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Elia Kazan |
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Director / Producer |
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1909 - 2003 |
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Born September 7,
Istanbul, Turkey |
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Key
Production Country: USA |
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Key Genres: Drama,
Family Drama, Message Movie,
Americana |
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Key
Collaborators: Lyle
Wheeler (Production Designer), Karl Malden (Leading Character Player),
Harmon Jones (Editor), Alfred Newman (Composer), Marlon Brando (Leading
Player), Darryl F. Zanuck (Producer), Joseph MacDonald
(Cinematographer), Boris Kaufman (Cinematographer), Gene Milford
(Editor), Richard Day (Production Designer) |
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Highly Recommended:
A
Streetcar Named Desire (1951)*, On the Waterfront (1954)*, East of Eden
(1955)*, Baby Doll (1956), Wild River (1960)*, America, America (1963)* |
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Recommended:
A
Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1945), Boomerang!
(1947)#, Pinky (1949), Panic in the Streets (1950)#, A Face in the Crowd
(1957), Splendor in the Grass (1961)* |
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Worth a Look:
Gentleman's Agreement (1947) |
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Approach with Caution:
Viva Zapata! (1952), The Visitors (1972), The Last Tycoon (1976) |
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* Listed in TSPDT's
1,000 Greatest Films
section; #
Listed in TSPDT's
250 Quintessential Noir Films
section. |
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Links: [
Amazon
]
[
IMDB ] [
All-Movie
Guide ] [
Film Reference ]
[
Elia
Kazan: Postage Paid ] [
World
Socialist Web Site: Hollywood Honors Kazan ] [
DGA
Article ] [
Reel
Classics ] [
PBS
American Masters ] [
Spartacus
Educational Page ] [
Internet
Broadway Database ] |
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Books:
[
Elia
Kazan: A Life ] [
Kazan
- The Master Director Discusses His Films ] [
Elia
Kazan: Interviews ] [
Elia
Kazan: A Biography ] |
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"In
works like Viva Zapata, On the Waterfront, East
of Eden, Baby Doll and Wild River (his
quietest and best film), he abandoned the studio for location
shooting, but retained the services of Actors Studio stars like
Brando, Dean and Steiger, effectively revolutionising film
acting; in retrospect, however, many of the performances look
less naturalistic than overwrought, just as the direction,
despite the focus on 'serious' issues, often seems
overemphatic." -
Geoff
Andrew (The Director's Vision, 1999) |
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"As
an archetypal auteur, he progressed from working on
routine assignments to developing more personal themes,
producing his own pictures, and ultimately directing his own
scripts. At his peak during a period (1950–1965) of anxiety,
gimmickry, and entropy in Hollywood, Kazan remained among the
few American directors who continued to believe in the cinema as
a medium for artistic expression and who brought forth films
that consistently reflected his own creative vision." -
Lloyd Michaels (The St. James Film Directors Encyclopedia, 1998) |
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"All
of Elia Kazan's films have strong social themes, a keen sense of
location and superb performances. Despite his betrayal of his
friends at the McCarthy hearings in 1952, Kazan's reputation as
one of the finest directors in the US has never wavered." -
Ronald Bergan (Film - Eyewitness Companions, 2006)
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"A social critic who examines Americans and the American dream,
Kazan has turned out some of the most powerful cinema studies
since World War II.." -
William R. Meyer (The Film Buff's Catalog, 1978) |
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"When
you know what an actor has, you can reach in and arouse it. If
you don't know what he has, you don't know what the hell is
going on." -
Elia Kazan |
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Please
note that the rating given for this director (see top-right) is based
only on the films we have seen (listed above). Films by this director
that we haven't seen include The Sea of Grass (1947), Man on a Tightrope
(1953), and The Arrangement (1969). |
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8+ |
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"Individual will struggling powerfully against another
person, family, society—this is Elia Kazan’s view of the
world that infuses his films. Kazan in his time was the most
celebrated director of theatre and film in the United
States. Working with Arthur Miller and Tennessee Williams on
stage or with playwrights and novelists such as Moss Hart,
John Steinbeck, Paul Osborne, Budd Schulberg, and William
Inge, Kazan created a unique group of films. Although his
reputation was tarnished and career ruined by his testimony
before the House Un-American Activities Committee in the
1950s, his work as a director is unique in American film.
His director’s idea, that drama is life, infuses his work
with a rawness that makes his films stand apart."
-
Ken Dancyger, The Director's Idea: The
Path to Great Directing |
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●
Top 250 Directors |
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●
Less Than Meets the Eye |
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●
100 Essential Directors (Pop
Matters) |
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●
501 Movie Directors: A
Comprehensive Guide to the Greatest Filmmakers |
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See Also |
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Richard
Brooks |
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John
Cassavetes |
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Edward
Dmytryk |
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Norman
Jewison |
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Sidney
Lumet |
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Daniel Mann |
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Paul Newman |
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Nicholas
Ray |
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Martin Ritt |
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Robert Rossen |
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Martin
Scorsese |
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George
Stevens |
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Elia Kazan's Favourites |
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Aerograd (1935)
Alexander
Dovzhenko,
The Baker's Wife (1938)
Marcel Pagnol,
Battleship Potemkin (1925)
Sergei Eisenstein,
Bicycle Thieves (1948)
Vittorio De Sica,
Cesar (1936)
Marcel Pagnol,
Fanny (1932)
Marc Allegret,
Flesh and the Devil (1926)
Clarence Brown,
The Gold Rush (1925)
Charles Chaplin,
Marius (1931)
Alexander Korda,
Rome, Open City (1945)
Roberto Rossellini,
Shoulder Arms (1918)
Charles Chaplin,
Target for Tonight (1941) Harry Watt. Source: Cinematheque
Belgique (1952) |
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