Moviemaking is so male-dominated now that they think they’re being pro-feminine when they have women punching each other out. Pauline Kael More Quotes by Pauline Kael More Quotes From Pauline Kael Television represents what happens to a medium when the artists have no power and the businessmen are in full, unquestioned control. Pauline Kael businessman artist television Art doesn't come in measured quantities: it's got to be too much or it's not enough. Pauline Kael too-much enough art We may be reaching the end of the era in which individual movies meant something to people. In the new era, movies may just mean a barrage of images. Pauline Kael movie mean people Irresponsibility is part of the pleasure of all art; it is the part the schools cannot recognize. Pauline Kael pleasure art school Sex is the great leveler, taste the great divider. Pauline Kael taste sex I’m frequently asked why I don’t write my memoirs. I think I have. Pauline Kael memoir writing thinking Her only flair is in her nostrils. Pauline Kael flair sarcastic memorable Moviegoers like to believe that those they have made stars are great actors. People used to say that Gary Cooper was a fine actor probably because when they looked in his face they were ready to give him their power of attorney. Pauline Kael stars believe people In San Francisco, vulgarity, "bad taste," ostentation are regarded as a kind of alien blight, an invasion or encroachment from outside. In Los Angeles, there is so much money and power connected with ostentation that is no longer ludicrous: it commands a kind of respect. For if the mighty behave like this, then quiet good taste means that you can't afford the conspicuous expenditures, and you become a little ashamed of your modesty and propriety. Pauline Kael san-francisco invasion mean I am mystified. I know only one person who voted for Nixon. Pauline Kael persons knows One of the surest signs of the Philistine is his reverence for the superior tastes of those who put him down. Pauline Kael reverence taste culture He [Bernardo Bertolucci] has the kind of talent that breaks one's heart: where can it go, what will happen to it? In this country we encourage 'creativity' among the mediocre, but real bursting creativity appalls us. We put it down as undisciplined, as somehow 'too much.' Well, Before the Revolution is too much and that is what is great about it. Art doesn't come in measured quantities: it's got to be too much or it's not enough. Pauline Kael real country art tasteful and colossal are - in movies, at least - basically antipathetic. Pauline Kael colossal movie For some strange reason we don't go to charming, light movies anymore. People expect a movie to be heavy and turgid, like "American Beauty." We've become a heavy-handed society. Pauline Kael strange light people Movies that are consciously life-affirming are to be consciously avoided. Pauline Kael affirming life-affirming avoided For a while in the twenties and thirties, art was talked about as a substitute for religion; now B movies are a substitute for religion. Pauline Kael substitutes twenties art There seems to be an assumption that if you're offended by movie brutality, you are somehow playing into the hands of the people who want censorship. But this would deny those of us who don't believe in censorship the use of the only counter-balance: the freedom of the press to say that there's anything conceivably damaging in these films - the freedom to analyze their implications. How can people go on talking about the dazzling brilliance of movies and not notice that the directors are sucking up to the thugs in the audience? Pauline Kael thug movie believe A mistake in judgment isn't fatal, but too much anxiety about judgment is. Pauline Kael anxiety judgement mistake if you think it so easy to be a critic, so difficult to be a poet or a painter or film experimenter, may I suggest you try both? You may discover why there are so few critics, so many poets. Pauline Kael may trying thinking in show business there's not much point in asking yourself if someone really likes you or if he just thinks you can be useful to him, because there's no difference. Pauline Kael differences business thinking