Kael, Pauline

born June 19, 1919, Petaluma, Calif., U.S.

died Sept. 3, 2001, Great Barrington, Mass.

U.S. film critic.

She managed an art-film theatre (1955–60) in Berkeley, Calif., while writing film reviews for magazines and broadcasting her reviews on network radio. After a collection of her reviews and essays, I Lost It at the Movies (1965), gained her national attention, she moved to New York and became film critic for The New Yorker (1968–91). Her witty, biting, highly opinionated, and sharply focused reviews (of which five more collections were eventually published) made her arguably the most influential American film critic of her time.

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▪ 2002

      American film critic (b. June 19, 1919, Petaluma, Calif.—d. Sept. 3, 2001, Great Barrington, Mass.), was an outspoken reviewer for The New Yorker magazine from 1968 to 1979 and 1980 to 1991, wielding untold influence among film fans and perhaps even moviemakers themselves. Celebrated as much for the provocative style of her writing as for the content, she honed a swordlike sharpness that would eviscerate a faulty work as deftly as it would crown a new piece of art. Thoughtful and high-minded, she nonetheless was wary of overintellectualizing the cinematic experience and encouraged her readers and imitators, known as “Paulettes,” to trust their emotions. As such, she became a keen observer of popular culture and championed her favourite actors with fervour. She supported many filmmakers who came to prominence in the 1970s, including Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Scorsese, and Robert Altman. Fans and detractors alike found her pans as quotable and opinionated as her praises. “In love” with movies, as she defined it, from childhood, Kael attended the University of California, Berkeley, and began working as a critic in her mid-30s for City Lights magazine in San Francisco. She had begun to appear frequently in film journals and on the radio by the time she first published her reviews in the best-selling collection I Lost It at the Movies (1965). Thereafter she was a regular contributor to such mainstream titles as Life, McCall's, and The New Republic, eventually earning a spot at The New Yorker. During her hiatus from The New Yorker in 1979–80, she worked for the motion picture industry. Her other collections included Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (1968), Deeper into Movies (1973), When the Lights Go Down (1980), Taking It All In (1984), Hooked (1989), and For Keeps (1994).

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▪ American film critic

born June 19, 1919, Petaluma, California, U.S.

died September 3, 2001, Great Barrington, Massachusetts

      prominent American film critic of the second half of the 20th century.

      Kael graduated from the University of California at Berkeley in 1940. For a number of years she made a precarious living with various minor jobs. She had been an avid fan of the movies since childhood, and in 1953 she published her first piece of film criticism in City Lights magazine in San Francisco. Other articles followed in Partisan Review, Moviegoer, Kulchur, and other journals, and her work began to appear regularly in Film Quarterly. For several years from 1955 she broadcast film reviews over the radio stations of the Pacifica network, and during that time she also managed a pair of art film cinemas in Berkeley.

      Kael's reputation among film buffs and fellow critics for honest, lively, and penetrating criticism led to the publication in 1965 of a collection of her articles in book form under the characteristic title I Lost It at the Movies. The book was a best-seller and won her assignments from such major general-circulation magazines as Life, Holiday, Mademoiselle, and McCall's. She was the regular film reviewer for McCall's for some months in 1966 and for The New Republic in 1967, and in 1968 she joined The New Yorker (New Yorker, The). She reviewed films for that magazine until her retirement in 1991.

      Kael was a witty and acerbic critic who considered films in the context of both their audience and contemporary culture in general. Her reviews were both knowledgeable and opinionated and were written in an exhilarating prose style. Subsequent collections of her reviews included Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (1968), Going Steady (1970), Deeper Into Movies (1973), When the Lights Go Down (1980), 5001 Nights at the Movies (1982), Taking It All In (1984), State of the Art (1985), Hooked (1989), Movie Love (1991), and For Keeps (1994).

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