Kazan

This is a book-length study of the intense creative relationship between Tennessee Williams and Elia Kazan.

In 1999, Elia Kazan (1909-2003) received an honorary Oscar for lifetime achievement; it was a controversial award, for in 1952 he had given testimony to the HUAC Committee, for which he was ostracized by many. That Oscar also acknowledged Kazan's remarkable contribution to American and world cinema, making such films as 'On the Waterfront' and 'A Streetcar Named Desire'. Kazan's life in the cinema is due a reassessment, one that is presented expertly and gracefully by Brian Neve in this book, drawing on previously neglected and some hitherto untapped sources. Focussing in particular on the producer-director's post-'On the Waterfront', New York based independent work, and on his key artistic collaborations, including those with Tennessee Williams, John Steinbeck and Budd Schulberg, Neve gives a fascinating reassessment of Kazan's famed technique with such actors as Marlon Brando and James Dean, and his lifetime concern to provoke and photograph 'authentic' behaviour. He reveals a pattern, through the films, of personally resonant themes, relating for example to ethnicity and the American immigrant myth. He reviews Kazan's style, from the colour and wide screen of 'East of Eden' to the creative use of location in his Amercian South films, including 'Baby Doll'. He debates the reception of Kazan's work and the controversy - which dogged his career - of his 1952 Congressional testimony. These elements and more make this a very readable and memorable, fresh portrayal of the film career of this ever fascinating director. 'Working with an impressively wide variety of archival material, including Kazan's personal papers and notebooks, Brian Neve here offers a solidly researched, insightful, and historically grounded portrait of Elia Kazan, his working methods, his 19 feature films from 'A Tree Grows in Brooklyn' (1945) to 'The Last Tycoon' (1976), and his place in the cinematic and social world of his age.' - Chuck Maland, Professor of Cinema Studies & American Studies, University of Tennessee

Kazan, a hybrid of a wolf and a dog, has been passed around from owner to owner since he was a young puppy. Suffering a long line of abuse at the hands of his previous owners, Kazan felt unloved until he met the wife of his current owner, Thrope. Happy in his new home, Kazan travels to Northern Canada with his owners, where he runs into trouble again. After meeting an unsavory man named McCready, Kazan feels uneasy, and distrusts him immediately. When McCready attempts to harm Thorpe’s wife, Kazan’s suspicions are proven correct. After being forced to violence, Kazan runs away, fearing punishment for his actions. Heartbroken over leaving the first place he felt at home, Kazan wanders around the Canadian wilderness in search of a new family. Though he finds a pack of wild wolves and a kind mate named Grey Wolf, Kazan still feels loyal to humans, despite the risk of rejection from the wild wolves. When the pack encounter an elderly man, and a woman with a small child, Kazan must make a choice between them and his pack, torn between which he should defend. Full of heart-pounding action and wonderful adventure, Kazan By James Oliver Curwood is a touching action-adventure novel. Featuring complex and unique characters, Kazan explores nature and instinct through the rare perspective of an animal protagonists. Appealing to a variety of ages, Kazan is written in descriptive prose and depicts relatable themes of identity, family, and adversity. This edition of Kazan by James Oliver Curwood now features a new, eye-catching cover design and is printed in a font that is both modern and readable. With these accommodations, this edition of Kazan crafts an accessible and pleasant reading experience for modern audiences while restoring the original beauty of James Oliver Curwood’s literature.

This carefully crafted ebook: "Kazan, the Wolf Dog" is formatted for your eReader with a functional and detailed table of contents. Excerpt: "Kazan lay mute and motionless, his gray nose between his forepaws, his eyes half closed. A rock could have appeared scarcely less lifeless than he; not a muscle twitched; not a hair moved; not an eyelid quivered. Yet every drop of the wild blood in his splendid body was racing in a ferment of excitement that Kazan had never before experienced; every nerve and fiber of his wonderful muscles was tense as steel wire..." James Oliver Curwood was an American action-adventure writer and conservationist. His books ranked among top-ten best sellers in the United States and at least eighteen motion pictures have been based on or directly inspired by his novels and short stories.

