Pauline Kael talks Parkinson's, Her Career, and Everything Film

Pauline Kael seemed amazing. Having first heard of her with the knowledge of her death is as bad as finding out John Lennon was already dead first hearing the Beatles. Her deep love for movies, her unwavering, and often unpopular taste, just to talk with her about Brian De Palma, or the entertainment versus art debate would be enlightening. And there is much her and Mr. Davis talked about that is pertinent to the ongoing debate about how much entertainment and art overlap, where they do, and when one stops and the other begins. They talk about the heavy-handedness of movies today, and how lighthearted comedies and musicals are ignored. Which leads to the question, would she repeal her closing comment about the industry in decline if she saw Juno’s best picture nomination? And for that matter, why does she think the industry is not only declining, but decaying, and at the fault of Star Wars no less. Other crazy opinions include adoration for people like Mel Gibson and Brian De Palma, her dismissal of films by greats like Hitchcock, Godard, Woody Allen, and Stanley Kubrick in their later years. All her opinions are delightfully incongruent with the masses. Either way she was a champion of art, and reading her and a friend just talk is a pleasure.