Customer Reviews

Conversations With Pauline Kael (Literary Conversations Series)

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Pauline Kael gave us hundreds of excellently written and thought provoking movie reviews, and yet since she retired from The New Yorker, there is still an intense yearning to hear what she has to say about recent movies. One never wants her to stop writing. This book is an entertaining collection of articles and interviews that were collected through the years, many of them taken from hard to find magazines. The wonderful thing that this book shows about Pauline Kael is that she talks almost exactly like she writes--an interviewer may ask her a relatively simple question, and she'll answer in her ever-playful way that will take up at least a half page of text. She has a terrific sense of verbal rhythm as well as her famous "conversational" writing style. Those who are new to her work should read her "Deeper Into Movies" and "Reeling", the two books that cover what she feels is the most innovative period in film history--the early to mid-seventies.

The interviews collected here span nearly thirty years, and are most remarkable for Kael's consistency of vision; that also means she says much the same things over and over again, with minor variations. The exception is the Mandate interview, where Kael clarifies her position on sexual politics in film. Those wanting to know more of her views on 90s films may well be frustrated, as the last interview was conducted in 1995, and Kael doesn't go into nearly as much detail as her written work. Be content with 'For Keeps', an excellent compilation of work from her entire career.

Pauline Kael was a brilliant interview subject. She could often, in just a few words, get to the essence of what was wrong or right with a movie in as piercing a way as her longer reviews. This book includes a number of early interviews with her and a few from after she retired from The New Yorker. Those last interviews are perhaps the most valuable because you get her insights on movies that she never got to review in print. You also get a fascinating look at her life and tastes outside of film and some revealing comments about working for The New Yorker.

My fervent wish is that this book be updated. The last interview in the book is from c. 1995, and she gave several more interviews before her death in 2001. I hope desperately that U. Mississippi Press will collect these and reissue the book. It's a travesty that so much of Kael's writing is out of print, and this is a valuable resource that could be even more valuable with an update.

This will be a short review because there's no point in trying persuade people who aren't fond of Kael. For the rest of us - fans and those willing to try her - this is a wonderful read. Kael's idiom was deceptively casual when she wrote, so these interviews aren't so far off from her critical writings.

It's surprising the overall rating for this book isn't higher. I often browse the interviews here. Kael was so witty and so insightful, there are few books I could recommend more. And she was so eloquent - reading these pieces is aesthetically pleasing.

Kael's the greatest film critic there's been, and as she wrote how she spoke, this book is a welcome addition to her oeuvre. Do read it.