Elia kazan

Born in 1909 in Istanbul, Elia Kazanjoglous belonged, as can be deduced from his last name, to a Greek family installed in Turkey. In search of a better life, his father decided to emigrate to New York, where he got ahead with a carpet business. When the young Elia finished his secondary studies, he was quite clear about his artistic vocation, which is why he enrolled in acting at the Group Theatre, an avant-garde formation. Soon, he reveals himself to be an innovative and original theater director. He debuts as a film director with the documentary The Pie in the Sky , although his first fictional feature film, Human Bonds, dates from 1942, when he was already a well-known theater director. It didn’t take him long to revalidate his prestige on celluloid, as he won the Oscar for Best Director, with The Invisible Barrier , in 1947. That same year, he founded the famous Actor’s Studio, the most influential American acting school with Lee Strasberg and Cheryl Crawford. , in which he also worked as an interpretation teacher. In his classrooms, Marlon Brando was forged , who would become a favorite actor in Kazan, after filming together A Streetcar Named Desire , the mythical film adaptation of the work by Tennessee Williams . Turned into a star, Brando repeats with Kazan in Viva Zapata, from 1952. At that time, the most controversial episode in the filmmaker’s life took place, when he was summoned to testify before the Anti-American Activities Committee. He first acknowledges having been a member of the Communist Party in the 1930s, and later ends up ratting out some of his former colleagues. And although broad sectors did not forgive him for his position, he never regretted it, and even justified his position in the excellent The Law of Silence , where the hero, Brando again, is an informer, a port stevedore who has no choice but to denounce police mafia activities.

The 1950s is the most prolific of Kazan’s career, with memorable titles such as East of Eden , Baby Doll , A Face in the Crowd , and Splendor in the Grass . He specialized in portraits of complex, idealistic characters who had to make important and unpredictable decisions due to the circumstances of life. For this reason, his films required impressive acting work. In the 1960s, he spent most of his time writing. The novel América, América stands out , chronicling the emigration of a Turk to the United States, which was based on the history of his family, and especially one of his uncles, and which he himself brought to the screen in 1963. The commitment, starring Kirk Douglas , is something of a continuation on the same theme.

Kazan ended up retiring from cinema after the unexpected failure of The Last Tycoon , an adaptation of Scott Fitzgerald’s unfinished novel. In the early 90’s he tried to start “Beyond the Aegean”, but could not find funding. In 1999 he received the honorary Oscar, an award that sparked much criticism from those who considered Kazan an informer. The filmmaker died at his New York home on September 28, 2003.