Afterglow: A Last Conversation With Pauline Kael - Softcover

Davis, Francis

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0306812304 ISBN 13: 9780306812309

Publisher: Da Capo Press, 2003

Synopsis

Traces the career of the influential film critic, from her early days and career at the New Yorker through her experiences with numerous directors, disappointment with recent cinema, and renewed interest in television. Reprint. 20,000 first printing.

About this title

About the Author:

Francis Davis is a contributing editor of the Atlantic Monthly and writes regularly for the New York Times and the New Yorker. He is the author of the acclaimed books Outcats and History of the Blues and a biography of John Coltrane (Knopf). He lives in Philadelphia.

From Publishers Weekly:

This slim but potent volume offers movie lovers an elegant good-bye from the acerbic, wildly opinionated National Book Award- winning film critic who reigned at the New Yorker from 1968 to 1991. The New York Times called her "probably the most influential film critic of her time." Kael's enthusiasm for films was contagious, as she praised or damned them with giddy vitality. Longtime friend Davis's three extended conversations find the octogenarian still an avid moviegoer. While this book doesn't offer extended reviews, fans will be delighted to hear Kael weigh in on movies released since she stopped writing a decade ago. She enjoyed the "sweet" Star Trek spoof Galaxy Quest; the first half of Boogie Nights; High Fidelity ("it gets better as it goes along"); and Brian De Palma's Mission to Mars. She was also fond of TV's "terrific" Sex and the City and The Sopranos ("I loved the first season and watched it religiously"). She found Silence of the Lambs "a hideous and obvious piece of moviemaking"; Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut "ludicrous from the word go"; and American Beauty "heavy and turgid." She also blasts later-day Steven Spielberg (Always was "a shameful movie" and the casting was "terribly wrongheaded" in Schindler's List). Besides film quips, Kael defends her critical review of the Holocaust documentary Shoah, regrets being talked out of reviewing Deep Throat and discusses current filmmaking and her 20-year battle with Parkinson's disease. (Sept. 3) FYI: The book's publication date coincides with the one-year anniversary of Kael's death at age 82.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Da Capo Press
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0306812304
• ISBN 13: 9780306812309
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 144