Quotes from book
State of the Art

Name: State of the Art
Author: Pauline Kael

Pauline Kael

State of the Art: Film Writings 1983–1985 is the eighth collection of movie reviews by the critic Pauline Kael.

“In the sixties, the recycling of pop culture — turning it into Pop art and camp — had its own satirical zest. Now we're into a different kind of recycling. Moviemakers give movies of the past an authority that those movies didn't have; they inflate images that may never have compelled belief, images that were no more than shorthand gestures — and they use them not as larger-than-life jokes but as altars.”

Pauline Kael book State of the Art

"A Bad Dream/A Masterpiece," review of The Moon in the Gutter (1983-09-19), p. 48.
State of the Art (1985)

“If I never saw another fistfight or car chase or Doberman attack, I wouldn't have any feeling of loss. And that goes for Rottweilers, too.”

Pauline Kael book State of the Art

"King Candy," review of Against All Odds (1984-03-19), p. 145.
State of the Art (1985)

“Since I have an aversion to movies in which people say grace at the dinner table (not to the practice but to how movies use it to establish the moral strength of a household), the opening night montage of Sunday-night supper in one home after another in Waxahachie, Texas in 1935 — a whole community saying grace — made me expect the worst.”

Pauline Kael book State of the Art

"Mirrors," review of Places in the Heart (1984-10-15), p. 246.
State of the Art (1985)

“Unlike storybook heroes and heroines but like many actual heroes and heroines, she was something of a social outcast. (As Simone Weil noted, it was the people with irregular and embarrassing histories who were often the heroes of the Resistance in the Second World War; the proper middle-class people may have felt they had too much to lose.)”

Pauline Kael book State of the Art

"Busybody," review of Silkwood (1984-01-09), p. 107.
State of the Art (1985)

“It tackles a wonderful subject without preening, and brings it off unassertively — so unassertively that the movie is in danger of being overlooked. (Variety has already dismissed it as something "for a very limited audience.") We're getting to the point where the press assumes that movie audiences won't be willing to bring anything to a picture, and warns them off.”

Pauline Kael book State of the Art

"Circus," review of Moscow on the Hudson (1984-04-16), p. 160.
State of the Art (1985)

“Unlike storybook heroes and heroines but like many actual heroes and heroines, she was something of a social outcast.”

Pauline Kael book State of the Art

As Simone Weil noted, it was the people with irregular and embarrassing histories who were often the heroes of the Resistance in the Second World War; the proper middle-class people may have felt they had too much to lose.
"Busybody," review of Silkwood (1984-01-09), p. 107.
State of the Art (1985)