Kiss Kiss Bang Bang: Film Writings, 1965-1967

The Film Writings #2

by Pauline Kael

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang is virtually an informal history of the movies. This volume deals with over 300 of them, some essay length, some in short sharp paragraphs. From Bonnie and Clyde to Blow Up, Miss Kael praises, damns and displays her extraordinary grasp of films, film-makers, techniques and film history.

Genres: Film, Nonfiction, Criticism, Essays, Media Tie In, Cultural

Paperback

First published January 1, 1968

About the author

Pauline Kael was an American film critic who wrote for The New Yorker magazine from 1968 to 1991. She was known for her "witty, biting, highly opinionated, and sharply focused" movie reviews. She approached movies emotionally, with a strongly colloquial writing style. She is often regarded as the most influential American film critic of her day and made a lasting impression on other major critics including Armond White and Roger Ebert, who has said that Kael "had a more positive influence on the climate for film in America than any other single person over the last three decades."

Reviews

[Paul Dinger · Rating 5 out of 5]

Most of this book is capsule reviews, but even there Kael's wonderful and boundless prose found expression. There is also her priceless view of the making of the Group a film she witnessed from beginning to the end. It is worth the price of the book when she hears that the 'theme' of the movie is to be, education doesn't suit women for life. To which her response comically is, Who does it suit for life? When you read this be ready to be enthralled by one of the most beguiling voices about modern cinema. Yet to call her just a movie lover is wrong, she loved all the arts and every bit of expression. She is still a wonder to behold.

[Derek Henderson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliantly insightful, stimulating, striking language and at times hysterically funny. Everything she writes is worth reading - even on films you've never heard of and are never likely to see.

[Jesse Bradstreet · Rating 5 out of 5]

9/10

This is my first experience with Pauline Kael, but very early into this book I realized statements of her being the greatest film critic weren't overblown--this collection of writings, penned in the late 60's, is every bit as relevant to the modern film industry (purportedly much changed in the past 50 years) as it was to the film scene Kael was covering. Her writings challenge the common idea that the old American films were somehow greater than the ones today (though, no doubt, Kael would dislike superhero movies, Oscar bait, and Indie just as much as the Western or the Euro-flavored art film.) She tears many movies today seen as classics to shred with a brilliant wit, and carves into the heart of filmmakers, hoping, it seems, to inspire art from them. Sometimes reading this I think Kael hates movies (of "Casablanca", she states it is "a movie that demonstrates how entertaining a bad movie can be"), but I think her cynicism and harshness came from the fact she loved movies, and felt her role in filmmaking was to challenge them--this is a pretty valid stance. In her essay for "Bonnie and Clyde" (which only she and Roger Ebert correctly assessed as one of the best and most important American films of the 60s), she damns the films flaws just as much as she praises its brilliance. Few films even come close to perfect to her--this is a type of rough criticism we could use in the days of Rotten Tomatoes and genre movies which don't live up to their potential because they stop at "good enough." The 100+ brief reviews in the back can be tiresome to read more than a few at the time, but overall this is an excellent selection of writings.

[Andrew Corsini · Rating 2 out of 5]

Kael's writing is enjoyable and distinctive. After a while, however, you begin to tire of her hot-takes. Her panning of Casablanca is an unforgivable sin. Her review of Laurence Olivier's blackface Othello is something that, if written today, would have cancelled her. Yes, it was a different time and all but the condescending phrases she uses, such as "perhaps n*gro actors need to sharpen themselves on n*gro roles" are painful for modern readers to comprehend. Her review of Intruder in the Dark, as well, proudly brandishes the N-word as if she relishes typing it. Anyone can see Casablanca or The African Queen and dislike it, though both are wonderful. I came away from this book wondering what was so special about Pauline Kael.

[Nick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cripes, what a scream! Come for Kael’s anecdotes and zingers, stay for the errant observations and idiosyncratic hilarity that is film criticism.
She muses in the foreward to her “Notes on 280 Movies”: “Perhaps there is something to be gained from an individual’s ranging over old moviegoing experiences this way. I think the sense of feeling qualified to praise and complain in the same breath is part of our feeling that movies belong to us.”

She is often, as in the above observations, spot-on.

[Jacob Hoefer · Rating 4 out of 5]

I always need to read more Pauline Kael! Even when she's writhing about movies and attitudes nearly 70 years in the past it feels fresh and relevant. Her essays on future generations and western and morality in film all ring true. Even when I disagree she manages to make her point thoughtfully and with such diction it almost always wins me over.

[Frank · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pauline Kael's second collection of reviews includes her insightful analysis of the making of "The Group," her seminal and highly influential analysis of "Bonnie and Clyde" and the pan of "The Sound of Music" that got her fired from "McCall's Magazine" (talk about miscasting)."

