WHAT SHE SAID: THE ART OF PAULINE KAEL

2018 - USA - 95 MINUTES - COLOUR - 1,85: 1
A FILM BY ROB GARVER
VOICE OF PAULINE: SARAH JESSICA PARKER

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“The most powerful, loved, and hated film critic of her time.” – Roger Ebert on Pauline Kael (1919-2001).

In a field that has historically embraced few women film critics, Kael was charismatic, controversial, witty, and discerning. Her decades-long berth at The New Yorker energized her fans (“Paulettes”) and infuriated her detractors on a weekly basis. Her turbo-charged prose famously championed the New Hollywood Cinema of the late 1960s and ‘70s (BONNIE AND CLYDE, NASHVILLE, CARRIE, TAXI DRIVER) and the work of major European directors (François Truffaut, Bernardo Bertolucci), while mercilessly panning some of the biggest studio hits (THE SOUND OF MUSIC, MIDNIGHT COWBOY, DIRTY HARRY). Her creepy battle with Andrew Sarris and his auteur theory was legendary, and her stint in Hollywood, trying her hand at producing, was a disaster. Sarah Jessica Parker reads from Kael’s reviews; filmmakers Quentin Tarantino, Paul Schrader, and Francis Ford Coppola and critics Camille Paglia, Molly Haskell, Greil Marcus, and David Edelstein speak to her enormous gifts and influence.

 

“a reverent retrospective of critic who could make or break careers” - Toronto Star

“a sight to see” - Brief Take

“She was a one-of-a-kind critic” - Times Of Israel

“captures the critic's incendiary and multi-faceted life” - National Post