War Of The Critics!!!!!!!
 

Here's Part One of the Pauline Kael/John Simon/Dwight Macdonald panel debate at Berkeley in 1963, moderated by Roger Rosenblatt:

http://s18.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=3...O0C4Z6JMNZUSF2

Part Two: http://s4.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=1T...T3UYU3AH09BI2X

Part Three: http://s4.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=0X...72DR1E3Q7GYJHH

Part Four: http://s15.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=3...U2XKZ3O6VYYZ2E

Part Five: http://s15.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=3...G1F837DU6UASX4

Part Six: http://s15.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=2...I1UOJR594YUUSY

You will plotz when you hear this tantalizing taste of cinema history!! Everybody is so young in it -- except for Dwight, who was never young.

I just recently browsed this place for the first time in ages and didn't think it would be polite to download these without saying thanks, David. I've never heard this, so it should be great fun to listen to. Since you were in the sharing mood, I'm not sure if you've heard these, but they're worth listening to if you haven't.

Kael's talk at the San Fernando Valley State College, 1963, 55 minutes: http://www.sendspace.com/file/591h2h

Mostly about the auteur theory and Andrew Sarris' 1962 essay on it. A bit of it is the same as "Circles and Sqaures," though. She's in top form and her bite is at it's most wicked. I've always pictured Sarris' skin crawling at the mere sound of her voice; something along the lines of what my skin does when I read him. "Citizen Sarris: American Film Critic" has a silly but still oddly worthwhile essay on Kael vs. Sarris, though it's a bit difficult to slog through all of the ass-kissing sent in Sarris' direction, even if it is a book all about him.

The Johnson Library at Hampshire College here in Massachusetts has Kael's personal library and the first time I went to browse it, I almost lost it when I went through some of the books and looked at the comments & markings she had written in them over the years. She had Sarris' 'The American Cinema" and wrote "nonsense" in it after he wrote that westerns shy away from satire & parody.

Kael criticizing Pacifica Radio and it's listeners on-air, two broadcasts, 1962, 16 minutes: http://www.sendspace.com/file/ro9144

More of a novelty than anything, but it's guaranteed to eke out a few chuckles, especially the second broadcast.

Yay Diss!!! :wavey:

Far out! You're back for a visit!! Avoid the sevenwonders board at all costs. It'll chew you up & spit you out, as it did me.

Thanks for uploading these additional Kael pieces. I actually have them on CD but I really enjoy them. I have some more Kael, including a radio show entitled "What's Happened to Film Criticism?" recorded March 12, 1963 & another radio show about film since World War II, plus a show she was guest on for a group of college writers at some Southern university, where the kids ask her questions.

I saw Kael speak only once -- at UCLA in 1986 to a sold-out audience -- but I'd like to hear a tape of that show.

Poor thing. I don't really post anywhere anymore, but it's certainly funny to read about my "following trends" and supposedly setting up camp over there when I do pop up to post a few times. That place is as much fun as a colonic.

You're welcome; thank you. You've got some great stuff. I don't have much Kael audio aside from what I uploaded and what I downloaded from you, which I'm loving. John Simon sure could be a blowhard. I think he likes the sound of his own voice as much as he likes tossing digs at Minnelli and her "blubber lips." I bought "John Simon On Film Criticism: 1982-2001" back during the summer, which is a pretty hefty volume, and I thought it was a pretty good collection, but I was disappointed that it was sanitized of some of his most vicious pieces and lashings. Most shocking was that he liked "As Good As It Gets." That was a new one to me.

What did she talk about? My jealously has been ignited since I'm too young to have had the opportunity to see her speak, but I'd love to hear about it.

Yay! Diss is posting again. I hope this isn't a short stay.