Pauline Kael reviews McCabe & Mrs. Miller on The Dick Cavett Show (1971)

In this clip, taken from the DVD extras for Robert Altman's classic western "McCabe and Mrs. Miller," Pauline Kael praises Altman's film and attacks the critics and gossip columnists who panned it.
Kael predicts that the movie will not be an immediate box office success, but that many years from now it will be looked back on as an important film. She was certainly right about that.
While the segment is dominated by Kael's take on "McCabe," they also briefly discuss her review of "Tora! Tora! Tora!" and the troubles at the studio that produced it, Twentieth Century Fox. The segment on "McCabe" begins around the 3:30 mark.

[@romanclay1913]

In 1971, my girlfriend heard from a friend that MCCABE & MRS. MILLER was an interesting film. We drove 30 miles and saw its last screening on its last night at the second-run State Theatre in Pasadena. There were only 2 other people in the auditorium. We were blown away. It was like seeing the unveiling of a masterpiece. As we left the theatre, a worker was up on a ladder removing the M-C-C-A-B-E red plastic letters from the theatre's marquee. Thank you Robert Altman, Julie Christie and Warren Beatty. The GF became and remains my wife. She doesn't remember that night at all.

[@theisaacwilliamson]

I saw this exact comment by you on another interview with Robert Altman.

[@scorpnov13]

Also saw it in a secound run movie theatre in Chicago in the dead of winter , Kael called it a beautiful pipe dream of a movie, let’s not forget the Beauty that was and still is Ms Julie Christie as Mrs Miller, she was nominated for an Oscar for her performance.

[@jshannon9362]

I’m sure note was taken by her of your determination to drive 30 miles to let her catch a film she had wanted to see. Good investment of effort, Roman!

[@heinrichvon]

Make her see it again to jog her memory.

[@okieinthemix]

This made me actually laugh loudly. Great turn of the phrase.

[@nintendianajones64]

How cool for Pauline Kael to acknowledge fellow guest Rod Serling as the screenwriter of Planet of the Apes. Awesome.

[@jamesgough3938]

He looks either bored or like he's disagreeing internally with her.

[@JCPJCPJCP]

Roger Ebert called it "a perfect movie" and gave it 4 out of 4 stars. It's been one of my favorites since I saw it when it was first released.

[@benrusi2289]

I was a construction co-ordinator for this production that was shot in outskirts of North Vancouver BC, Canada, and regard still this picture as one of he "All Time Classic's" Robert Altman did a hell of a job creating a new way to direct a movie(s)! Cheers for the whole crew, we did have a blast!

[@sebtonz1]

Captured the rawness of it all and just how cruel and unjust this life can be. A perfect film to quote Roger Ebert.

[@roneteus]

It literally took a village! ❤️

[@peterschancel7223]

I watched a doc on the making of the movie .Great Film ,, Acting , Directing ,production, and of course Leonard Cohen's genius weaves through it and binds it's spirit . The genius was that the town grows as the set grows in construction is incorporated in the film. I have it on my KZbin movie playlist ''Deluxe Eclectic Movies' free flics I have found ,, The Stuntman is great , Sergio Leone's Last movie , A Fist Full Of Dynamite ,, his best .

[@roquefortfiles]

I just watched this film for the first time about a week ago. I've heard all sorts of stories about it but I had never seen it. The end sequence where it starts snowing and just keeps going. I thought "They either faked this or got unbelievably lucky"

[@MicahMicahel]

@@peterschancel7223 Once Upon a Time in America

[@scorpnov13]

McCabe and Mrs Miller with Leonard Cohens songs perfection

[@hookywookywithmalarkyman704]

I am a HUGE fan of L.C. it transended this flick into its current cult following & i met L.C back in the UK when i was aroung 23 & here i am almost 71 !!

[@ellefirogeni4624]

Once, in his home on Hydra, Leo Cohen played live the film soundtrack while the film played silenced..

[@peterschancel7223]

Agreed Great movie and Leonard Cohens songs weave through the movie and bind it together . If you want to rewatch it I found it on KZbin for free and put it on my channel Playlist ''Deluxe Eclectic Movies"" lots of free flics I found,, Post Script search Leonard Cohen The Chelsy Hotel 2 his live talk and playing about Janis Joplin ..

