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The Age of Movies: Selected Writings

(The Film Writings)

Pauline Kael,

Sanford Schwartz (Editor)

4.23 · Rating details · 191 ratings · 25 reviews

"Film criticism is exciting just because there is no formula to apply," Pauline Kael once observed, "just because you must use everything you are and everything you know." Between 1968 and 1991, as regular film reviewer for The New Yorker, Kael used those formidable tools to shape the tastes of a generation, enthralling readers with her gift for capturing, with force and f ...more

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Hardcover, 828 pages

Published October 27th 2011 by Library of America

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Jul 22, 2019 Greg rated it it was amazing

I've been on a bit of a Pauline Kael kick lately, seeing the documentary What She Said: The Art of Pauline Kael and then reading Pauline Kael: A Life in the Dark and now this book, which is a collection of reviews and essays covering her entire career, including "Movies, The Desperate Art," which was one of her first pieces on film (though not one of her better-written ones).

Though even a 786-page-book (excluding the acknowledgments page and the index) is missing some of her more outrageous and I've been on a bit of a Pauline Kael kick lately, seeing the documentary What She Said: The Art of Pauline Kael and then reading Pauline Kael: A Life in the Dark and now this book, which is a collection of reviews and essays covering her entire career, including "Movies, The Desperate Art," which was one of her first pieces on film (though not one of her better-written ones).

Though even a 786-page-book (excluding the acknowledgments page and the index) is missing some of her more outrageous and controversial reviews and essays ["Raising Kane" - excluded "for reasons of space" (Introduction, xxi), 2001, The Sound of Music, Shoah], it includes so much Kael, including her great article on Cary Grant ("The Man From Dream City") and her appreciations of Bonnie and Clyde and (of course) Last Tango in Paris, that if you only read this collection, you'll understand why she was considered the greatest movie critic of her time.
Roger Ebert might've been more famous (and less prone to using superlatives in his reviews, which became a more prominent feature of Kael's writing later in her career), but her reviews and essays are more in-depth, knowledgeable, and encompassing than what Ebert or, indeed, any newspaper reviewer at the time could or did do (she had a luxury -- and a liability -- in having William Shawn as an editor at the New Yorker, since he didn't hinder his writers verbosity by including word limits). In fact, Louise Brookes -- herself an excellent writer -- thought Kael was the best movie critic since James Agee (which is mentioned in Kael's biography).

For not only did she bring her personal experiences to bear on film, she also included her vast knowledge and appreciation of literature, plays, and operas. For example, she includes what Wagner said to the audience after the premier of Gotterdammerung in a review of Pennies from Heaven,, and she offers insight into "Billy Budd" the book when commenting on how the movie version misses the hidden evil of the captain -- an evil far less noticeable than that of Claggart, and all the more dangerous because of it.

If you're a movie lover (or a lover of criticism or a lover of great writing and analysis), I can't tell you which collection(s) of Kael's you should have on your shelf, but you should have at least one. And with her reviews much harder to find online than Ebert's (unless you have a subscription to the New Yorker), book collections like this one are the only way that readers who grew up after her heydey can discover her (she retired in 1991 and passed away in 2001). And yes, some of her views on race and gender and male/female relationships seem dated and even shocking now, but most of her writing has aged better than the majority of movies she reviewed, even when she disagreed with the current critical consensus (such as on Raging Bull, which she didn't like -- and having slogged through that film, I kinda found myself agreeing with her).

One more thing to note: the book mentions that some of the reviews in this collection were part of larger articles in which Kael reviewed several other films. Not including them can be a bit odd when she's referencing them in other parts of the review, but unless the Library of America wanted to come out with a multi-volume book of her work, this was a wise decision. It also highlights films where her critical writing was at its best, removing it from other films which might not have needed her deep critical insight. ...more

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Aug 29, 2019 Al Bità rated it liked it · review of another edition

The earliest entry in this compilation of Kael’s work is dated 1955, and the last is dated 19 November 1990 — so we have here a cross-section of her comments, reviews and opinions on Cinema in the United States covering 35 years. The text part of her writings is a rather hefty 788 pages in length, so there’s lots of reading involved!

Historically, the 35 years covered are dealing with many major developments in Cinema internationally. Kael is dealing specifically with the US situation, but is als The earliest entry in this compilation of Kael’s work is dated 1955, and the last is dated 19 November 1990 — so we have here a cross-section of her comments, reviews and opinions on Cinema in the United States covering 35 years. The text part of her writings is a rather hefty 788 pages in length, so there’s lots of reading involved!

Historically, the 35 years covered are dealing with many major developments in Cinema internationally. Kael is dealing specifically with the US situation, but is also well aware of what was going on elsewhere in the world of cinema. I suspect that her major aim was to inform her readers on some of the finer points of film appreciation, and to refine their critical evaluations of the movies in general.

