''When the Lights Go Down: Film Writings 1975–1980'' (1980), is the sixth collection of movie reviews by the critic Pauline Kael.

Background

All material in the book originally appeared in ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...

''. The collection begins with an appreciation of

Cary Grant Cary Grant (born Archibald Alec Leach; January 18, 1904November 29, 1986) was an English-American actor. He was known for his Mid-Atlantic accent, debonair demeanor, light-hearted approach to acting, and sense of comic timing. He was one o ...

. " Mae West's raucous invitation to him - 'Why don't you come up sometime and see me?' - was echoed thirty years later by

Audrey Hepburn Audrey Hepburn (born Audrey Kathleen Ruston; 4 May 1929 – 20 January 1993) was a British actress and humanitarian. Recognised as both a film and fashion icon, she was ranked by the American Film Institute as the AFI's 100 Years...100 Stars, t ...

in ''

Charade Charade or charades may refer to: Games * Charades, originally "acting charades", a parlor game Films/TV * ''Charade'' (1953 film), an American film featuring James Mason * ''Charade'' (1963 film), an American film starring Cary Grant and A ...

'': 'Won't you come in for a minute? I don't bite, you know, unless it's called for.' And then, purringly, 'Do you know what's wrong with you? Nothing.' That might be a summary of Cary Grant, the finest romantic comedian of his era: there's nothing the matter with him.

After the profile of Cary Grant the book contains reviews of movies of the second half of the 1970s - more than one hundred and fifty of them. The book is out-of-print in the United States, but is still published by

Marion Boyars Publishers Marion Boyars Publishers is an independent publishing company located in Great Britain, publishing books that focus on the humanities and social sciences. The company was formed in 1975. When Marion Boyars died in 1999, her daughter Catheryn Kilg ...

in the United Kingdom.

Critical response

National Post The ''National Post'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet newspaper available in several cities in central and western Canada. The paper is the flagship publication of Postmedia Network and is published Mondays through Saturdays, with ...

'' reported that the volume "sold in impressive numbers". Matthew Wilder of ''

City Pages ''City Pages'' was an alternative newspaper serving the Minneapolis–St. Paul metropolitan area. It featured news, film, theatre and restaurant reviews and music criticism, available free every Wednesday. It ceased publication in 2020 due to a ...

'' wrote of Kael and offered "Her peak can be seen in the masterly collection ''When the Lights Go Down''". Jim Emersonon of ''

Sun Times The ''Chicago Sun-Times'' is a daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Since 2022, it is the flagship paper of Chicago Public Media, and has the second largest circulation among Chicago newspapers, after the ''Chicago T ...

'' wrote

Renata Adler Renata Adler (born October 19, 1938) is an American author, journalist, and film critic. Adler was a staff writer-reporter for ''The New Yorker'', and in 1968–69, she served as chief film critic for ''The New York Times''. She is also a write ...

's 7,646-word massive attack on Kael in the '' New York Review of Books''", "...was ostensibly a review of Kael's 1980 collection ''When the Lights Go Down''". He further offered that in her own ''The Perils of Pauline'', Adler panned Kael's work on the volume when Adler wrote "Now, ''When the Lights Go Down,'' a collection of her reviews over the past five years, is out; and it is, to my surprise and without Kael- or Simon-like exaggeration, not simply, jarringly, piece by piece, line by line, and without interruption, worthless. It turns out to embody something appalling and widespread in the culture." The volume has been archived in the

National Library of Australia The National Library of Australia (NLA), formerly the Commonwealth National Library and Commonwealth Parliament Library, is the largest reference library in Australia, responsible under the terms of the ''National Library Act 1960'' for "mainta ...

Editions

*Henry Holt & Co., 1980, hardbound () *Henry Holt & Co., 1980, paperback ()

References

External links

{{Pauline Kael 1980 non-fiction books Books of film criticism Books about film Books by Pauline Kael American non-fiction books Henry Holt and Company books