Imagining [The Wizard of Oz] without Judy Garland is a bit like dancing on wet cement: you can do it, but why would you want to?
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the integral role Judy Garland played in 'The Wizard of Oz' and suggests that her absence diminishes the work's value.
Pauline Kael's quote reflects on the significance of Judy Garland's performance in 'The Wizard of Oz', highlighting how her talent and presence made the film iconic. The comparison to dancing on wet cement suggests that while it is technically possible to imagine the film without her, doing so detracts from its essence and impact, much like attempting to dance on a surface that hinders movement. This reinforces the idea that certain artists are essential to masterpieces, and removing them alters the entire experience.
In practice
During a film class discussion about classic cinema.
I see little of more importance to the future of our country and of civilization than full recognition of the place of the artist. If art is to nourish the roots of our culture, society must set the artist free to follow his vision wherever it takes him.
The romance of movies is not just in those stories and those people on the screen but in the adolescent dream of meeting others who feel as you do about what youβve seen.
We read critics for the perceptions, for what they tell us that we didn't fully grasp when we saw the work. The judgments we can usually make for ourselves.
The worst thing about movie-making is that it's like life: nobody can go back to correct the mistakes.
It seems likely that many of the young who don't wait for others to call them artists, but simply announce that they are, don't have the patience to make art.
What this generation was bred to at television's knees was not wisdom, but cynicism.
Animation can explain whatever the mind of man can conceive. This facility makes it the most versatile and explicit means of communication yet devised for quick mass appreciation.
The person of old had the same brilliance of mind that we assume we have now. But that which made a thing become manifest for the first time is our great moment of creative happening.
I never wanted to be a painter; I wanted to be a tap dancer.
If your educe sculpture to the flat plane of the temporal experience of the work. (...) the experience of the work is inseparable from the place in which the work resides. Apart from that condition, any experience of the work is a deception.
He seemed to be made of sunshine and blood-red tissue and clear weather.
Art is a microscope which the artist fixes on the secrets of his soul, and shows to people these secrets which are common to all.
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