[@surfwriter8461]

I disagree. I think the imposition of the Cohen songs is mostly pretentious and off-putting, awkwardly trying to add some sentiments that may or may not have anything to do with the story at hand.

[@scorpnov13]

@@surfwriter8461 oh well

[@pedal4ever]

Robert Altman is one of the greatest directors of all time. This film is one of his best.

[@fattymcfatso1083]

MASH - McCabe & Mrs Miller - The Long Goodbye - Nashville - 3 Women An extraordinarily creative period from 1970-77

[@ellefirogeni4624]

Indeed one of World Cinema’s finest filmmakers.

[@truthdweller3454]

@@fattymcfatso1083 Also, Images, Thieves Like Us, and California Split

[@jb8280]

Word is that Warren Beatty directed much of McCabe & Mrs. Miller due to Altman’s altered mental state for much of the production. He was high AF and Beatty had to step in.

[@petercrossley2956]

I was at the preview screening of "McCabe and Mes Millre" in Vancouver as was -Ms Kael. At the press reception following the screening she was most gracious to a cub reporter.

[@seaninness334]

When I was training as an AC, I had the pleasure of watching McCabe and Mrs. Miller with about 10 people and Vilmos Zsigmond, the cinematographer. Over the course of a few days, we also watched The Deer Hunter, The River and Witches of Eastwick with him.

[@CyberChud2077]

Holy shit, it's Rod Serling, sitting right next to her.

[@truthdweller3454]

Lol I had the same reaction

[@Shah-of-the-Shinebox]

I just recently ordered her book 5001 Nights at the Movies from Ebay and can't wait to read it.

[@user-jg9zw5fq5d]

She is absolutely right about McCabe & Mrs. Miller!

[@fattymcfatso1083]

Yes - but wrong about Tora! Tora! Tora!

[@terratrema]

She's right about McCabe & Mrs Miller.

[@jeffreyholmes7216]

Yes she is. And she is sitting next to rod serling. He was a amazing writer.

[@claudiam2474]

She was a big Altman fan

[@Kjt853]

A much underrated film.

[@jennifere.9815]

This is a GREAT interview that really represents its time and showcases Kael's philosophies.

[@Grey_Ocean2023]

I'm just entranced by the lofty tone and erudite language. It's sophisticated, literate conversation of the highest order compared to what passes for "chat" these days. It's like watching TV made on another planet.

[@MrJerpink]

The product placement at the end of this video kills me. Here Pauline Kael is talking about the treatment of cinema as art, with genuine films, "challenging" and "difficult" films (i.e. films that demand you to actively watch and think), being cast aside before they can establish their existence, and the segment ends with a commercial. Pretty poetic.

[@weveri6]

Of course, Kael disliked many "challenging" and "difficult" films, e.g. 2001: A Space Odyssey, Lawrence of Arabia, La Notte, et al. She mainly liked "challenging" and "difficult" films that others didn't like. She was the mistress of "against the grain." She was mainly interested in being noticed; any insights into a work or the art form were incidental, and often perfunctory.

[@zeltzamer4010]

They had to make money somehow. Donations from the avid viewers of Pauline Kael talk show appearances couldn’t pull all the dough.

[@ricardocantoral7672]

​@@weveri6 Just because one dislikes particular films that doesn't mean one dislikes challenging films. There's a very large range of challenging pictures. Did you know that Menilmontant was Kael's favorite film? That was not accessible film, a silent movie with zero intertitles.

[@jasonhurd4379]

What a joy to hear such erudition and clear-headed analysis from Miss Kael, and how deftly and subtly she skewers her less perceptive colleagues. Marvelous.

[@fattymcfatso1083]

And that's back when only a handful of critics controlled the scene. Can only image what she'd think of the latest crop.

[@Pighill]

McCabe and Mrs Miller is my fifth favorite movie of all time.

[@mongolianqwerty123]

And the other four?

