
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Pauline Kael : People don't tend to like the good critic. They tend to hate your guts.
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Pauline Kael : The process is simply of thinking, really. I mean, writing is simply, you know, putting down what you think. And to be paid for thinking and to know that you're doing something that may even have some value that, you know, some other people might enjoy that process and share it with you, I mean, that's *marvelous* way to live. I mean, I can't think of any better way to live.
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Pauline Kael : If they like you, I think you should start getting worried.
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Pauline Kael : I think its very difficult for a woman particularly to go out with a man that she disagrees with sharply in matters of taste; because it really does offend all his macho sense, and, particularly, say 20 or 30 years ago, if he was buying the tickets and if he was paying date. Even if he liked you to be bright and sharp and funny, he didn't like any basic disagreements. Now, I broke that over "West Side Story."
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Pauline Kael : In the arts, women are accepted. They've always been accepted in the theater. But criticism, since it involves analytic intelligence and rationale use of one's intellect, that hits exactly where men have always wanted to believe that women were less gifted. Its one thing to show sensitivity and talent; I mean, men like that in women. But, it is very, very difficult for men to accept the idea that women can argue reasonably.
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Pauline Kael : Horror films have reached this kind of rut. I don't enjoy them any more. Partly, that's because eight years of living in New York makes you so fearful and nervous anyway, that horror films just really scare the heck out of me. I can't stand them any more! I mean, I don't want anything to add to the nightmare atmosphere of New York were you're afraid you're not going to make it home safely, anyway. Particularly a middle-aged, dumpy, little woman whose just perfect for somebody to knock over.
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Pauline Kael : Without critics you have nothing but advertisers. So, it's the job of the critic, in terms of a social function, to try to alert people and interest them in anything that's really new or innovative, that spells the future of an art form. Because, a few critics doing that, the advertisers will keep everything stagnant. Because, if they can sell anything, if there are no dissenting voices, movies will not advance any way.
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Pauline Kael : I think some people make the mistake of wanting to drop on everything and say, "Not as good as Eisenstein." When the important thing is to see how movies are used by people and what needs they satisfy. Some of the greatest pleasures I've had have been from pretty terrible pictures.
