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Kael, Pauline (Subject/Author) & David, Francis (Co-Author) : Afterglow: A Last Conversation With Pauline Kael

Da Capo Press, New York City, NY, 2002

ISBN 0306811928

First Edition / First Printing. Fine in Fine Dust Jacket. 134 pages. Collection of end-of-life interviews. One of the most important books on film in our time. The First Hardcover Edition. Precedes and should not be confused with all other subsequent editions. Published in a small and limited first print run as a hardcover original only that sold out shortly after publication and on the occasion of the first anniversary of her death. The First Edition is now scarce. Presents Pauline Kael's and Francis David's "Afterglow: A Last Conversation With Pauline Kael". Her final views on cinephilia or what she herself preferred to call "movie love", portions of which originally appeared in The New Yorker Magazine. Whether one liked her or not (and there were many people in both camps), Pauline Kael was, indisputably, and for better or for worse, the single most influential film critic of the 20th century. Even the late great Susan Sontag, with whom she barely got along, was a grudging, early admirer of Kael's singular, idiosyncratic, and energetic style, which celebrated the movies as THE popular art form of our time (it is, she was right about that one), resistant to neat demarcations of "high" versus "low". Her scathing comment about the rise of the "independent film" (the so-called "indies") as nothing more than another manifestation of the pervasive culture of political correctness is on the mark. "A deliciously far-ranging conversation about the movies. Who else but Pauline Kael would have said: 'It's not fun writing about bad movies. I used to think it was bad for my skin' " (Publisher's blurb). After more than a decade-long struggle with Parkinson's, Pauline Kael died on September 3, 2001, the week before 9/11. The movies, and those who love them, lost their greatest fan, a serious (if unpredictable and uneven) critic who never tired of championing the best that the movies could offer, and didn't shirk from taking to task any film, director, or actor she thought deserved a taste of her sharp wit either. Kael's insight, spirit, and straight-shooting won her respect and adoration in both film and literary circles, and a loyal following for her New Yorker Magazine essays, all subsequently collected in her naughtily titled books. An absolute "must-have" title for Pauline Kael collectors. This title is a contemporary classic. This is one of few copies of the First Hardcover Edition/First Printing still available online and is in especially fine condition: Clean, crisp, and bright, a pristine beauty. Please note: Copies available online have serious flaws, are subsequent printings, or are remainder-marked. This is surely an accessible and lovely alternative. A scarce copy thus. The most influential film critic of the 20th century. A fine copy. (SEE ALSO OTHER PAULINE KAEL TITLES IN OUR CATALOG). ISBN 0306811928.

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