In 1968, Pauline Kael became the staff film critic for The New Yorker, a position from which she would redefine American film criticism for over two decades.
In 1968, after years of freelance writing for publications such as The New Republic, McCall's, and Life, Pauline Kael was hired as a staff film critic at The New Yorker, a position she would hold—with one notable hiatus to work briefly in Hollywood—until her retirement in 1991.
Kael's arrival at the magazine coincided with a seismic shift in American cinema, as the old studio system gave way to the more daring, director-driven films of the New Hollywood era. Her prose, famous for its vernacular energy, sexual frankness, and willingness to render sweeping, sometimes contrarian judgments, set her apart from the more reserved criticism of predecessors and peers alike.
Working biweekly (alternating with co-critic Penelope Gilliatt for a period), Kael used her platform to champion films like Bonnie and Clyde (1967) and Last Tango in Paris (1972), while eviscerating others she considered pretentious or dishonest, including much of the work of directors like Stanley Kubrick in certain periods. Her enthusiastic, deeply personal writing helped elevate serious film criticism to a form of literature.
Her tenure at The New Yorker made her arguably the most powerful and feared film critic in America, capable of making or breaking a film's critical reputation and influencing the careers of major directors and actors. She trained and inspired a whole generation of critics who came to be known, sometimes derisively, as "Paulettes."