[@Pighill]

@@mongolianqwerty123 1 Passion of the Christ 2 GoodFellas 3 Nashville 4 Taxi Driver

[@fattymcfatso1083]

I suppose we all had a HS English teacher who was just like this lady.

[@jackal59]

And we're all better for it.

[@miketurek3074]

Saw McCabe & Mrs. Miller in the basement of the base hospital, Thule Air Base, Greenland 1972. A Blizzard was raging as we were taken back in time.

[@peterzang]

Thank you for your service

[@ShelterDogs]

March 8, 1972?

[@michaeldunne3379]

Pretty interesting, never seen her talking before…and she can certainly talk! I remember her negative review of Manhattan years ago, at a time when the whole world was waiting for the new Woody Allen film. I was about eighteen at the time, a big Woody fan and quite put out by the review, but it stayed with me. Didn’t put me off the film, ultimately, but she made some valid points. She was obviously a passionate, erudite, and genuinely intellectual critic, doesn’t mean she was always right.

[@waterspout8]

Out of curiosity, where did you find her Manhattan review? It's not in any of her books of collected reviews.

[@Bigwave2003]

As a film student I was so entranced by "McCabe and Mrs. Miller" that I obtained a copy of the script. To my amazement the script was different from the film, starting with its original title "The Presbyterian Church Wager". Robert Altman came under the influence of Leonard Cohen's music and he adjusted the script to better fit the songs used in the soundtrack. And, of course, Altman encouraged the actors to improvise.

[@willminkorea2010]

It's a wonderful movie.

[@tuliptime2120]

Couldn't have said it any better myself :)

[@JoeBesserfan]

Great video. Thanks for posting it.

[@irish66]

Of course Warren Beatty was in McCabe, and it was Kael's review of Bonnie and Clyde that helped make the movie a hit. But if you are interested on what she had to say about the movie Mr Serling was involved in, here's a quote "This is one of the most entertaining science-fiction fantasies ever to come out of Hollywood. The writing, by Michael Wilson and Rod Serling, who adapted Pierre Boulle's novel Monkey Planet, is often fancy-ironic in the old school of poetic disillusion, but the construction is first-rate"

[@valis14]

Rod Serling looking rather charming and coifed in the chair beside her. Always had a great smile!

[@truthdweller3454]

He looks like Peter Falk here.

[@sebtonz1]

The film takes you right there in the moment. The smell of the pines and horse shit comingling for a scent you know. The mud and cold, people seeking refuge from it in drink, food and the warm company of a woman if for just a brief moment. How quickly life turns to death with no sain reason. Roger Ebert said it best, "a perfect movie". Thank you Robert Altman!

[@theCalebQuinn]

Great movie, great Kael, interesting moment in time, when TV critics were gaining influence, but the Arthouse was still strong.

[@dagnabbit6187]

Would love to have met this lady ? Some of Robert Altman’s work can be awful but McCabe and Mrs. Miller was brilliant one of the all time great Westerns and it also busts out of its genre to become one of the all time great films ever made

[@ExxylcrothEagle]

C'mon man Popeye is a MASTERPIECE!!! 😆😆😆

[@natalienaamad655]

I've been looking for this clip for ages!!! Can't thank you enough.

[@tuliptime2120]

Glad to help! Always interesting to hear Kael.

[@boborrahood]

Tulip Time, Thank you so much for uploading this. I hope to retrieve a recording of Pauline Kael from San Francisco City Arts and Lectures from 1987 at the Herbst Theater in San Francisco to upload, since my original cassette had become distorted. Kael at her spontaneous, funny best with audience question-answer session after interview with Sedge Thomson from KQED. Have you seen Rob Garver's "What She Said"?

[@gravenewworld6521]

Thanks for this man.

[@tuliptime2120]

Of course! Just happy to find a clip that wasn't already uploaded.

[@heinrichvon]

5:54 - Rod doesn't look at all happy when Pauline says that "words on television, dramatic shows" don't matter.

[@fattymcfatso1083]

i was feeling his pain there . . too much of a gent to say anything I guess

[@calateeker6161]

Rod had to write scripts that were less than 23 minutes long (to account for commercial breaks), so every word written was important, contrary to what she said.