Top critics and scholars reconsider the cinematic legacy of Elia Kazan A groundbreaking filmmaker dogged by controversy in both his personal life and career, Elia Kazan was one of the most important directors of postwar American cinema. In landmark motion pictures such as A Streetcar Named Desire, On the Waterfront, East of Eden, and Splendor in the Grass, Kazan crafted an emotionally raw form of psychological realism. His reputation has rested on his Academy award-winning work with actors, his provocative portrayal of sexual, moral, and generational conflict, and his unpopular decision to name former colleagues as Communists before the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1952. But much of Kazan's influential cinematic legacy remains unexamined. Arriving in the wake of his centenary, Kazan Revisited engages and moves beyond existing debates regarding Kazan's contributions to film, tackling the social, political, industrial, and aesthetic significance of his work from a range of critical perspectives. Featuring essays by established film critics and scholars such as Richard Schickel (Time), Victor Navasky (The Nation), Mark Harris (Entertainment Weekly), Kent Jones (Film Comment), Jonathan Rosenbaum (Essential Cinema, 2004), Jeanine Basinger (The Star Machine, 2007), and Leo Braudy (On the Waterfront, 2008), this book is a must for diehard cinephiles and those new to Kazan alike. Contributors include: JEANINE BASINGER, LEO BRAUDY, LISA DOMBROWSKI, HADEN GUEST, MARK HARRIS, KENT JONES, PATRICK KEATING, SAVANNAH LEE, BRENDA MURPHY, VICTOR NAVASKY, BRIAN NEVE, JONATHAN ROSENBAUM, RICHARD SCHICKEL, ANDREW TRACY, and SAM WASSON.

Elia Kazan first made a name for himself on the Broadway stage, directing productions of such classics as The Skin of Our Teeth, Death of Salesman, and A Streetcar Named Desire. His venture to Hollywood was no less successful. He won an Oscar for only his second film, Gentleman’s Agreement, and his screen version of Streetcar has been hailed as one of the great film adaptations of a staged work. But in 1952, Kazan’s stature was compromised when he was called to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC). Kazan’s decision to name names allowed him to continue his filmmaking career, but at what price to him and the Hollywood community? In The Ambivalent Legacy of Elia Kazan: The Politics of the Post HUAC Films, Ron Briley looks at the work of this unquestionable master of cinema whose testimony against former friends and associates influenced his body of work. By closely examining the films Kazan helmed between 1953 and 1976, Briley suggests that the director’s work during this period reflected his ongoing leftist and progressive political orientation. The films scrutinized in this book include Viva Zapata!, East of Eden, A Face in the Crowd, Splendor in the Grass, America America, The Last Tycoon, and most notably, On the Waterfront, which many critics interpret as an effort to justify his HUAC testimony. In 1999, Kazan was awarded an honorary Oscar that caused considerable division within the Hollywood community, highlighting the lingering effects of the director’s testimony. The blacklist had a lasting impact on those who were named and those who did the naming, and the controversy of the HUAC hearings still resonates today. The Ambivalent Legacy of Elia Kazan will be of interest to historians of postwar America, cinema scholars, and movie fans who want to revisit some of the director’s most significant films in a new light.

As a young New York director, Istanbul-born Kazan revolutionised American theatre with his productions. In this collection he discusses his social themes, his relationship with his actors, his collaborations with writers, and his film style.

Elia Kazan was the twentieth century’s most celebrated director of both stage and screen, and this monumental, revelatory book shows us the master at work. Kazan’s list of Broadway and Hollywood successes—A Streetcar Named Desire, Death of a Salesman, On the Waterfront, to name a few—is a testament to his profound impact on the art of directing. This remarkable book, drawn from his notebooks, letters, interviews, and autobiography, reveals Kazan’s method: how he uncovered the “spine,” or core, of each script; how he analyzed each piece in terms of his own experience; and how he determined the specifics of his production. And in the final section, “The Pleasures of Directing”—written during Kazan’s final years—he becomes a wise old pro offering advice and insight for budding artists, writers, actors, and directors.