There is no doubt that Kael loved the movies, and her exuberance is clearly reflected in her work. To say her knowledge of the movies was encyclopaedic is surely somewhat of an understatement: her analyses of various aspects of the movies will often set her off on a flurry of references and comparisons which are often dazzling in their extent. Whether you actually like what she might be saying, however, will depend on your own knowledge, and whether you liked what she disliked, and vice versa. Her position regarding some aspect of the movies is intensely individualistic, and tightly agued, so if you disagree with her, you will need to be able to back your own view with equal rigour. A master of the acerbic adjective or caustic comment, she can infuriate as well as delight — and therein lies her speciality.

Historically, this collection will be a useful addition to a film buff’s library. Much has changed in the development of cinema during the 35 year of her writing, and she seems to be well aware of the ideas developed at various times during that period. She will place movements within a cinematic context; compare performances by specific actors and actresses; complain about the undue influences of corporate control which might interfere with true artistic freedom; criticise both audiences and critics alike if they simply go along with more popular entertainments, and vice versa praise those films disregarded by many by pointing out what one should be on the lookout for — again, very exciting and even thrilling if you agree with her; but irritating and provocative is you disagree.

If there is one thing in favour of all that Kael stood for, it is that she sets the bar very high indeed when it comes to considering cinema as an Art form. She expects her readers to share her ideals. Since 1990 even more changes have been made in what we normally consider to be the “movies”, and which are stretching the very idea of what it all means, what with so many varying techniques and technologies tugging in so many directions, more or less haphazardly. I would like to say that current and future generations of filmmakers would be able to appreciate where Kael is coming from, but I am a little too cynical at the moment. I suspect most film students today might find her too “old-fashioned” for their taste.

Much of what Kael criticised negatively during her time could apply equally to the present status of the industry, wherein I find too much of an emphasis on brilliant techniques and craftsmanship on just about every level, but not nearly enough on transcending those achievements and achieving something more akin to greatness as Cinematic Art. Perhaps only time will tell. ...more

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Jun 10, 2020 Lynn rated it it was amazing

This book is a huge anthology of movie reviews that were originally printed in The New Yorker and then in other books. The reviews chosen for this book were the nice ones, hey they were all nice and I misread when I was younger. She was known to be caustic and contrary which made her famous. I picked up this book after seeing the documentary, What She Said: The Art of Pauline Kael. Her writing on films and film books are from 1959-1990. The essays are so insightful and so good they made me smile ...more

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Oct 02, 2014 Antigone rated it it was amazing

Shelves: essays-shorts

This Library of America volume presents a generous selection of Kael's essays culled from ten collections published during the course of her lifetime. To say they are confined to film review, film history and the state of the film industry is to sell them quite short. She was as much an observer of humanity as were the movies she took aim at. In fact, I think her sharpest skill may have rested in her unique ability to untangle the sinuous threads of juxtaposition that frequently confused the two This Library of America volume presents a generous selection of Kael's essays culled from ten collections published during the course of her lifetime. To say they are confined to film review, film history and the state of the film industry is to sell them quite short. She was as much an observer of humanity as were the movies she took aim at. In fact, I think her sharpest skill may have rested in her unique ability to untangle the sinuous threads of juxtaposition that frequently confused the two. Beyond this, Kael was an earnest and manifestly adept writer who would undoubtedly have been celebrated no matter the subject of her discourse. Glad am I to find she'd chosen to concentrate on her passion, which was art and creative communication.

From Alchemy:

No one has aged better on camera than Brando; he gradually takes Don Vito to the close of his life, when he moves into the sunshine world, a sleepy monster, near to innocence again. The character is all echoes and shadings, and no noise; his strength is in that armor of quiet. Brando has lent Don Vito some of his own mysterious, courtly reserve: the character is not explained; we simply assent to him and believe that, yes, he could become a king of the underworld. Brando doesn't dominate the movie, yet he gives the story the legendary presence needed to raise it above gang warfare to archetypal tribal warfare.

From Notes on Evolving Heroes, Morals, Audiences:

In primitive societies, and in this country until quite recently, a man proved his courage by exposing himself to a dangerous test. If there's any equivalent to that now, it's exposing himself to the danger of going crazy - so crazy that he loses the capacity to feel. (And women do it too.)