[@ShelterDogs]

Yeah, a little insensitive. I'm sure she was just generally speaking, though. It would have been nice if she had acknowledged the great work of The Twilight Zone in that moment.

[@mrakl3]

It's still one of my favorites. And it does still live, as she predicted.

[@raindog7781]

Thank for upload

[@andyquinn1125]

The only film I watched, then immediately rewatched.

[@zmani4379]

7:00 - Kael is making a very important point about the almost arbitrary way an atmosphere of response may be generated around a film - this is similar to Scorsese's recent criticism of Rotten Tomatoes re unusual films like Mother - exciting how she has no time for irony - I can't wait to see who Tarantino casts as Kael

[@Omnicient.]

As Roger Moore used to say: 'Those who can - do - those who can't do - teach - and those who can't do either become critics'. It's similar to these writers who have done very little but regardless write books, or these days, make videos on how to do it! If they know so much where are their films? Why isn't their advice working for them?! Though their advice is nearly always second hand; as everything is!

[@boborrahood]

@@Omnicient. Woody Allen used a variation of that teacher or critic line in his 1977 Annie Hall; he and Kael were connected after she praised his earlier films. If you've read any of her reviews, she is much more than a film critic. An essayist, historian, social commentator, humorist, and overall great writer, winning the National Book Award for Deeper Into Movies in 1974, the first win for non-fiction. Roger Ebert wrote that "Pauline Kael had a more postive influence on the climate for film in America than any other single person over the last three decades." Quentin Tarantino said in the 2018 Rob Garver film What She Said that he discovered his aesthetic for making movies when he read her review of Godard's "Band of Outsiders."

[@juliendunand6409]

One of the greatest American films in history, and both Altman and Beatty's greatest work. And I bet 99% of the young generation never heard of it. They prefer Spider-Man. The collapse of audiences in the West is today's tragedy.

[@ExxylcrothEagle]

The Player is my favorite Altman film but maybe because the cast is so stacked

[@kreek22]

First, the movie lacked an audience when it was released 50 years ago. Second, the collapse of artistic quality is two sided. The artist and the audience have both declined in quality--and that decline began, in my view, before cinema existed.

[@tonybennett4159]

I think that the same criticism can be levelled at the books being read. You only have compare the best seller lists of the 60s and 70s and those of today. Escapism has its place but when it dominates culture that is reason for concern.

[@beldengi]

Fantastic movie. Resurrected an old 19th C hymn that I had never heard, but love (as well as Cohen's). "Asleep in Jesus" sung by a group of prostitutes is a brilliant inclusion.

[@hookywookywithmalarkyman704]

My fave movie ever !

[@Gardosunron]

Shes right. McCabe and Mrs. Miller is a lot of fun!

[@marcomartinez8608]

Thank you for uploading this. I love Kael and Cavett and had never seen this.

[@jackprecip5389]

I have a hard time understanding how anybody could NOT like McCabe and Mrs. Miller. It's a terrific film in just about every way. I'm not a snob, I'm a "to each his own" type of guy, I think everybody is entitled to their own opinion, but man, how could somebody not like that film even a little bit? I LOVE the film.

[@tonywords6713]

It is kind of a jarring movie, the first half is also completely confusing and tonally different from the second half where things sort of click more. I can see why people get frustrated with it because I did at first, now it's one of my favorites

[@Dizzyfingers2]

My God this woman can talk!

[@SARbeaver1]

McCabe & Mrs. Miller was a great film, with a beautiful Leonard Cohen sound track.

[@josb9836]

This feels prescient. Beautiful

[@darrylwiggins1156]

When i first saw this film i was a late teen and was used to standard old west fare, this one suprised and at the time kinda confused me.now, forty years later i fully understand the message,weight,and impact of this understated masterpiece.

[@ucctgg]

How about showing Rod Serling's interview ?

[@tracyfortune3297]

Pauline Kael, explaining 2022's "thought-bubble".

[@davidemmet7343]

Tora, Tora, Tora was supposed to be one of Stanley Kubrick's 100 favorite movies.

