Afterglow: A Last Conversation with Pauline Kael

by Francis Davis

Book Overview

Who else but Pauline Kael would have said: "It's not fun writing about bad movies. I used to think it was bad for my skin." On September 3, 2001, the movies and those who love them lost one of their greatest friends-a friend who never tired of championing the best that the movies could offer and didn't shrink from taking to task any film, director, or actor she thought deserved a taste of her famously acerbic wit. Kael's insight, spirit, and straight-shooting...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0306811928
• ISBN13: 9780306811920
• Release Date: September 2002
• Publisher: Da Capo Press
• Length: 134 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.2" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

The Softer, Kinder Kael

Francis Davis's AFTERGLOW is short, sweet book that records his conversations with his friend and legendary film critic, Pauline Kael. Retired and suffering from Parkinson's, Kael is not the lioness in this book that she was in print from the 60s into the 90s. What does come though is brief thoughts about her craft, the decline of Hollywood is producing top notch material, and her artistic interest in movies. Davis, a famous critic himself, writes in a breezy,flowing manner. The editing is superb and the book is easily read in one sitting.

A Short, Fascinating Glimpse at the Queen of Film Critics

In September, 2001, film critic Pauline Kael passed away. She had written and spoken with sometimes brutal honesty on actors, directors, and all types of movies. Kael didn't really care who she offended or upset. It's not like she tried to offend or upset, she just called them as she saw them. She unflinchingly says of Stanley Kubrick's `Eyes Wide Shut,' "It was ludicrous from the word go." She calls Spielberg "uninteresting" and melodramatic. But she also handed out glorious praise when it was due, especially when other critics were ignoring good films and performances. She states that "Paul Mazursky hasn't been given his due," and that actresses such as Debra Winger have been wrongfully overlooked. Kael mentions several wonderful films that have all but fallen into obscurity, all because most critics are afraid to take a stand and swim upstream against the tide of their colleagues.If the book concerned film criticism only, it would be worth purchasing. But interviewer Francis Davis also asks Kael to address writing, her days at The New Yorker, television, and the reason why so many awful films are made these days. `Afterglow' is a fascinating look into the thoughts of Pauline Kael, but it's far, far too short at 126 pages.

An absorbingly written memory of wit, wisdom, and wonder

Afterglow: A Last Conversation With Pauline Kael by Francis Davis (Contributing Editor of Atlantic Monthly magazine) is an absorbingly written memory of the wit, wisdom, and wonder of a truly great actress, and the memorable chat she had with author Francis Davis shortly before her unfortunate death. Written in question-and-answer format, Afterglow preserves this remarkable woman's keen insights on movies, television, literature and much, much more in her own words.

She was one of the finest American writers...

This little book is well worth the read. Pauline Kael is not someone you feel lightly about - you either love her or hate her (there's a website called die-critics-die that gets my blood boiling...). I adore Kael; she is quite simply my favourite writer, and the wonder of her interviews (there's another book containing a whole pile) is that she wrote how she spoke, so a conversation with her is like discovering a new review. Sure enough you get to find out which recent movies she likes ("Three Kings"), but the book is intellectual and moving as well. Few writers ever fused analytic thought with passion the way Kael managed - reading her made you more fully human, made you expand. This book, slight as it is, gives fresh insight into her writing methods, her tastes, and her wit. It's not as flowing as it might be; Davis's questions seem sometimes to be deliberately elaborate for the unknowing reader (like the explanation about Richard Stark). This is a problem because the fun of Kael is a sharp and fast mind, so a conversation should be a break-neck brain tease among other things. Still, Davis's introduction is wonderful, and he's a fine writer (one I'll look up now I know about him). If you're a Kael fan, read this soon. If you don't know who she is, she's the most important commentator on the popular arts there's been. And she's great, great fun.

i am a paulette

if you have been lucky enough to have had a meal with pauline kael as a young man, then where ever you go, it will stay with you, for she was a moveable feast. i dined with ms. kael one fall evening in nyc for a cover story of a literary magazine i was launching. she was so mesmerizing, with total recall of virtually ever movie she had ever seen. it would be incorrect and limiting to say that she had a photographic memory; she had a cinematic memory. moreover, she conversed in full, complete, self-edited sentences as if she were reading from a script. what fire-breathing intelligence! i felt privileged for those two hours we spent together. that was 16 years ago, when she was still in full throttle at the new yorker. last night, after quickly reading afterglow, and savoring every morsel from ms. kael, the experience left me both uplifted and sad. no one will ever fill her sensible shoes again. not anthony lane, not rex reed--two of my current faves. a tiny woman, ms. kael was a towering giant. we still, and will always, live and watch in her shadow. i have collected all her books, some of which are out of print. but with dvds, i imagine these books will come back to life. we need her to make sense of it all, even if these reviews are 20, 30 years old. still, they read fresh, vibrant, alert, right on the mark. and so, in afterglow, we still see and recognize traces of the young-at-heart but ailing kael still plying her craft--which is a love affair with movies. and like so much of what passes for love, it is obvious that this love has soured over the years, like a bad marriage awaiting for the final annulment. the over-hyped blockbusters, the ceaseless studio pandering to the male high school popcorn-munching crowd, simply broke her heart and spirit. perhaps she felt like an abandoned lover. yet, in this slim book, it is so easy to feel at home with her brainy zingers. and though, she rambles a bit and in a few places repeats herself (perhaps a cause of sloppy editing--also, there is an egregious copy-editing snafu on the copyright page), all i can say, is so what. i will take this book, all 126 pages, over the faux television ramblings of the siegels, eberts, et al--all of whom are part of the hollywood movie machine.