Pauline Kael on Writer's Workshop (1982)
Pauline Kael is the guest on this episode of the Writer's Workshop, filmed at the University of South Carolina on Feb. 11, 1982, and broadcast on PBS. Kael discusses writing with Benjamin Dunlop, William Price Fox, and Fox's and James Dickey's writing class (Dickey is not present). Topics include "Straw Dogs"; Bertrand Blier's "Get Out Your Handkerchiefs"; Sam Peckinpah and women's films; Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola, Brian DePalma, and Robert Altman; Italian-American filmmakers and Michael Cimino; Jewish filmmakers, including Steven Spielberg and Irvin Kershner; Arlene Croce; movie criticism; the screenwriter; the writing process; the "newness" of good movies; Michael Winner and Jack Smight; advice to students; and screenwriters Diane Johnson and Judith Rascoe. George Plimpton introduces the episode.