[@tonywords6713]

So was McCabe and Mrs Miller, I don't know if it was his top 100 or whatever but a rave letter does exist from Kubrick to Altman asking how he achieved the photography

[@user-ly9wr8wj5s]

Pauline Kael was an abhorrent film critic. A poisonous contrarian hack who used big pretentious words nonstop to sound intelligent while saying nothing, and shit on anything that didn't conform to her personal worldview. The only reason she's actually remembered is because of how many people she pissed off.

[@KneeAches]

My favorite all time Movie!

[@ravedeath7690]

seeing the camera zoom out to reveal rod serling sitting next to pauline kael was very surreal lol

[@lewistyler462]

When Carradine's Cowboy is killed and McCabe dies in the snow, alone. Heart-breaking.

[@ZenFox0]

I might be more isolated from reviews nowadays, but I couldn’t imagine reviewers having such a public forum today, or discussing one another’s reviews (or even caring about them). Of course film reviews have been greatly democratized, as various media proliferate online and anyone on social media can be a critic and cast their vote on IMDb or Rotten Tomatoes.

[@franosbornblaschke3694]

Kael has an admirable confidence and a keenly surgical wit.

[@kengruz669]

I love that she championed "McCabe." It's a gorgeous film, a favorite of mine. She really goes on the offense against those who can't handle some language, obscenity, and challenging material. And then, two years later she absolutely trashes "The Exorcist", another of my favorites, for crossing various lines of gentility. Search out and read her New Yorker review. It's an astonishing contrast to her "liberal" and open-minded approach she affects here.

[@mckavitt13]

I always think of this film as genius... perfect in every way.

[@Theomite]

That look on Dick's face when he hears Louella Parsons was still alive is the look of a man who realizes "Oh My God...they're coming for me."

[@ronmackinnon9374]

About the audibility of the dialogue in 'McCabe & Mrs. Miller,' Kael doesn't mention (perhaps she just hadn't heard yet) that part of the problem was a genuine technical issue -- the audiotrack in some of the earlier scenes underwent damage during the production (which Altman even owned up to in an interview with Cavett not long after this one). But besides that, there's the matter of Altman's approach to filmmaking. He aimed to go against the artificiality of conventional cinema as much as possible, an example of which is the way -- in scenes in which more than one conversation is going on at the same time -- some dialogue is made so much more audible than the rest. That's often not how it is in real life, and for the sake of realism, Altman would often have the key words for that scene just a little bit more audible above the rest. So I don't agree with Kael that it's strictly a matter of 'you hear what you need to hear' -- and its corollary that, 'If you didn't hear it, it couldn't have been anything worth hearing.' Sometimes in overlapping conversation scenes (especially with Altman), I find I pick up more on a repeat listen (definitely an advantage since the advent of home video) that adds to my understanding of what's happening. With Altman, the gain in realism is worth the price of having to pay a little closer attention than with more standard Hollywood filmmakers.

[@LannieLord]

Just gasped to see she's sitting next to ROD SERLING ! OMG , I wish I was in the "green room" that day.

[@Bacalao2929]

I love her

[@ShelterDogs]

Fun fact: Rod Serling traveled around the US teaching seminars on how to watch and critique movies. I wonder if Dick Cavett had known this, he would have made this interview a bit longer and dynamic.

[@mikephalen3162]

Cavett probably did know. I'd say Cavett was allotting Kael the full segment because he had already talked with Rod in the previous segment. If this had been a show in one of Cavett's previous formats where an hour was devoted to a single topic, say film criticism, maybe he would have induced the dynamism you wished for.

