I Lost it at the Movies

Published in 1965, this is Pauline Kael's first book. It is at once her most uncharacteristic volume of essays and one of her most interesting. Rather than trace recent movie openings on a week-by-week basis, Kael here recalls classics by Ophuls, Renoir, and Bergman and comments on some of the international masterpieces of the early '60s. She also meditates on the state of the art in provocatively titled pieces like "Are Movies Going to Pieces?," "Fantasies of the Art House Audience," and "Is There a Cure for Film Criticism?" Few movie reviewers of any generation can match her wit or intelligence. And almost no one can equal her passion for an art that had such an indelible impact upon her life; Kael's treatment of Vittorio De Sica's masterpiece Shoeshine is perhaps the most intimate and beautiful movie review ever written. Scans were cleaned up with Scantailor. Cover......Page 1 Back Cover......Page 2 Introduction......Page 4 Broadsides | Fantasies of the Art-House Audience......Page 28 The Glamour of Delinquency | On The Waterfront | East of Eden | Blackboard Jungle......Page 42 Commitment and the Straitjacket | Room at the Top | Look Back in Anger | The Entertainer | Sons and Lovers | Saturday Night and Sunday Morning......Page 58 Hud, Deep in the Divided Heart of Hollywood......Page 72 Retrospective Reviews: Movies Remembered with Pleasure......Page 88 The Earrings of Madame de . . . (1953)......Page 90 The Golden Coach (1953)......Page 93 Smiles of a Summer Night (1953)......Page 97 La Grande Illusion (1937)......Page 99 Forbidden Games (1952)......Page 103 Shoeshine (1947)......Page 105 The Beggar's Opera (1953)......Page 107 The Seven Samurai (1954)......Page 110 Broadcasts and Reviews, 1961-1963......Page 116 Breathless, and the Daisy Miller Doll......Page 118 The Cousins......Page 125 Canned Americans......Page 128 West Side Story......Page 132 L'Avventura......Page 139 One, Two, Three......Page 140 The Mark......Page 145 Kagi......Page 149 The Innocents......Page 152 A View from the Bridge, and a Note on The Children's Hour......Page 160 The Day the Earth Caught Fire......Page 164 The Come-Dressed-As-The-Sick-Soul-of-Europe Parties | La Notte | Last Year at Marienbad, La Dolce Vita......Page 166 A Taste of Honey......Page 181 Victim......Page 186 Lolita......Page 188 Shoot the Piano Player......Page 194 Jules and Jim......Page 200 Hemingway's Adventures of a Young Man......Page 205 Fires on the Plain (Nobi)......Page 207 Replying to Listeners......Page 210 Billy Budd......Page 216 Yojimbo......Page 220 Devi......Page 225 How the Long Distance Runner Throws the Race......Page 235 8 1/2:Confessions of a Movie Director......Page 240 Polemics......Page 246 Is There a Cure for Film Criticism? Or, Some Unhappy Thoughts on Siegfried Kraenuer's Theory of Film: The Redemption of Physical Reality......Page 248 Circles and Squares Joys and Sarris......Page 269 Morality Plays Right and Left Advertising: Night People......Page 293 Index......Page 318 Back Matter - Advertisements......Page 329