[Rene Bard]

I could meta-read Pauline Kael all day long. It is a hobby of mine. I mean, back in the day, she put her opinions out there with confidence and lots of zing, and now, after decades have passed, one can evaluate those opinions several different ways. The irony of this is that I seldom agree with her reasoning on things.

In general, she winnows out much of the chaff and points readers to films that will most likely interest a viewer with more intellectual (some of my friends would substitute the word "pretentious" here) tastes.

[TLRHB · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kael's book collections of criticism are a great way for a film buff to judge her tastes against yours, and you can skim it for the movies you want to read her on and skip (many) others. This book has her great review of "Bonnie and Clyde," and a lot of short takes. She's funny in the margins, as in this aside on the pairing of Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn in Bringing Up Baby: "...Grant winds up with Hepburn, and no paleontologist ever got hold of a more beautiful set of bones."

[Bill Crew · Rating 1 out of 5]

I finally gave up on this. Kael is clearly an intelligent person and a great writer, but her constant pettiness and condescension (and occasional sheer nastiness) towards almost every person and movie was exhausting. Why would someone who seems to hate everything about moviemaking become a critic?

[Michael Lovito · Rating 4 out of 5]

Drags a little bit if only because you kind of start to get Kael's schtick after a while, but the "Careers" section is brilliant, and my favorite kind of culture writing. In an age where people either love or hate things, I appreciate Kael's willingness to write about the brilliant parts of a movie she hates and the dreadful parts of a movie she loves.

[Sandra · Rating 3 out of 5]

Si trasladáramos el trasfondo de las críticas de Pauline Kael a la actualidad encajarían a la perfección. Nada ha cambiado y ella es una excelente crítica por darse cuenta.

[Tim Pieraccini · Rating 5 out of 5]

No one writes like Kael.

[ⵀⴰⵙⵙⴰⵏ ⵀⴰⵢⴰⵙⵜⴰⵏⵉ · Rating 5 out of 5]

resplendent

[SHUiZMZ · Rating 5 out of 5]

As always, a fascinating read of film criticism. Many of these films I haven't seen or heard of but many of the now classics are given Kael's sharp wit & critique.

[Jeff · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sitting at my son's violin lesson the other day, nothing to read, though in the back of my car, I remembered, were a stack of duplicate book copies I had planned to sell back to a used dealer, including this, Kael's second collection. I was struck again, re-reading (let's not even pretend to be able to count the number of times), by what an extraordinary period in American and world film this book inventories. Then again, Kael had not yet had her critical work rationalized by the New Yorker editorial schedule, so was free to include odd things here, like an older, previously-unpublished, full length review of Clarence Brown's adaptation of Faulkner's Intruder in the Dust, the most interesting of all her Godard reviews, profiles of the filmmakers Brando and Welles, not to mention what many take to be her signature early pieces, on Bonnie & Clyde and The Sound of Music. Her appropriation of the Frankfurt School, the bad-drives-out-the-good evaluative rationale in her attack on the cultural wholesomeness of The Sound of Music must represent one of the first times that anti-Stalinist, Marxist critique of cultural ideology had entered the discourse around a popular medium in American criticism. You may reject Adorno and Horkheimer, but find that Kael gives you something to think about.

[Matthew · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting to hear Kael's comments on what is now the distant movie past, as well as to get a contemporary perspective on those films (spoilers: she doesn't like the Red Desert but kind of likes Godard). She's in many ways the consummate critic, incisive, insightful, and unapologetic about her opinions. The years make a book like this sort of a curiosity though, both in the way she addresses women and minorities on screen and in the movies she talks about. It made me interested in reading at least some of For Keeps.

[Pablo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Vieja rebelde, prosista de acero, lengua viperina, encarnó los sueños de una generación en la que lo proletario estuvo, siempre, en una manera de entender el vocabulario cinematográfico. Esta mujer se permite llamar cosas hermosas a Godard y soltar unas cuantas soflamas incendiarias sobre Bonnie & Clyde: tiene melodía, estilo, maldita sea, lo tiene todo, y me encanta leerla.

[Monica · Rating 4 out of 5]

No self respecting film lover should get by without reading Kael's funny reviews.. We got The New Yorker at our house so Kael was a household name. She had a way of describing her experiences at the movies the way most people wished they could.

[Chris Gager · Rating 5 out of 5]

More good stuff from PK. I've been a faithful New Yorker reader for many years and always read the film reviews first though I don't go much any more. Date read is approximate.

[Saleh Ka]

ا"هنر به شکل کمیات اندازه گیری شده رو نمی‌شود. یا خیلی بیشتر است یا اصلا به اندازه نیست."ا

[Karen-Leigh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bitingly witty and knowledgeable.