Pauline Kael Quotes

I do think there's not enough film history being taught and appreciated. Maybe it's being taught, but I've heard from professors that young kids don't want to look at black-and-white movies. And that's 85 years of film history, with masterpiece after masterpiece.

My father comes from a generation of film that actors my age don't even know about, which is really sad.

My father always told me that story was first and foremost. We would watch not just his films but a lot of classic American films. My father was a great David Lean fan, and David Lean's one of my favorite directors. We would discuss films endlessly.

At a certain point people want to see other movies besides comic book movies so you have to be really careful what you're going to pick, and how many are going to be released within a year.

I loved all movies, literally. I certainly loved 'Shane' and 'Roxie Hart.' Later on, when I was less of a kid, I loved 'L'Avventura' and 'Persona' and all Fellini movies and like everybody else I loved John Ford. Then and now, I loved Preston Sturges, maybe above anyone.

Well, I certainly was exposed to and learned to appreciate the work of great directors early on. As a kid, my mother used to take me to see really interesting arty films in Los Angeles.

A film is a terrible thing to waste.

In old movies, the cinematography is a thousand times better than anything today. Writing, a thousand times better.

I spent my entire youth in front of a TV watching old movies, and as soon as I was able to get a subway pass, when I was 14, I joined the Museum of Modern Art and was there all weekend watching old movies.

You know when you watch old movies, it's always the small parts you remember, the character actors who come in like a breath of fresh air.

But what I really like are old Hollywood movies. Very often I watch AMC.

I'll watch anything as long as it's good. I can't choose just one movie that I love.

I love turning my daughter on to old movies.

I would loathe to work on modern films.

Friends told me not to bother with the silents - they're jerky, poorly photographed and ludicrously badly acted. But I was immediately struck by the freshness and vitality of these films.

You would be surprised of films that people just don't see. You know what I mean? I'm always working and I'm a film buff but I'm an old school film buff.

I love to look at The Graduate, or Lawrence of Arabia, or things I had nothing to do with. But you could not get me to go back and watch movies that it was a privilege just to be around them when they were being made.

There's a difference between watching a film and watching a bit of cinema and enjoying a film as a piece of cinema.

Every great film should seem new every time you see it.

I don't care about Hollywood films. I'm not against Hollywood films, you know? Hollywood films were very good before, in the 1950s.

Different films have different places in people's lives. I don't get to see a lot of films, so I want to watch films I learn from.

I became addicted to the movie-going experience in the 1970s, when I attended multiple screenings of films such as 'Chinatown', 'Jaws', 'Star Wars' and the original 'Rocky'.

I did love 'The Artist.' I've seen it four times, and every time I see it, it gets better and better.

You have to go back to the '30s and '40s to see a film that's any good.

I watch old school film so that I can learn so much that I just sort of miss all the new stuff.