Elia Kazan
Also Known As: Elia Kazanjoglous, 엘리아 카잔, Ηλίας Καζαντζόγλου, Еліа Казан, Ηλίας Καζάν
Biography: Elia Kazan ( September 7 , 1909, Kayseri – September 28, 2003) was a Greek-American director and actor, described as "one of the most honored and influential directors in Broadway and Hollywood history". He also produced, and wrote screenplays and novels. Born in the Kayseri, Ottoman Empire to Greek parents, they emigrated to New York when he was four. After two years studying acting at Yale, he acted professionally for eight years before becoming a stage and film director. Kazan co-founded the influential Group Theater in 1932 and Actors Studio in 1947, and together with Lee Strasberg, introduced Method acting to the American stage and cinema as a new form of self-expression and psychological "realism". Having been an actor himself for eight years, he brought sensitivity and understanding of the acting process, and was later considered the ideal "actor's director". He himself acted in only a few films, including City for Conquest (1940), alongside James Cagney. Overall, Kazan influenced the films of the 1950s and 1960s by his run of provocative, issues-driven subjects, and acting. Moreover, his personal brand of cinema, employing real locations over sets, unknowns over stars, and realism over convenient genres, proved influential to a whole generation of independent filmmakers in the 1960s. Film author Ian Freer concludes that "If his achievements are tainted by political controversy, the debt Hollywood — and actors everywhere — owes him, is enormous." In 2010, Martin Scorsese co-directed the documentary film, A Letter to Elia, as a personal tribute to Kazan, who he credits as the inspiration for his becoming a filmmaker.
Department: Directing
Place of Birth: Constantinople, Ottoman Empire [now Istanbul, Turkey]
Birthday: September 07, 1909
Deathday: September 28, 2003
Adult: No
Gender: Male
Popularity:
Known For:
Arthur Miller: Writer
Overview: One of the greatest playwrights of the 20th century, Arthur Miller created such celebrated works as Death of a Salesman and The Crucible, which continue to move audiences around the world today. He also made headlines for being targeted by the House Un-American Activities Committee at the height of the McCarthy Era and entering into a tumultuous marriage with Hollywood icon Marilyn Monroe. Told from the unique perspective of his daughter, filmmaker Rebecca Miller, Arthur Miller: Writer is an illuminating portrait that combines interviews spanning decades and a wealth of personal archival material, and provides new insights into Miller’s life as an artist and exploring his character in all its complexity.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2017-12-08
Popularity:
An Actor Named Brando
Overview: A short overview of Brando's career.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2006-05-02
Popularity:
City for Conquest
Overview: The heartbreaking but hopeful tale of Danny Kenny and Peggy Nash, two sweethearts who meet and struggle through their impoverished lives in New York City. When Peggy, hoping for something better in life for both of them, breaks off her engagement to Danny, he sets out to be a championship boxer, while she becomes a dancer paired with a sleazy partner. Will tragedy reunite the former lovers?
Genres: Romance Drama Crime
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1940-09-21
Popularity:
Backstory: 'Gentleman's Agreement'
Overview: Darryl F. Zanuck ignores the protests of his peers and makes a movie about antisemitism called "Gentleman's Agreement" (1947).
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2001-10-21
Popularity:
Blues in the Night
Overview: A struggling band find themselves attached to a fugitive and drawn into a series of old feuds and love affairs, as they try to stay together and find musical success.
Genres: Crime Drama Music
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1941-11-15
Popularity:
A Letter to Elia
Overview: Director Martin Scorsese speaks candidly and passionately about one of his formative filmmaking influences: the late Elia Kazan. Utilizing precisely chosen clips from Kazan's signature films including "On the Waterfront," "A Streetcar Named Desire," "Gentleman's Agreement," "Baby Doll," "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn," "A Face in the Crowd," "America, America," and "The Last Tycoon," and interview footage of the director himself, co-directors Scorsese and Kent Jones recount the director's tumultuous journey from the Group Theatre to the Hollywood A-list to the thicket of the blacklist. But most of all, they make a powerful case for Kazan as a profoundly personal artist working in a famously impersonal industry.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2010-09-04
Popularity:
Elia Kazan: A Director's Journey
Overview: This documentary on the life and work of Academy award-winning director Elia Kazan highlights his colorful life on Broadway and in film, which is exemplified by such classic movies as East of Eden,A Streetcar Named Desire, On the Waterfront, and Gentleman's Agreement. Kazan's life outside the movie set is equally noteworthy, and this film utilizes various interviews to illustrate his controversial appearance before the House Un-American Activities Committee in the '50s. Elia Kazan is one of America's most respected directors, and this video provides a unique glimpse into the life of a man who has left a lasting mark on the worlds of both cinema and theatre. ~ Dan Macintosh, Rovi
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1995-08-14
Popularity:
Elia Kazan: An Outsider
Overview: Hour long documentary on the legendary director.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1982-09-15
Popularity:
Hello Actors Studio
Overview: After Lee Strasberg’s death in 1982, the most prestigious talents from the Actors Studio assumed the leadership of this exceptional organization. For the first time ever, filmmakers have been allowed to film their work.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1988-11-09
Popularity:
Sanford Meisner: The American Theatre's Best Kept Secret
Overview: A leading acting teacher who trained some of the most famous performers of the stage and screen, Sanford Meisner was a founding member of the Group Theatre. The Group Theatre, a cooperative theater ensemble, became a leading force in the theater world of the 30s. Meisner performed in many of the group’s most memorable productions.
