Journalists & Commentators Codexery

Pauline Kael

The New Yorker's film critic from 1968 to 1991, known for sharp, personal and often contrarian reviews.

Last updated

Pauline Kael (June 19, 1919 - September 3, 2001) was an American film critic who reviewed movies for The New Yorker from 1968 to 1991. Her reviews were witty, opinionated and often at odds with what other critics thought, and she became one of the most influential film writers of her era. Roger Ebert judged that over three decades she did more for the climate for film in America than any other single person.

Background

She was born in Petaluma, California, the youngest of five children of Jewish immigrants from Poland who ran a chicken farm; after the family lost the farm they moved to San Francisco, and she later studied at the University of California, Berkeley. Kael worked without a fixed theory or set of rules, and her criticism was openly personal. She brought European and Asian directors such as Ingmar Bergman, Jean-Luc Godard, Federico Fellini, Satyajit Ray and Akira Kurosawa to American readers, and in the following decade championed New Hollywood filmmakers including Robert Altman, Martin Scorsese, Brian De Palma and Francis Ford Coppola. The Library of America later collected her writing as The Age of Movies.

More in Journalists & Commentators

Deborah AmosCaryle MurphyAnderson CooperAnna PolitkovskayaBarbara WaltersBill MoyersBob WoodwardBrian WilliamsBrooks AtkinsonCarl BernsteinCarmen AristeguiCharles Krauthammer

Test yourself

Three questions drawn from this entry’s sources. Pick an answer to check it.

1. In which place was Pauline Kael born?

Correct.

Not quite. The answer is Petaluma, California, U.S..

2. In what year did Pauline Kael die?

Correct.

Not quite. The answer is 2001.

From the source: “Pauline Kael ( ; June 19, 1919 – September 3, 2001) was an American film critic who wrote for The New Yorker from 1968 to 1991. Known for her "witty, biting, highly opinionated and sharply focused" reviews, Kael often defied the consensus o”

3. In what year was Pauline Kael born?

Correct.

Not quite. The answer is 1919.

From the source: “Pauline Kael ( ; June 19, 1919 – September 3, 2001) was an American film critic who wrote for The New Yorker from 1968 to 1991. Known for her "witty, biting, highly opinionated and sharply focused" reviews, Kael often defied the consensus o”

Answers checked against the source article

Sources

Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.

Spotted an error? Know more?

Reader corrections go straight into our review queue. Suggest an edit · How this site is sourced

Comments

Loading…
Open in the interactive codex →