Pauline Kael - Brian Kellow [249]
215 “those who didn’t turn away in anger”: Ibid.
215 “It’s shit, honey”: Ibid.
215 “You’re too restless to be a writer”: Ibid.
215 “I’ve thought about this seriously, honey”: Ibid.
215 “Ray, his face cast down into his shrimp and rice”: Ibid.
216 “the emotional resources”: Pauline Kael, “The Current Cinema,” The New Yorker (December 23, 1974).
217 “about midway”: Ibid.
217 “Is it our imagination”: Ibid.
217 “the physical audacity”: Ibid.
217 “openhanded”: Ibid.
217 “the sensibility at work”: Ibid.
217 “a magnificent piece”: Letter from Penelope Gilliatt to Pauline Kael, December 17, 1974.
217 “in a position”: Kael, The New Yorker (August 5, 1975).
217 “didn’t plan on The Conversation being a success”: Ibid.
218 “audiences like movies that do all the work for them”: Ibid.
218 “The movie companies used to give all their pictures a chance”: Ibid.
218 “Perhaps no work of art is possible without belief in the audience”: Ibid.
219 “really care about the business end”: Letter from Fred Goldberg to Pauline Kael, August 22, 1974.
219 “a hell of a writer”: Ibid.
219 “strikingly well-edited”: Kael, The New Yorker (October 14, 1974).
219 “complete without us”: Ibid.
219 “the secret of gambling ”: Ibid.
219 “The poor bastard who buys a two-dollar ticket”: Ibid.
219 “I always enjoy reading you”: Author interview with James Toback, May 21, 2009.
220 “For a while I just felt awkward: Ibid.
220 “a lot of characters”: Kael, The New Yorker (October 14, 1974).
220 “She never liked to talk about being Jewish”: Author interview with James Toback, May 21, 2009.
220 “She thought, ‘I’m just what he was”: Ibid.
220 “one of the rare films that genuinely deserve to be called controversial”: Kael, The New Yorker (January 13, 1975).
221 “the first angry-young-woman movie”: Ibid.
221 “Burstyn appears to be”: Ibid.
221 “The trouble with Ellen Burstyn’s performance is that she’s playing against something instead of playing a character”: Ibid.
221 “so many of those discordant notes”: Ibid.
222 “might have been no more than a saucy romp ”: Kael, The New Yorker (February 17, 1975).
222 “the emotional climate of the time and place”: Ibid.
222 “an easy role”: Ibid.
222 “the most virtuoso example of sophisticated kaleidoscopic farce”: Ibid.
223 “She was very entertaining and interesting and funny about herself”: Author interview with Michael Murphy, October 15, 2009.
223 “I always had a feeling about Pauline”: Ibid.
223 “Bob was very flattered by how wonderful she thought he was”: Author interview with Sue Barton, October 23, 2008.
224 “That’s what the screening was for”: Jan Stuart, The Nashville Chronicles: The Making of Robert Altman’s Masterpiece (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2000), 281.
224 “Is there such a thing as an orgy for movie-lovers”: Kael, The New Yorker (March 3, 1975).
224 “Nashville isn’t in final shape yet”: Ibid.
224 “The great American popularity contest”: Ibid.
225 “all of those things”: Ibid.
225 “Altman wants you to be part of the life he shows you”: Ibid.
226 “no longer singing”: Kael, The New Yorker (March 17, 1975).
226 “The main problem I had with Funny Lady”: Ibid.
226 “volatility is gone”: Ibid.
226 “Dear Ray”: Letter from Pauline Kael to Ray Stark, April 15, 1975.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
227 “the funniest epic vision of America ever to reach the screen”: Pauline Kael, “The Current Cinema,” The New Yorker, March 3, 1975.
227 “If one can review a film”: The New York Times, March 9, 1975.
227 “The Last Tycoon bombs like a paper bag full of water”: Ibid.
227 “really not very talented”: Jan Stuart, The Nashville Chronicles: The Making of Robert Altman’s Masterpiece (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2000), 285.
227 “always foaming at the mouth about something”: Ibid.
228 “Nobody got rich”: Author interview with Joan Tewkesbury, February 4, 2009.
228 “In the twilight land of flickering ”: Doctor of Humane Letters citation to Pauline Kael, Haverford College, May 13, 1975.
229 “Cary Grant is your dream date”: Kael, The New Yorker (July 14, 1975).
229 “He