[@LannieLord]

To illustrate how much of an "outsider" and free thinker Ms. Kael was : from her book (in alphabetical order) the "J" section. She reviews Fellini's masterpiece 1966 "Juliet of the Spirits" with a trite swipe: "A woman who's husband is cheating on her-- has fantasies that seem to take place on the sets of old MGM musicals". The End. Like what ? LOL . ( ME: "Juliet..." is a colorful dip into the first part of the psychedelic era with some crazy sets and art direction and some hallucinogenic ideas. It feels "Dali-esque" in some ways w/ Fellini's real-life wife in the impish lead role with the most beautiful and bizarre set of co-characters . The soundtrack is pretty loony too.) So on the opposite page is a review for the 1980 BOMB "bedroom face" "Just Tell Me What You Want" w/ Alan King and Natalie Wood. Siskel & Ebert ripped it apart on their show - and the clips looked DREADFUL. Well, Pauline GUSHES on and ON about this movie in what seem like 200 words or more! It felt like she wanted to write an entire BOOK on the film. LOL . So there is a perfect example of her criteria . Like it or not. Her reviews are wildly exciting and when she HATES something it's even better (READ her review of the 1976 Diana Ross film "Mahogany" !) Quentin Tarantino is a HUGE fan of hers . When he was incubating the IDEA of "Pulp Fiction" one of her old reviews stuck with him "It's like cheap pulp paperback -- but there is something DEEPER going on underneath". His next and final movie is called "The Movie Critic" and we have no details yet about anything else -- except it takes place in Los Angeles in the 1970s .

[@shawnpa]

AFI called it "culturally and historically significant", and ranked it 8th best Western.

[@alphabetaxenonzzzcat]

She loved Altman. I don't think she ever said a bad word against any of his works.

[@michaelwallace2487]

She didn’t like Altman’s Buffalo Bill and the Indians, and said so.

[@alphabetaxenonzzzcat]

@@michaelwallace2487 Ah, okay. I thought there would at least be one film that she probably didn't like from Altman.

[@simonboccanegra3811]

She said once in an interview (I am paraphrasing) that Altman alternated between brilliant movies and movies that made you feel he had no talent at all. The only one she panned that I thought she was all wrong about was 3 Women. I consider it one of his masterpieces.

[@IFStravinsky]

I wouldn't even call this an interview. She just starts talking. It's great. As I recall, she did liked Planet of the Apes. Butch Cassidy, not so much.

[@klausrain111]

I saw this movie a few days after it came out, and during the following couple of weeks dragged a few of my friends to see it. Same thing happened 20+ years later with Pulp Fiction.

[@surfwriter8461]

Does that mean you liked and admired both films? If so, how about saying why.

[@kenbranaugh8251]

That movie was so wild GOD

[@chipsahoy8651]

She embarrassed Cavett by knowing Louella Parsons was still alive. Louella didn't pass until 1972.

[@fattymcfatso1083]

No she didn't. Dick didn't have the benefit of wiki - like you do. Louella was long retired and over 90 at the time. Easy to consider her "dead".

[@charold3]

Wow, the great Rod Serling (with the great Pauline, or, hell, I think she’s great).

[@racializedkanadian]

Is that ROD SERLING sitting next to Kael ? I wish they were both still alive !

[@briangoldy8784]

The Legend "Rod Serling" sitting there,,

[@Bootrosgali]

Shit I think Kael mighta been stacked

[@karlroebling3316]

She was the best, an icon. No one has replaced her.

[@Johnconno]

Rod Serling, The Man in The Planet.

[@ExxylcrothEagle]

How fun it must have been to be filming in real snow

[@juerv1]

Why should I care about what any critics say about any film? I form my own opinion. By the way, ten critics have ten different opinions about the same film. Kael disliked classics like "2001", "A Clockwork Orange", "Apocalypse Now", "Blade Runner", "Vertigo", "Casablanca", "Das Boot", "Dirty Harry", "Psycho", "The Graduate", "All the Presidents Men", "The Searchers", "Star Wars", "American Graffiti" and many others. What does that say about her abilities? How many classics did she produce while working as a producer in Hollywood?

[@milart12]

08:26 Rod Serling?

[@nataliep.9047]

duh

[@milart12]

@@nataliep.9047 Haha Is it that obvious?

[@claudiam2474]

Besides some times, She was always right

[@californiagrace6868]

She's cool

[@delmofritz3964]

Wow Rona Barrett and Rex Reed didn't like McCabe and Mrs. Miller? Good. Because I consider it one of the best films ever made.

