The worst thing about movie-making is that it's like life: nobody can go back to correct the mistakes.
Interpretation
Movie-making mirrors life in that mistakes cannot be undone.
In this quote, Pauline Kael reflects on the inherent imperfections of both film and life, emphasizing the inevitability of mistakes that cannot be retraced or corrected. Just as filmmakers must move forward despite errors in their craft, individuals must navigate their lives accepting that past decisions cannot be altered, which imparts a sense of urgency and authenticity to both experiences.
In practice
During a filmmaking seminar, this quote can be used to highlight the importance of embracing creativity despite making mistakes.
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.
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.
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?
What this generation was bred to at television's knees was not wisdom, but cynicism.
Most people who offer their help do it to make themselves feel better, not us. To be honest, I don't blame them. It's superstition: If you give assistance to the family in need... if you throw salt over your shoulder... if you don't step on the cracks, then maybe you'll be immune. Maybe you'll be able to convince yourself that this could never happen to you.
There is the "you" that people see and then there is the "rest of you". Take some time and craft a picture of the "rest of you." This could be a drawing, in words, even a song. Just remember that the chances are good it will be full of paradox and contradictions.
He is one of those who has had the wilderness for a pillow, and called a star his brother. Alone. But loneliness can be a communion.
Terror is only justice: prompt, severe and inflexible; it is then an emanation of virtue; it is less a distinct principle than a natural consequence of the general principle of democracy, applied to the most pressing wants of the country.
To get up in the morning, wash and then wait for some unforeseen variety of dread or depression. I would give the whole universe and all of Shakespeare for a grain of ataraxy.
There is no reality except the one contained within us.
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