Pauline Kael

An in-depth look at Pauline Kael — the American film critic whose bold, conversational style reshaped movie criticism. Explore her life, career, controversies, enduring influence, and most memorable quotes.

Introduction

Pauline Kael (June 19, 1919 – September 3, 2001) was one of the most influential and controversial film critics of the 20th century. Writing for The New Yorker from 1968 to 1991, Kael’s reviews were known for being witty, deeply personal, provocative, and unafraid to challenge both popular taste and academic critical orthodoxy.

Her work didn’t just evaluate films — it injected a voice of feeling, spontaneity, and passion into film criticism. To many, she is the critic who showed that reviewing movies could be as alive and compelling as the movies themselves.

Early Life and Family

Pauline Kael was born in Petaluma, California, on June 19, 1919.

Her upbringing was modest; in interviews and retrospectives she often attributed much of her sensibility to the way she grew up loving movies as escapes, as affirmations, and as a way into larger emotional worlds.

Youth, Education & Formative Years

While at Berkeley, Kael was immersed in literary and artistic milieus, but she did not find a firm professional path early on.

In the 1940s and 1950s, Kael drifted through various jobs and personal struggles, writing occasionally for small journals and cultivating her voice.

By the early 1950s, she was contributing to magazines like City Lights and McCall’s. Over decades she refined her critical voice, developing a reputation for clarity, conviction, and stylistic verve.

Career and Achievements

Rise to Prominence & Work at The New Yorker

Pauline Kael's career as a prominent critic reached its peak when she joined The New Yorker in 1968, where she remained a central voice until her formal retirement in 1991.

Kael was never one to follow a rigid doctrine. She famously lacked formal critical “theory,” instead trusting her sensibilities, emotional reactions, and narrative instincts.

Controversies and Critical Battles

Kael’s style was not without friction. Her 1971 essay “Raising Kane” challenged the accepted authorship narrative of Citizen Kane, promoting screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz’s role and accusing Orson Welles of overstating his contributions.

Kael did not shy from strong negative reviews — she was capable of scathing judgments of acclaimed works. For example, her critique of Blade Runner remains legendary for its impact and harshness. Rich and Famous) that were interpreted as insensitive or reductive about sexual identity.

Published Collections & Later Writings

Over her career, Kael published many collections of her movie reviews, essays, and commentaries. Among them:

• I Lost It at the Movies (1965) — one of her earliest and most influential collections.

• Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (1968) — essays and reviews.

• Deeper Into Movies (1973) — a major collection.

• Taking It All In (1984) — compiles her reviews from June 1980 to June 1983.

• Later, For Keeps (1994), which included her introduction and reflections.

After her formal retirement, Kael largely ceased publishing new reviews but still occasionally commented on films and events. Afterglow: A Last Conversation with Pauline Kael, gathers her late reflections.

Historical Context & Intellectual Milestones

Kael’s heyday corresponds with the period when film criticism moved from academic journals and trade press toward broader cultural visibility. She was part of a generation that elevated the voice of the critic into that of a public intellectual.

She often stood against the auteur theory orthodoxy dominant among other critics (e.g. Andrew Sarris). Rather than seeking consistent patterns or a signature style in directors, she preferred an approach rooted in immediacy and experience. Her influence helped legitimize criticism as a lively, subjective art rather than a distant, dispassionate discipline.

Her era also saw the rise of blockbuster cinema, evolving studio systems, and increasing tensions between commercial imperatives and artistic ambition. Kael’s voice often served as a counterpoint to purely commercial or formulaic tendencies in Hollywood.

Legacy and Influence

Pauline Kael’s legacy is broad, multifaceted, and still felt today:

1. Voice and style in criticism: She transformed how critics write about film — making reviews more personal, vivid, argumentative, and readable.

2. Bridging critics and public: Because her writing was both erudite and accessible, she helped bring serious film criticism to a wider readership.

3. Influence on filmmakers and critics: Many critics and filmmakers cite her as a shaping influence in how they think, write, or talk about cinema.

4. Enduring debate and reinterpretation: Her writings continue to provoke debate, especially her controversial essays (like Raising Kane) and her sometimes harsh assessments of popular or canonical works.

5. Role model for subjectivity in art criticism: Kael showed that being a critic doesn’t mean being dispassionate — she promoted honesty, clarity, and the courage to assert taste.

She remains a touchstone in film studies, journalism, and cultural criticism, and her collected works are often reissued or studied in film curricula.

Personality, Talents & Traits

Beyond her published output, Kael’s persona as a critic is characterized by:

• Fierce independence: She resisted being pigeonholed into critical schools or orthodoxies; she trusted her instincts.

• Emotional engagement: Her writing often reveals how a film felt — the mood, energy, surprise, disappointment — not just what it “achieved.”

• Sharp wit & directness: She could be remarkably eloquent in praise or withering in critique.

• Fearlessness: She took on beloved works or revered figures when she thought they didn’t measure up — regardless of backlash.

• Literary sensibility: Her prose is often praised as literary in its own right — elegant, fluid, evocative, and unafraid of metaphor.

• Contradictions and growth: Over time she expressed ambivalence about her role, the state of cinema, and whether she had “anything new to say.”

Famous Quotes of Pauline Kael

Pauline Kael is remembered as much for her pungent lines as for her overarching essays. Here are some notable quotes that capture her critical spirit:

“Irresponsibility is part of the pleasure of all art; it is the part the schools cannot recognize.” “A mistake in judgment isn’t fatal, but too much anxiety about judgment is.” “Movies are so rarely great art that if we cannot appreciate great trash, we have very little reason to be interested in them.” “A good movie can take you out of your dull funk … Good movies make you care, make you believe in possibilities again.” “In the arts, the critic is the only independent source of information. The rest is advertising.” “Citizen Kane is perhaps the one American talking picture that seems as fresh now as the day it opened. It may seem even fresher.” “It seems likely that many of the young who don’t wait for others to call them artists, but simply announce that they are, don’t have the patience to make art.” “I still don’t look at movies twice… I’m astonished when I talk to really good critics … who will see a film eight or ten or twelve times. I don’t see how they can do it without hating the movie.”

Each of these lines reflects Kael’s belief in film as an emotional, immediate, and living medium — and that criticism should not be secondhand or overly theoretical.

Lessons from Pauline Kael

From Kael’s life and legacy, here are some lessons for writers, critics, and lovers of art:

1. Write with your voice: Honest, distinctive writing resonates more than sterile “objective” analysis.

2. Don’t fear dissent: Challenging consensus or revered figures is necessary for a vibrant discourse.

3. Value the emotional experience: Art isn’t only to be dissected — it is to be felt.

4. Be accountable to taste: Taste changes, but having strong, examined preferences gives criticism weight.

5. Critique is itself creative work: Good criticism can expand how readers see a work, not just appraise it.

6. Be open about limits: Kael herself sometimes questioned whether she still had something new to say — a humility that can ground passionate work.

Conclusion

Pauline Kael transformed film criticism by bringing to it a voice of immediacy, wit, passion, and unflinching judgment. She made criticism feel alive — as something that could surprise, disturb, celebrate, and provoke. Her legacy endures in how critics write, how cinephiles argue, and how audiences think about film.