I Lost it at the Movies is vintage Kael on such classics of post-War cinema as On the Waterfront, Smiles of a Summer Night, West Side Story, The Seven Samurai, Lolita, Jules et Jim etc. Her comments are so fresh and direct, it's as if the movies had only been released last week.
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Published in 1965, this is Pauline Kael's first book. It is at once her most uncharacteristic volume of essays and one of her most interesting. Rather than trace recent movie openings on a week-by-week basis, Kael here recalls classics by Ophuls, Renoir, and Bergman and comments on some of the international masterpieces of the early '60s. She also meditates on the state of the art in provocatively titled pieces like "Are Movies Going to Pieces?," "Fantasies of the Art House Audience," and "Is There a Cure for Film Criticism?" Few movie reviewers of any generation can match her wit or intelligence. And almost no one can equal her passion for an art that had such an indelible impact upon her life; Kael's treatment of Vittorio De Sica's masterpiece Shoeshine is perhaps the most intimate and beautiful movie review ever written.
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19 of 20 people found the following review helpful
By R. Rice
Format:Paperback
I grew up reading Pauline Kael's reviews, mostly by walking to the public library in the small town where I grew up -- I'd snag the New Yorker off the shelf and immerse myself in what she had to say about movies, many of which would never come to my town. But I was enthralled.
I love her reviews now for the same reason I loved them then -- she makes me want to see the movies she writes about. And more than that, she makes me want to see movies, period. Her passion for the medium -- even when she doesn't like a film -- is contagious, and she expresses it beautifully.
Surprisingly to me, in these early reviews she frequently quotes the reviews of other critics and then mercilessly takes apart what they have said. She particularly has it in for the New York Times' Bosley Crowther, but she doesn't let others off the hook easily, either.
Kael is fun to read, even if you haven't seen the movie she is talking about. I've never seen "The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone", though I have seen "Suddenly Last Summer" -- both based on works of Tennessee Williams. But Kael's 1961 review of "Mrs. Stone" is a hilarious read. In one part, she says:
"The men who filmed 'The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone' seem to think the idea of an aging woman seeking companionship and love so daring and unusual that they fumble around with it almost as much as the doctor in the screen version of 'Suddenly, Last Summer', who couldn't seem to cope with the simple facts of Sebastian's homosexuality and kept saying, 'You DON'T mean THAT?'-- 'No, it CAN'T be THAT?' -- 'WHAT are you saying?' -- 'What do you MEAN?' I assumed the youngest child in the audience would get the point before he did. By trying so diligently to make Mrs. Stone so sympathetic and understandable the director and writer, Jose Quintero and Gavin Lambert, kill all interest in her. We could accept a woman buying love, but why make her haggle over it?"
Kael is hilarious, maddening, and most of all, thought-provoking. And if you love movies, she'll make you love them more.
I love her reviews now for the same reason I loved them then -- she makes me want to see the movies she writes about. And more than that, she makes me want to see movies, period. Her passion for the medium -- even when she doesn't like a film -- is contagious, and she expresses it beautifully.
Surprisingly to me, in these early reviews she frequently quotes the reviews of other critics and then mercilessly takes apart what they have said. She particularly has it in for the New York Times' Bosley Crowther, but she doesn't let others off the hook easily, either.
Kael is fun to read, even if you haven't seen the movie she is talking about. I've never seen "The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone", though I have seen "Suddenly Last Summer" -- both based on works of Tennessee Williams. But Kael's 1961 review of "Mrs. Stone" is a hilarious read. In one part, she says:
"The men who filmed 'The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone' seem to think the idea of an aging woman seeking companionship and love so daring and unusual that they fumble around with it almost as much as the doctor in the screen version of 'Suddenly, Last Summer', who couldn't seem to cope with the simple facts of Sebastian's homosexuality and kept saying, 'You DON'T mean THAT?'-- 'No, it CAN'T be THAT?' -- 'WHAT are you saying?' -- 'What do you MEAN?' I assumed the youngest child in the audience would get the point before he did. By trying so diligently to make Mrs. Stone so sympathetic and understandable the director and writer, Jose Quintero and Gavin Lambert, kill all interest in her. We could accept a woman buying love, but why make her haggle over it?"
Kael is hilarious, maddening, and most of all, thought-provoking. And if you love movies, she'll make you love them more.
23 of 25 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
Pauline Kael was a prophet of the times: she knew that people would eventually be addicted to the movies. But she was perceptive enough to realize from the onset that this addiction went beyond the inescapable, because grippingly overwhelming, magic of storytelling. She understood that movies were addictive because not only do they take on a life of their own, they also created a world of their own --- cult worship, technology wizardry, critical discourse, the vagaries of box-office results, and all that jazz. These Ms. Kael grasped, and armed with her stylish wit and whip, she rallied on to the cultural battlefronts of what would turn out to be our multi-media age. This book is therefore a must-read, because beyond the disparate individual movie reviews, Ms. Kael allows us to appreciate the intellectual and moral landscape of our times. She shows us that behind things are the more important scheme of things. For her, the reel is for real. And these days, who can say it isn't so
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
One of the Twentieth Century's Greatest Critics - The Early Years
October 30, 2008
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
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.
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.
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