I Lost it at the Movies

I bought this book, along Kael's 5001 NIGHTS AT THE MOVIES (capsule reviews) and its sister collection DEEPER INTO MOVIES as a used book b/c it's out-of-print(!), after getting into an online discussion about movies...and realizing the "critics" being bruited about were Rex Reed and Ain't It Cool News! When I mentioned Kael, who I'd read in THE NEW YORKER from the mid-Seventies through the Nineties along with owning copies of all her collections up to REELING from my college days, I got a lot of "Who's she, anyway?" Since my college collection of Kael paperbacks had long since succumbed to age or being lost while moving, I realized it was past time to start repurchasing them.Simply put, Pauline Kael ranks alongside James Agee, Manny Farber, Dorothy Parker, Andrew Sarris and Frank Rich as one of the greatest American critics of the Twentieth Century. Unlike too many "movie reviewers" who think a snappy quip is all that's required, Kael gave intense analysis even to films she disliked intensely, so that her judgements were highly nuanced and thought through. Her insight into the shift in filmmaking and film consumption in the mid-late Twentieth Century, coupled with understanding of earlier movie eras, helps clarify the Sixties American switch from "movies" to "cinema"...and back again during the Reagan Eighties. She was a lifelong "movie lover" with the intelligence to comprehend the meaning of non-mainstream "cinema" - and the wisdom to know when its praise was earned, and when it was just pseudointellectual cliquishness.This first collection is, in many ways, Kael's most "critique-y", containing a series of long articles on topics like the growing "cinerati" fondness for films with oblique narratives like LAST YEAR AT MARIENBAD or LA NOTTE ("Zeitgeist and Poltergeist"), the "deep cinema" movies that were in their way as fraudulent as Hollywood's worst ("Fantasies of the Art House Audience"), and even a lengthy swipe at McCarthyism's corruption of Hollywood which should be required reading for Ann Coulter and every other "HUAC apologist" ("Morality Plays Right and Left"). There are also witty and thoughtful reviews of both "arthouse" and popular films of the mid-Fifties through mid-Sixties.I cannot recommend this book highly enough - and I urge some US publisher to reprint her entire ouerve, and Amazon to "Kindleize" her work so that a new generation can appreciate the greatness of spirit that was Pauline Kael.

I have nearly all her books. This is good but not in her top ten.

I've always liked most of Ms Kael's reviews and reading how s and why she came to the conclusions she did was interesting.

Excellent read

Pauline Kael is the critics Critic. Her reviews, whether or not you agree with some of them, she still has the gift of insight and if she says a picture is bad, it is really bad, and if she lauds a picture, go see it. If you are a cinema buff, this book is for you.

Great book by great critic. Rare paperback.

Need to saw reading. Its very comprehensive

Kael, obviously, had several insightful things to say about movies, however, she didn't like my favorite musical of all time - West Side Story! She didn't like the music, didn't like the dancing and didn't care for the story. Also, she didn't like The Bridge on the River Kwai! She thought the ending was bad. Anyway, if you want to learn about French Cinema, which she, simply, adores, then this book is for you. In the end, I felt sorry for her. How can anyone not love West Side Story?

Kael is one of those critics whose prose is so entertaining and whose insights are so laser accurate, that you don't even have needed to see the films to enjoy her praise or denunciations. These reviews capture the very eve of when many American movies were absorbing European realism and alienation, which would flower in the late 60's and 1970's with Kael as their greatest tribune and scold.

This is a masterclass in cinema studies. Pauline Kael’s reviews are not just about the film, but are in social context. Her knowledge amazes me. For a cinema student like me, her books are a treasure.

Pauline Karl's writings are to the point and informative. And after reading the book, the idea of illusion exists about Hollywood Movies by the Asian mind may/will be changed.