The worst thing about movie-making is that it's like life: nobody can go back to correct the mistakes.
Pauline KaelHe [Bernardo Bertolucci] has the kind of talent that breaks one's heart: where can it go, what will happen to it? In this country we encourage 'creativity' among the mediocre, but real bursting creativity appalls us. We put it down as undisciplined, as somehow 'too much.' Well, Before the Revolution is too much and that is what is great about it. Art doesn't come in measured quantities: it's got to be too much or it's not enough.
Pauline KaelThe romance of movies is not just in those stories and those people on the screen but in the adolescent dream of meeting others who feel as you do about what youโve seen.
Pauline KaelMoviemaking is so male-dominated now that they think theyโre being pro-feminine when they have women punching each other out.
Pauline KaelWe will never know the extent of the damage movies are doing to us, but movie art, it appears, thrives on moral chaos. When the country is paralyzed, the popular culture may tell us why. After innocence, winners become losers. Movies are probably inuring us to corruption; the sellout is the hero-survivor for our times.
Pauline Kael