[@kamuelalee]

Kael wasn't wrong about "McCabe and Mrs. Miller"...great film. However, Kael's dismissiveness of "words" or dialogue in movies and TV I thought rather ironic (and insulting) as she sat next to one of the great popular writers of TV and movies in the last 60 plus years, Rod Serling.

[@jamals.8786]

Did you see his facial expressions after she said that? 😆 It was quite telling what he thought about her opinion on TV dialogue.

[@kamuelalee]

@@jamals.8786 I did, that's partly why I said it. Of course, Kael was paid to make such opinions.

[@DeanLeonard1]

But of course Kael was spot on. People do talk incessantly through TV shows, and now, having learned from TV watching, through movies. And it's certainly true that a great deal of TV dialogue is bilge.

[@fattymcfatso1083]

She's right about McCabe but very wrong about Tora! Tora! Tora! It's a classic.

[@user-uq6sz6po3d]

As a WWll and war movie buff, I love TTT as well. But those are the only reasons I love it. As a pure piece of filmmaking, it's pretty inert.

[@jaceconverse6337]

Well if this interview was in 1971, Hedda Hopper was dead in 1966 and Kael thought she was still around. I did like McCabe and Mrs. Miller though.

[@krisscanlon4051]

Not sure Tarantino was able to synthesize her essence into a film. Niche piece...maybe another auteur can film her ideas and essence.

[@thegrievancegordieshow9882]

🐣

[@65g4]

Kael was a great critic even when you disagreed with her she alwayshad interesting things to say. However this is the woman who discredited Orsons involvement in the script of Citizen Kane her essay on that was debunked.

[@halfnotquantum44]

Here's Mrs. Miller's ex-husband, Bob Strauch performing "Detroit City"! kzbin.info/www/bejne/nZqYeHqXhL6igJo

[@felixthelmocevallosmorales41]

Pauline Kael (19 de junio de 1919 - 3 de septiembre de 2001) fue una crítica de cine estadounidense, que escribió para la revista The New Yorker entre 1968 y 1991. Era conocida por sus reseñas "ingeniosas, mordaces, muy obstinadas y fuertemente enfocadas";[1]​ sus opiniones a menudo eran contrarias a las de sus contemporáneos. Fue una de las críticas de cine más influyentes de su época.

[@warrenrosen132]

She didn't like "Tora"? Weird.

[@leestamm3187]

I always read her reviews back in those days. Sometimes she was right, as here, many other times totally wrong. She was just a critic, which means someone paid to give their opinion. Like a lot of critics, she was self-important and considered her own views to be sacrosanct. Why so many people thought she was some kind of god was always a mystery to me.

[@joesimon2029]

Um, is she sitting next to ...ROD SERLING ?

[@zmani4379]

Yes - notice how they cut to show his reaction when she talks about TV writing

[@vector8310]

The general level of American discourse has declined dramatically since Cavett's day. This show nowadays wouldn't last a week.

[@JHS447]

Interesting to see Pauline Kael in the flesh. Opinionated,loves the sound of her own voice, a little nasty, I’m not sure I would have wanted to be her friend. But I completely agree with her assessment of McCabe. Totally original and, along with Unforgiven and The Searchers, one of my three favorite Westerns of all time.

[@romanclay1913]

A large corporation smashes a small business.

[@Narrate918]

There was a time when film critics were gods. Now, they don’t even exist.

[@thomaslombardo8243]

I loved McCabe and Mrs. Miller but Nashville was Altman’s masterpiece.

[@jefftravis3808]

'Moan-a' (Can't)barrett is more like it. What a vaccuum of artistic acumen. A People magazine gossip columnist rag purveyor. Of course she wouldn't appreciate the movie; probably didn't like much of Altman's work in general. It's not for the casual moviegoer, which is not meant in an elitist, condescending way, but it's much like how Durrell, Genet, Dos Passos, or Henry Miller aren't for a mass audience.

[@tonywords6713]

Crazy they considered 6 million dollar movies a bomb back then. Movies today hemorrhage money to the tune of billions

[@ricardocantoral7672]

I respect Pauline Kael's work but that horrid Kane book. She should be ashamed of it.

[@jazzfan7491]

What’s horrid?

[@charleswinokoor6023]

chatter box