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Elia Kazan

 

TSPDT Rating

Director / Producer / Screenwriter
1909 - 2003
Born September 7, Istanbul, Turkey
Key Production Country: USA
Key Genres: Drama, Family Drama, Message Movie, Americana
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)
Highly Recommended: A Streetcar Named Desire (1951), On the Waterfront (1954), East of Eden (1955), Baby Doll (1956), Wild River (1960), America, America (1963)
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)
Links: [ 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
Books: [ Elia Kazan: A Life ] [ Kazan - The Master Director Discusses His Films ] [ Elia Kazan: Interviews ] [ Elia Kazan: A Biography ]
DVD's: [ Amazon ]
1,000 Greatest Films: A Streetcar Named Desire (1951), On the Waterfront (1954), East of Eden (1955), Baby Doll (1956), A Face in the Crowd (1957), Wild River (1960), Splendor in the Grass (1961), America, America (1963)
250 Quintessential Noir Films: Boomerang! (1947), Panic in the Streets (1950)
 
A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)On the Waterfront (1954)Baby Doll (1956)Wild River (1960)
 
     
  "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)  
     
  "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)  
     
  "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)  
     
  "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)  
     
  "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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