Historically people have recognized strong individuals as heroes or heroines by their willingness to accept the responsibility for their acts. And in the past if a movie hero broke the law because he felt he had to, we could respect him for it, because we knew - as he did - that there would be consequences, and not only legal and social consequences but moral ones, too. Now we're in a period when we know that most wrongdoing - the worst wrongdoing especially - isn't socially punished. And it's terribly apparent that the wrongdoers face no moral consequences. So it's not surprising that the standard action-movie heroes today aren't men who, after searching their consciences, violate the law; the heroes now are lawbreakers at heart. What appears to separate them from the villains is that they're lawbreakers trying to confirm that they're courageous men.

The films and filmmakers she wrote about run the gamut - from Fellini to Spielberg, Breathless to Yentl. Each essay is substantial, complex, evocative, and demands individual attention. Several were a joy to read, a few well worth remembering. Among the many stars in the firmament of film critique, Pauline Kael shines brightest - and for good reason.

...more

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Jul 06, 2019 Chuck rated it really liked it

I don't know if there's a writer who has influenced my life more than Pauline Kael. I fell in love with her reviews when I stumbled across her first book when I was 12. I used to wait for the NEW YORKER to arrive to read her during her annual six-month stints as its movie critic; part of the reason I moved to Boston was to study film and BE her. (A story for another time.) If she loved a movie, I had to see it. She certainly impacted my taste, and even my writing style, for whatever that's worth ...more

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Oct 18, 2011 Roy Kenagy marked it as to-read

Excellent essay on the life & work of the late New Yorker film critic Pauline Kael http://nyr.kr/ozllzR Probably prompted by the issue of a compilation of her reviews by Library of America http://bit.ly/pOxFUH ...more

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Jun 11, 2013 Duane Dunkerson rated it it was ok

The Age of Movies, Selected Writings of Pauline Kael

Pauline Kael and Our Un Peu Culture
Pauline Kael did indeed lose it at the movies. She lost "it" in a sexual sense as implied by her first book's title. Other titles of her movie review collections in book form had a sexual connotation. Certainly movies had become her passion. One can affirm that her loss was akin to losing virginity. She did swoon over some films like the effect on her was sexual. To use Mr. Ebert's term - she was "knocked-up ...more

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Apr 05, 2020 Thomas Radigan rated it really liked it

And you probably weren't meant to, unless you saw all the movies listed in this volume. I did read the ones for the movies I had seen, as well as some I did not but were regarded as classics. Agree with her opinions or not, she manages to raise interesting points when she writes at length.

My favorite review was one of the modern western "Hud", a movie I did not see but was made interesting by her contrasting her own childhood on a California cattle ranch with the movie story of the Texas cattle ...more

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Jun 15, 2017 Mike Mikulski rated it really liked it

I enjoyed reading this collection. At first I was distracted by the many references to films, directors and actors I've never seen or heard of. But after settling in, I enjoyed Kael's insights into movies. Kael was frustrated by movies that did not show or create true emotion and by Hollywood's focus on box office and its influence on film more than any other art. She loved Truffault, Brando, Olivier, Grant and Astaire. A similar admiration for great actresses was missing from this collection. I ...more

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Feb 17, 2021 Ashley Jane rated it liked it

Shelves: 2021

Even when I disagreed, I always found it interesting to read her thoughts.
My favourite review was her one of E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial. It was actually really quite touching and I wasn't expecting it. Besides my friends, I do not follow the writings of any living film critics. But I'm always curious to know Pauline Kael's opinion. ...more

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Mar 30, 2020 Matt rated it it was amazing

4.5 stars

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Mar 01, 2017 Andy Mascola rated it really liked it

A greatest hits collection of Kael reviews & essays from 1955-90. Good stuff!‬

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Feb 28, 2012 Tim rated it it was amazing

Shelves: nonfiction

I have always been a Paulette--in fact, I can remember the first review of her I read and noticed, of Brian De Palma's "Dressed to Kill"--and I've been working my way through this posthumous anthology with pure enjoyment. Why can't all criticism be this exciting, this much fun? And she's so smart about so many things, especially about the role of pleasure and the artistic experience.

In reading some of these pieces, most of which I'd read ages and ages ago, I've realized that she may have given I have always been a Paulette--in fact, I can remember the first review of her I read and noticed, of Brian De Palma's "Dressed to Kill"--and I've been working my way through this posthumous anthology with pure enjoyment. Why can't all criticism be this exciting, this much fun? And she's so smart about so many things, especially about the role of pleasure and the artistic experience.

In reading some of these pieces, most of which I'd read ages and ages ago, I've realized that she may have given me the courage to embrace genre fiction and "trashy" movies over Literature (with a capital L) and Art. Just today, I came across this line, in her celebrated long piece, "Trash, Art, and the Movies": "If a movie is interesting primarily in terms of technique then it isn't worth talking about except to students who can learn from seeing how a good director works....for the greatest movie artists where there is a unity of technique and subject, one doesn't need to talk about technique much because it has been subsumed in the arts. One doesn't want to talk about how Tolstoi got his effect but about the work itself; One doesn't want to talk about how Jean Renoir does it; one wants to talk about what he has done."

