Give me Aretha singing 'A Rose Is Just a Rose,' and I can play it all day long. With music it's different, although I realize that sometimes with classical works, I listen to them with great enthusiasm and excitement the first time, but I'm not drawn to listen to them again and again. It's funny, I just feel I got it the first time. More time? I still don't look at movies twice. You were famous - infamous some might say - for never seeing a movie more than once.Ī. Transcript from pages 74-77 of Afterglow, A Last Conversation with Pauline Kael (2003), by Francis Davis.

Most of the time, my initial reaction stays the same and the review I had initially written turns out to be the accurate assessment. I’ve found great value in rewatching some films that I wasn’t that taken by the first time around. Someone with a photographic memory may possess instant access resource to any portion of the film previously viewed, but others can’t fully grasp certain films on the first shot. Kael disliked '2001: A Space Odyssey” and 'The Shining,' both films are well-known to gain in value upon further viewings. Movies are first and foremost a sensual medium, and Kael wanted her reviews to reflect that immediate quality. After that, the film lost its spontaneous value. Kael said that the her first reaction was the truest one, with all senses reacting together to something wholly fresh that was being seen on-screen. Her first reaction was always the one fit to print. It’s well known that one of the greatest of film critics, Pauline Kael, refused to watch a movie twice.

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