Two New Books Explore Life of Petaluma Native, Movie Critic Pauline Kael

Two new biographies explore the life of Pauline Kael, a famous movie critic who was born to a family of chicken farmers outside of Petaluma and made a name for herself as a sharp-witted writer reviewing movies like the Godfather and Last Tango in Paris.

Kael, the daughter of Polish Jews who died in 2001, spent more than two decades at the New Yorker, and influenced a generation of movie-goers and critics alike.

“She poured so much passion into her writing that it rose above journalism and occupied a niche of its own,” writes Robert Fulford, in a review of in the National Post.

The books are Pauline Kael: A Life in the Dark and The Age of Movies: Selected Writings of Pauline Kael.

“She converted a generation of readers to her belief that what happened on the screen mattered,” Fulford writes. “Conversation about movies acquired a seriousness it never had before and has not had since.”

To read the full review, click here.