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Pauline Kael

Pauline Kael Quotes

Film critic

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Famous Pauline Kael Quotes

“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?”

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Author:Pauline Kael
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“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.”

IfsKindMeanLittlesTasteQuietConnectedCommandAliensBehaveAshamedLos AngelesModestySan FranciscoInvasionGood TasteVulgarityProprietyExpendituresBad TasteEncroachmentMoney And PowerBlightOstentation
Book:i lost it at the movies
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“Good movies make you care, make you believe in possibilities again. If somewhere in the Hollywood-entertainment world someone has managed to break through with something that speaks to you, then it isn’t all corruption. The movie doesn’t have to be great; it can be stupid and empty and you can still have the joy of a good performance, or the joy in just a good line. An actor’s scowl, a small subversive gesture, a dirty remark that someone tosses off with a mock-innocent face, and the world makes a little bit of sense.”

IfsWorldBelieveLittlesStillsCareFacesJoyActorsSpeakBitsLinesBreakStupidPossibilityLittle BitEmptyHollywoodPerformancesEntertainmentCorruptionInnocentDirtyGesturesRemarksMockBreak ThroughSubversiveTossGood MovieFilms And Movies
Book:For Keeps
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“Watching old movies is like spending an evening with those people next door. They bore us, and we wouldn't go out of our way to see them; we drop in on them because they're so close. If it took some effort to see old movies, we might try to find out which were the good ones, and if people saw only the good ones maybe they would still respect old movies. As it is, people sit and watch movies that audiences walked out on thirty years ago. Like Lot's wife, we are tempted to take another look, attracted not by evil but by something that seems much more shameful -- our own innocence.”

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Book:Raising Kane and Other Essays
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