What She Said: The Art of Pauline Kael

Director Garver said he had read Pauline Kael's work as a young person in the 1980s, and was inspired by her spirit, humor and insight. In 2014, he began to research her life and writing.[5] Garver said his conception of the film was to try to tell the story of her life and work through her own words. The narrative uses excerpts from her published writing, pieces from her letters and interviews to tell Pauline's story.[5]

Interviews were shot in New York, Philadelphia, Massachusetts, and California.[6] Audience recreations used in the film were shot in two historic cinemas—the Loew's Jersey Theater in Jersey City and the Lansdowne Theatre in suburban Philadelphia. Research was conduced at the Lilly Library at Indiana University in Bloomington, which houses the Kael archives. Archival Producer Rich Remsberg worked with the director to uncover new material on Kael and archival interviews with Pauline and others are seen or heard in the film, including those with Woody Allen, Jerry Lewis, Norman Mailer, Peter Bogdanovich, Robert Evans, Ridley Scott and William Peter Blatty.[7][8]

In 2019, the film played at many festivals in the United States: Palm Springs,[9] Miami,[10] Athena,[11] San Luis Obispo,[12] Cleveland,[13] Minneapolis-St. Paul,[14] Montclair,[15] Newport Beach,[16] Maine,[17] Gasparilla,[18] Berkshire,[19] Provincetown,[20] Seattle,[21] and Tallgrass.[22] At Tallgrass, the film won the award for Best Documentary for 2019.[23]

It also played in festivals outside the United States: Thessaloniki,[24] Mumbai,[25] New Zealand,[26] DocAviv,[27] Jerusalem,[28] Message to Man,[29] Karlovy Vary,[30] Edinburgh,[31] Gent,[32] Cork,[33] Doclisboa,[34] and Vancouver.[35]

In December 2019, the film opened in New York[36] at the Film Forum and in Los Angeles,[37] and went on to play in approximately 50 theaters in North America. After the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the movie continued to play virtually through July, 2020. What She Said also aired on the Sky Arts[38] network in the United Kingdom in July, as well as airing in Denmark, Spain,[39][40] Poland, New Zealand[41] and Israel in 2020.

The DVD of the film was released on June 16, 2020, with extra material, including two deleted scenes and an audio interview Kael conducted with Alfred Hitchcock in 1974.[42]

On the website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 88%, based on 66 reviews, with an average rating of 6.90/10. The website's consensus reads, "What She Said: The Art of Pauline Kael clearly outlines the gifts that made its subject special while offering an engaging overview of her remarkable life and career."[43] On the website Metacritic, the film has a score of 68 out of 100, based on 16 critics.[44]

Owen Gleiberman in Variety wrote, "Rob Garver's beautifully crafted documentary channels the timeless headiness of Pauline Kael, arguably the greatest film critic who ever lived ... With Sarah Jessica Parker reading Pauline’s words on the soundtrack, “What She Said” plays like a twirling kaleidoscope of Kael’s criticism and film history that’s fully in touch with the devil-may-care imperiousness of her personality."[45]

• Official website
• What She Said: The Art of Pauline Kael at IMDb
• Excerpt