Filmmaker Rob Garver discusses his documentary WHAT SHE SAID: THE ART OF PAULINE KAEL with film critic Michael Sragow.
Recorded at Landmark's NuArt Theatre on 12/15/19.
The New Yorker’s film critic Pauline Kael (1919-2001), often considered the most influential of all time, battled to make her mark—fueled by brilliance, unshakable self-confidence, a complicated past, and a deep love of the arts. In a field that embraced few female critics, Kael was charismatic, controversial, witty and discerning. Her turbo-charged prose famously championed the New Hollywood Cinema of the late 1960s and ‘70s (Bonnie and Clyde, Nashville, Carrie, Taxi Driver) and the work of major European directors (François Truffaut, Bernardo Bertolucci), while mercilessly panning some of the biggest studio hits (The Sound of Music, Midnight Cowboy, Dirty Harry). Featuring a delightful banquet of well-chosen film clips, with over 35 new interviews and never-before seen archival material, What She Said is an incisive portrait of a pioneer who was both admired and resented for what she said about art in an era of great moviemaking. Sarah Jessica Parker reads from Kael’s reviews; filmmakers Quentin Tarantino, David O. Russell, Paul Schrader and Francis Ford Coppola and critics Camille Paglia, Molly Haskell, Greil Marcus and David Edelstein speak to her enormous gifts and influence.