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Drawing on new and previously neglected sources, this book is an expert and timely reassessment of Elia Kazan’s life in the cinema. The result is a fresh and memorable portrait of both the man and his work which highlights the remarkable and enduring contribution to American, and world, cinema of this ever fascinating, Oscar-winning director.
Author Brian Neve examines Kazan’s key artistic collaborations--with actors such as Marlon Brando and James Dean and playwrights such as Tennessee Williams and John Steinbeck--and analyzes his cinematic style, from visual techniques to recurrent themes in films such as A Streetcar Named Desire and On the Waterfront. He takes an in-depth look at the controversial Congressional testimony which Kazan gave to HUAC in 1952, for which he was ostracized by many, and which often overshadowed his cinematic achievements. Neve also assesses Kazan and his films in a wider political and cultural context, tracing the evolution of the filmmaking process through the changing role of the studio, the Red Scares of the late 1940s, and the censorship debates of the 1950s and 1960s.
E-Book Content
Elia Kazan
Elia Kazan
The Cinema of an American Outsider
Brian Neve
Published in 2009 by I.B.Tauris & Co Ltd 6 Salem Road, London W2 4BU 175 Fifth Avenue, New York NY 10010 www.ibtauris.com In the United States of America and Canada distributed by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York NY 10010 Copyright © 2009 Brian Neve The right of Brian Neve to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or any part thereof, may not be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. ISBN: 978 1 84511 560 9 A full CIP record for this book is available from the British Library A full CIP record is available from the Library of Congress Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: available Designed and typeset by 4word Ltd, Bristol, UK Printed and bound in India by Thomson Press India Ltd
Contents
List of Illustrations
vii
Acknowledgements
ix
Introduction
1
1: Kazan at Twentieth Century-Fox
11
2: New Directions: A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) and Viva Zapata! (1952)
33
3: Elia Kazan and the House Committee on Un-American Activities
59
4: Filming On the Waterfront (1954)
75
5: Producer–Director: East of Eden (1955) and Baby Doll (1956)
93
6: Journeys in the American South
115
7: Splendour in the Grass (1961) and America America (1963)
137
8: Into Myself: The Arrangement (1969) and After
163
9: The Last Tycoon (1976): A Coda
181
References
197
Filmography
223
Select Bibliography
233
Index
245
Illustrations
Kazan and Ralph Steiner (behind the camera) in Tennessee, making People of the Cumberland (1937)
5
Kazan, James Cagney and Frank McHugh, in City for Conquest (1940)
7
‘What did you do, Kathy?’: John Garfield and Dorothy McGuire in Gentleman’s Agreement (1948)
21
Kazan and cinematographer Joe MacDonald on location in New Orleans, Panic in the Streets (1950): Richard Widmark is bottom right
30
Richard Widmark and Lenka Peterson in Panic in the Streets (1950)
31
Kim Hunter and Marlon Brando: