Pauline Kael, American film critic,(1919-2001) Quotes

The words "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang," which I saw on an Italian movie poster, are perhaps the briefest statement imaginable of the basic appeal of movies. This appeal is what attracts us, and ultimately what makes us despair when we begin to understand how seldom movies are more than this.

The movies are so rarely great art, that if we can't appreciate great trash, there is little reason for us to go.

If you don't think education can ruin film, you don't know the power of education.

In this country we encourage creativity among the mediocre, but real bursting creativity appalls us. We put it down as undisciplined, as somehow too much..

In this country we encourage creativity among the mediocre, but real bursting creativity appalls us. We put it down as undisciplined, as somehow too much.

In the arts, the critic is the only independent source of information. The rest is advertising.

Responsible artists try to affect you sensually in a way that enlarges your experience.

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.

In this country we encourage "creativity" among the mediocre, but real bursting creativity appalls us. We put it down as undisciplined, as somehow "too much."

Movies are so rarely great art that if we cannot appreciate great trash we have very little reason to be interested in them.