Kazan on Directing [DECKLE EDGE] (Hardcover)

~ (Author), Martin Scorsese (Preface), John Lahr (Foreword)

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

*Starred Review* The late film and theater director Elia Kazan may still be vilified in some circles for naming names to HUAC in the 1950s, but there is no denying he was an important artistic force in mid-twentieth-century America. Many a seminal play and film from this period—All My Sons, A Streetcar Named Desire, Death of a Salesman, On the Waterfront, and others—has Kazan’s fingerprints on it. This fascinating book collects Kazan’s notes and journal entries associated with those seminal works as well as his notes on his productions of many lesser or, at least, less successful works by Tennessee Williams, Arthur Miller, and others, including Thornton Wilder, Archibald MacLeish, and Maxwell Anderson. From these writings we learn, for example, the extent to which Williams depended on the kindness and insight of Kazan to birth his masterpieces and also the limits of that dependence. We learn from Kazan’s journal entries how self-lacerating his criticism of his own artistic missteps could be. Also included is Kazan’s fine essay on the craft of directing, “The Pleasure of Directing,” and editor Cornfield’s extensive notes and commentary, providing a context for Kazan’s words. An invaluable resource for American theater and film aficionados. --Jack Helbig

Review

"A wonderfully conflicted yet curiously confident self-portrait of a great director. . . . Before starting to direct a new play or movie, Elia Kazan would purchase a little school notebook and, as rehearsals and early performances proceeded, fill it with his thoughts. Taken together, these notebooks constitute a unique (and as far as I know unparalleled) record of an uncommonly passionate and acute directorial mind at work, and in edited form, they are the fascinating and unsparing core of Kazan on Directing"
            —Richard Schickel, Los Angeles Times

"A comprehensive survey of Kazan's directorial genius. . . . This book is a lot of things. It is a fascinating account of how a master director works, much of it in detailed passages too long to quote. It offers abundant insight into the unique psyche and mentality of a genius. It affords often shocking revelations of the prudishness and parochialism of yesterday's Hollywood. It sheds light on well-known actors. It is also, quite simply, a good read, as when Kazan says a director must know 'how to direct a chicken to enter a room on cue. I had that problem once and I am ashamed to tell you how I did it.' Left unexplained, this stimulates the imagination. Not a bad thing for a book to do."
            —John Simon, The New Criterion
"Kazan stands alone in his work both on stage and screen. This book provides an excellent opportunity to deepen our understanding of Kazan's achievements."
            —Alec Baldwin

"Remarkable . . . a portrait of the artist in his own words as he planned (and plotted, too, in what we see was his conspiratorial style) how best to bring a play or film to life. . . . Kazan on Directing is much more than just a seminal director's paean to h... --This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 368 pages
• Publisher: Knopf; First edition (April 21, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0307264777
• ISBN-13: 978-0307264770
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #146,073 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Learn from one of the best, August 10, 2009

By	Celeste Thoms "Moviemaker330" (Rochester,NY) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

One of the best directors in film and theatre teaching what he knows. This book is nothing like most directing books that talk about various directing techniques. It's also not a book where someone else writes about Kazan directing. This book is much deeper than that. They are the notes that Kazan wrote himself and used for his plays and his movies. It's a great insightful look into his process and how he breaks down a script. You really get into his head. It's like having Kazan as a personal mentor giving you practical applications you can use, and you know they work.