WHAT SHE SAID:  The Art of Pauline Kael

Directed by Rob Garver 

with the voice of Pauline Kael performed by Sarah Jessica Parker


 Opens in Toronto at the Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema - Friday, January 17, 2020 

“The most powerful, loved, and hated film critic of her time.” -Roger Ebert on Pauline Kael (1919-2001)


In a field that has historically embraced few women film critics, Kael was charismatic, controversial, witty, and discerning. Her decades-long berth at The New Yorker energized her fans (“Paulettes”) and infuriated her detractors on a weekly basis. Her turbo-charged prose famously championed the New Hollywood Cinema of the late 1960s and ‘70s (BONNIE AND CLYDE, NASHVILLE, CARRIE, TAXI DRIVER) and the work of major European directors (François Truffaut, Bernardo Bertolucci), while mercilessly panning some of the biggest studio hits (THE SOUND OF MUSIC, MIDNIGHT COWBOY, DIRTY HARRY). Her creepy battle with Andrew Sarris and his auteur theory was legendary, and her stint in Hollywood, trying her hand at producing, was a disaster.

 

Director Rob Garver first read Pauline Kael’s work as a young man in the 1980’s and the fiery passion with which she wrote about film made a deep impression on him.

 

With WHAT SHE SAID: The Art of Pauline Kael Garver translates the excitement that he felt while reading Kael’s work to the screen. Kael’s story is told largely through her own words, which are collected from interviews, private letters, and published writing. Sarah Jessica Parker voices Pauline Kael.

Her voice is supplemented by interviews with some of America’s most important film talents, including Quentin Tarantino, Paul Schrader, and David O. Russell, as well as fellow critics like Molly Haskell, David Edelstein, and Joe Morgenstern. Whereas some of these people counted themselves among Kael’s friends or found inspiration through her, others took issue with her  - a unique tension that the film explores.

WHAT SHE SAID: The Art of Pauline Kael also features photographs, illustrations and audio acquired from Kael’s archives from the Lilly Library at the University of Indiana, as well as from private collections such as those of her daughter Gina James who also appears in the film.

 

Films We Like

Founded by award-winning documentary filmmaker Ron Mann (Grass, Comic Book Confidential, Carmine Street Guitars) Films We Like is a boutique distributor of documentary, independent, and international films in Canada. Recent releases include Echo in the Canyon, Paris is Burning  and Barbara Rubin and the Exploding NY Underground.

Running time:  95 minutes

2018 USA

Download hi-rez photos, press notes, trailer


Media contact:
Virginia Kelly
V Kelly & Associates