She talks at lengths about the vulgar coarseness of the movies--which "took their impetus from the peep show, the Wild West show, the music hall, the comic strip--from what was coarse and common." And goes on to say (and this reminded me of how I used to alternate between "real" literature and mystery novels, but generally anticipating the fun reading over the serious): "Perhaps the single most intense pleasure of moviegoing is this non aesthetic one of escaping from the responsibilities having the proper responses required of us in our official (school) culture."

Put another way: The minute I hear the words "an important film" or "an important book," I pop in the one DVD I own: "Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby."

This is a terrific book; only about 600 pages to go!

-----------
Found this priceless quote in the "Trash" essay: "I don't trust who doesn't admit having at some time of his life enjoyed trashy American movies; I don't any of the tastes of the people who were born with such good taste that they didn't need to find their way through trash." ...more

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Oct 24, 2011 Jeff rated it really liked it

Shelves: film-crit

Cavils: it doesn't recuperate unreprinted published material (like her first review, of Limelight), of which there's not so much as to forbid it, nor does it well-judge a much-needed selection from her big effort, the book-length analysis of the Welles-Mankewicz collaboration on Citizen Kane that got her into trouble with academics when she filched a few ideas she didn't scrupulously credit, and which she apparently would have spun quite differently, were the publication of the scholarly source ...more

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Dec 27, 2012 Brett rated it it was amazing

Having been quite dedicated to cinema and film criticism for all of my adult life I thought it might be prudent to finally bone up on the writings of one of America's most famed and controversial critics. This volume is a perfect overview of Kael's career being a collection of selections from her published work (mostly for the New Yorker).

Kael is ultimately a fascinating critic for me not in what I agree with (her love of specific actors and recognition that filmmaking is a collaborative process ...more

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Dec 17, 2013 Catherine rated it really liked it

Over the Christmas break, there was some long, juicy reading to be had in the form of The Age of Movies: Selected Writings of Pauline Kael. It was a good time to read something reflective, discursive, funny, and fitting for the film festival season. I miss her voice - highly critical but also respectful, funny, witty, and joyous. She really loved movies. Best quote from the book: “And for women, if the roof leaks, or the car stalls…you may long for a Clark Gable to take charge, but when you thin ...more

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Oct 16, 2013 Kate rated it liked it

Shelves: did-not-finish

I only got through about a fifth of the "selected writings" from this 800-plus-page tome. I can happily say that I'm more familiar with Kael's work now, and I hope to buy this book someday when I have more shelf space, and really read each essay. Of the essays I got through, I enjoyed her writing on Orson Welles and Bonnie and Clyde most. I did NOT understand her hatred for West Side Story. I mean really, who could hate it that much?!

...more

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Feb 26, 2012 Leonard rated it liked it

I didn't read much of this book, but scanned it and since I'm a fan of Pauline Kael's film reviews and even received a letter from her once when I wrote and disagreed with one of her reviews, specifically the one on the film Ghandi. I amy come back to this again and again which is why I placed it on my list. ...more

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Apr 30, 2014 Tony rated it really liked it

Great read. Especially her insights into the emergence of independent cinema running counter to the studio system. She saw it early, and championed that movements' artists.
Fun book you can pick up at any section and dive into a smart essay. ...more

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Nov 18, 2012 Christian Hamaker rated it it was amazing

Nearly two years to the day since I added this book to my GoodReads "currently reading" titles, I finished it, although I'm almost certain I've had it on my end table longer than two years.

It's as good as you've heard. Better, even. ...more

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Sep 05, 2014 Barbara rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: great-book-resolution-2015, library-books

I liked it, but it felt like work from to time to time. And sometimes, even I do not care about the films she's writing about. My interest perks up when I have seen the film. Try a later review. ...more

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Feb 01, 2016 Joe W. rated it it was amazing

One of America's unsung thinkers...Paglia without the hoopla...with sharp insights into the culture via its most successful art form, the film. ...more

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May 14, 2012 Olivia rated it it was amazing

Sharp, insightful film reviews and essays. I wish we still had Kael's voice critiquing current releases. ...more

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Jun 30, 2013 Anna rated it really liked it

She's so snobby. I love it! ...more

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About Pauline Kael

Pauline Kael

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Pauline Kael was an American film critic who wrote for The New Yorker magazine from 1968 to 1991. She was known for her "witty, biting, highly opinionated, and sharply focused" movie reviews. She approached movies emotionally, with a strongly colloquial writing style. She is often regarded as the most influential American film critic of her day and made a lasting impression on other major critics ...more