Genres: Documentary TV Movie
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1990-08-27
Popularity:
Strangers All
Overview: Domestic drama about an elderly woman and her four squabbling adult children.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1935-04-01
Popularity:
Inside Rupert Pupkin
Overview: Thelma Schoonmaker on Martin Scorsese and 'The King of Comedy'
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2014-05-14
Popularity:
Faye
Overview: Through honest reflection, complemented by insight from colleagues and friends, Faye Dunaway contextualizes her life and filmography, laying bare her struggles with mental health while confronting the double standards she was subjected to as a woman in Hollywood.
Genres: Documentary TV Movie
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2024-05-15
Popularity:
A Man Named Brando
Overview: Documentary short on Marlon Brando included in the DVD extras of The Streetcar Named Desire.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2006-05-02
Popularity:
Mist
Overview: Two Turkish brothers find themselves on opposite sides of the political fence. When one of the brothers is murdered, the boys' father suspects that his surviving son was instrumental in the killing. Celebrated film director Elia Kazan returns to his acting roots in a key supporting role.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: tr
Release Date: 1988-03-18
Popularity:
Marlon Brando: An Actor Named Desire
Overview: In his early days as an actor, Marlon Brando (1924-2004) was a shy young man with theatrical ambitions, like many others; but his charisma and superb acting skills made him truly unique, so that the doors to the starry sky of Hollywood opened for him. However, his peculiar manners, political commitment and complicated love life always overshadowed his artistic success.
Genres: Documentary TV Movie
Original Language: fr
Release Date: 2014-09-20
Popularity:
A New Lifestyle
Overview: Mini-doc on the set of Elia Kazan's "The Arrangement" (1969).
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1969-04-04
Popularity:
Pie in the Sky
Overview: At a skid row mission, a cleric opines as men wait to eat. After his sermon, he brings out a pie and cuts it into small slices. The two men at the end of the line get none. They leave the mission and head for a garbage dump where junk becomes props for their play. A dress form becomes Mae West; a rusted car gives them a wild ride. Then, one dresses as a priest and promises pie in the sky. By the end, they sport metal halos.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1935-04-09
Popularity:
The Screen Director
Overview: A documentary short film depicting the work of the motion picture director. An anonymous director is shown preparing the various aspects of a film for production, meeting with the writer and producer, approving wardrobe and set design, rehearsing scenes with the actors and camera crew, shooting the scenes, watching dailies, working with the editor and composer, and attending the first preview. Then a number of real directors are shown in archive footage (as well as a predominance of staged 'archive' footage) working with actors and crew.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1951-03-12
Popularity:
Tennessee Williams: Orpheus of the American Stage
Overview: A study of Tennessee Williams's life and work as a whole, ranging from his youth in Mississippi and in St. Louis to success and acclaim, followed by the final difficult years. Includes some of the most celebrated scenes from film adaptations of Williams' work, among them extracts of A Streetcar Named Desire (1951),Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958), Night of the Iguana, The (1964), and Suddenly, Last Summer (1993) (TV). Contains footage of Williams being interviewed, including conversations with David Frost, 'Edward R. Murrow (I)', and Melvyn Bragg, as well as reminiscences from people who knew and worked with him, among them Edward Albee, Gore Vidal, and his lifelong friend, Lady Maria St. Just. Features readings from Elia Kazan's Notebook by Kim Hunter.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1994-12-19
Popularity:
I Am Wanda
Overview: Documentary about American film director and actress Barbara Loden featuring an interview filmed in 1980.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1980-12-01
Popularity:
An American Named Kazan
Overview: Elia Kazan represented the American dream. An immigrant who came without anything and who became the Prince of Hollywood and Broadway after World War II. Actor, theater director, filmmaker, writer, he is the founder of Actor’s Studio, a collaborator of Arthur Miller and Tennessee Williams, and a director who discovered Marlon Brando and James Dean.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: fr
Release Date: 2019-03-10
Popularity:
Empire City
Overview: A film essay contrasting the modern metropolis with its "golden age" from 1830-1930, with the participation of some of New York's leading political and cultural figures. Made at a time when the city was experiencing unprecedented real estate development on the one hand and unforeseen displacement of population and deterioration on the other. Empire City is the story of two New Yorks. The film explores the precarious coexistence of the service-based midtown Manhattan corporate headquarters with the peripheral New York of undereducated minorities living in increasing alienation.
Genres: Documentary History
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1985-07-01
Popularity:
Panic in the Streets
Overview: A medical examiner discovers that an innocent shooting victim in a robbery died of bubonic plague. With only 48 hours to find the killer, who is now a ticking time bomb threatening the entire city, a grisly manhunt through the seamy underworld of the New Orleans Waterfront is underway.
Genres: Thriller Crime
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1950-07-27
Popularity:
A Streetcar in Hollywood
Overview: How the play was adapted to Film
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2006-01-01
Popularity:
A Streetcar on Broadway
Overview: Interviews and photos about the play on Broadway
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2006-01-01
Popularity:
Arthur Miller, Elia Kazan and the Blacklist: None Without Sin
Overview: Director Elia Kazan and playwright Arthur Miller were once best friends and professional colleagues, to most that knew them then in both capacities as soul mates. Their politics were similar which was reflected in their work. Kazan was a Communist Party member for a few years in the mid-1930's, but Miller never officially joined the party ranks. Their relationship changed in the early 1950's when Kazan was subpoenaed to testify in front of the House Un-American Activities Committee where he named names of Communist Party members past and present.
Genres: History Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2003-09-03
Popularity:
Life at Any Cost
Overview: A tribute and portrait of the Swedish filmmaker Bo Widerberg. Thommy Berggren presents slices and comments on Widerberg.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: sv
Release Date: 1998-08-20
Popularity:
East of Eden: Art in Search of Life
Overview:
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2005-05-31
Popularity: