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DOWN_WITH_KAEL

                                             November 20-30, 2012

   Paul Schrader on Pauline Kael:

   "Cultural history has not been kind to Pauline. She
   was able to rail against critical snobbery and High
   Art, defend mass-audience taste and extol 'trash'
   because she never feared for culture. She knew that
   there would always be standards. Because she had
   standards. She appreciated great art and literature
   and opera; no amount of 'trash' could change that."

   "Not long before she died, Pauline remarked to a
   friend, 'When we championed trash culture we had no
   idea it would become the only culture.' That's
   exactly the point. She and her foot soldiers won the
   battle but lost the war. Mass taste has become
   acceptable taste, box-office receipts the ultimate
   measure of a film's worth. The pop films Kael most
   loved, such as 'Hud' (1963), if made today, would be
   considered art-house fare."

         From "Trash and Art: Critics on/of Pauline Kael"
         compiled by Jim Emerson, February 19, 2007

         [link]


                                                           THUNDER

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