[lbo-talk] Re: Edelstein on Altman

Brian Charles Dauth magcomm at ix.netcom.com
Fri Nov 24 10:02:41 PST 2006



> Just curious: what do you think of Pauline Kael?

Not much.

She saw films as trashy fun. She was more of a reviewer than critic.

Her avowed mission was to save film from being conceived of as art. She was fiercely and proudly anti-intellectual (which accounts for her popularity in certain circle). Whenever a filmmaker she championed started getting too much serious regard, she turned on him -- Altman, Scorsese, Coppola, DePalma to cite just four examples.

She was also thoroughly anti-auteurist. She just saw movies once and said that is all anyone ever needed to see a movie to know all about it.

The lack of rigour in her writing is appalling.

Brian



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