Kazan Revisited

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 Awarduwinning 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 Jeanine Basinger (The Star _Machine), Leo Braudy (On the Waterfront), Mark Harris (Pictures at a Revolution), Kent Jones (Physical Evidence), Victor Navasky (Naming Names), Jonathan Rosenbaum (Goodbye Cinema, Hello Cinephilia), Richard Schickel (Clint: A Retrospective), and Sam Wasson (Fifth Avenue, 5 AM), this book is a must for diehard cinephiles and those new to Kazan alike.

Lisa Dombrowski is an associate professor of film studies at Wesleyan University and the author of The Films of Samuel Fuller: If You Die, I'll Kill You!

LISA DOMBROWSKI is an associate professor of film studies at Wesleyan University and the author of The Films of Samuel Fuller: If You Die, I'll Kill You! (2008).