Elia Kazan Film Festival Catalog

FESTIVAL CATALOGAn Elia Kazan Film Festival

CONTENTS

CHAPTER 1ELIA KAZAN

Biography 9

Filmograhy 13

Awards 16

Interview 18

CHAPTER 2THE FESTIVAL

Directions 34

Attractions 36

Dining 37

Lodging 38

Festival 40

Schedule 40

Featured Films

A Tree Grows In Brooklyn 42

The Sea Of Grass 46

Pinky 50

A Streetcar Named Desire 54

Splendor In The Grass 58

4 An Elia Kazan Film Festival 5E N D E AV O R S O F V I R T U E4 E N D E AV O R S O F V I R T U E

Elia KazanCHAPTER ONE

4 An Elia Kazan Film Festival 5E N D E AV O R S O F V I R T U E An Elia Kazan Film Festival 5

One of the most honored and infl uential

directors in broadway and hollywood history.

—New York Times

6 E N D E AV O R S O F V I R T U E

An Elia Kazan Film Festival 7

E WAS BORN IN ISTANBUL, to Cappadocian Greek parents. After studying

acting at Yale, he acted professionally for eight years, later joining the

Group Theater in 1932, and co-founded the Actors Studio in 1947.

With Robert Lewis and Cheryl Crawford, he introduced Method acting to the

American stage and cinema as a new form of self-expression and psychological

“realism.” Kazan acted in only a few films, including City for Conquest (1940).

H

BIOGRAPHY

8 An Elia Kazan Film Festival 9E N D E AV O R S O F V I R T U E

KAZAN INTRODUCED A NEW GENERATION of unknown young actors to the

movie audiences, including Marlon Brando and James Dean. Noted for drawing

out the best dramatic performances from his actors, he directed 21 actors to

Oscar nominations, resulting in nine wins. He became “one of the consummate

filmmakers of the 20th century” after directing a string of successful films,

including A Streetcar Named Desire (1951), On the Waterfront (1954), and

East of Eden (1955). During his career, he won two Oscars as Best Director and

received an Honorary Oscar, won three Tony Awards, and four Golden Globes.

Among the other actors he introduced to movie audiences were Warren Beatty,

Carroll Baker, Julie Harris, Andy Griffith, Lee Remick, Rip Torn, Eli Wallach,

Eva Marie Saint, Martin Balsam, Fred Gwynne, and Pat Hingle.

HIS FILMS WERE CONCERNED WITH personal or social issues of special concern

to him. Kazan writes, “I don’t move unless I have some empathy with the basic

theme.” His first such “issue” film was Gentleman’s Agreement (1947), with

Gregory Peck, which dealt with anti-Semitism in America. It received 8 Oscar

nominations and 3 wins, including Kazan’s first for Best Director. It was followed

by Pinky, one of the first films to address racial prejudice against blacks. In

1954, he directed On the Waterfront, a film about union corruption on the

New York harbor waterfront, which some consider “one of the greatest films

in the history of international cinema.” A Streetcar Named Desire (1951),

an adaptation of the stage play which he had also directed, received 12 Oscar

nominations, winning 4, and was Marlon Brando’s breakthrough role. In 1955,

he directed John Steinbeck’s East of Eden, which introduced James Dean to

movie audiences, making him an overnight star.


A TURNING POINT IN KAZAN’S career came with his

testimony as a “friendly witness” before the House

Committee on Un-American Activities in 1952 at the

time of the Hollywood blacklist, which brought him

strong negative reactions from many liberal friends and

colleagues. Kazan later explained that he took “only the

more tolerable of two alternatives that were either way

painful and wrong.” Kazan influenced the films of the

1950s and ‘60s with his provocative, issue-driven subjects.

Director Stanley Kubrick called him, “without question,

the best director we have in America, [and] capable of

performing miracles with the actors he uses.” 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.


KAZAN CHOOSES HIS SUBJECTS TO express personal and social events that he is

familiar with. He describes his thought process before taking on a project:

I don’t move unless I have some empathy with the basic theme. In some way the channel

of the fi lm should also be in my own life. I start with an instinct. With “East of Eden”

... it’s really the story of my father and me, and I didn’t realize it for a long time... In

some subtle or not-so-subtle way, every fi lm is autobiographical. A thing in my life is

expressed by the essence of the fi lm. Then I know it experientially, not just mentally.

I’ve got to feel that it’s in some way about me, some way about my struggles, some way

about my pain, my hopes.

FILM HISTORIAN JOANNA E. RAPF notes that among the methods Kazan used in

his work with actors, was his initial focus on “reality”, although his style was not

defined as “naturalistic.” She adds: “He respects his script, but casts and directs

with a particular eye for expressive action and the use of emblematic objects.”

Kazan himself states that “unless the character is somewhere in the actor himself,

you shouldn’t cast him.”

IN HIS LATER YEARS HE changed his mind about some of the philosophy behind the

Group Theater, in that he no longer felt that the theater was a “collective art,” as he

once believed:

To be successful it should express the vision, the conviction, and the insistent

presence of one person.

FILM AUTHOR PETER BISKIND DESCRIBED Kazan’s career as “fully committed to art

and politics, with the politics feeding the work.” Kazan, however, has downplayed

that impression:

I don’t think basically I’m a political animal. I think I’m a self-centered

animal... I think what I was concerned about all my life was to say something

artistically that was uniquely my own.

FILMOGRAHY


19371937 1945 1947 1949

The

Peop

le o

f the

Cum

berla

nd

A T

ree

Gro

ws

in B

roo

kly

n

Wat

chto

wer O

ver T

omor

row

Th

e S

ea o

f G

rass

Boom

eran

g!

Gen

tlem

an’s

Agr

eem

ent

Pin

ky

Featured Films in Festival


19761957 1960 1961 1963 1969 1972 19761950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956

Pani

c in

the

Stre

ets

A S

tree

tcar

Nam

ed D

esir

e

Viva

Zap

ata!

Man

on

a Ti

ghtro

pe

On

the

Wat

erfro

nt

East

of E

den

Baby

Dol

l

A Fa

ce in

the

Crow

d

Wild

Riv

er

Sp

len

do

r in

th

e G

rass

Amer

ica

Amer

ica

The

Arra

ngem

ent

The

Visi

tors

The

Last

Tyco

on


GOLDEN GLOBESUSA

W O N

1948 Best Motion Picture Director

Gentleman’s Agreement (1947)

W O N

1955 Best Director

On the Waterfront (1954)

W O N


Baby Doll (1956)

W O N


America America (1963)

BERLIN INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL

GERMANY

W O N

1953 Special Prize of the Senate of Berlin

Man on a Tightrope (1953)

N O M I N AT E D

1960 Golden Berlin Bear

Wild River (1960)

W O N

1996 Honorary Golden Berlin Bear

BODIL AWARDSGERMANY

W O N

1955 Best American Film


W O N

1958 Best American Film

East of Eden (1955) CANNES FILM

FESTIVALFRANCE

N O M I N AT E D

1947 Feature films

Boomerang! (1947)

N O M I N AT E D

1952 Grand Prize of the Festival

Viva Zapata! (1952)

W O N

1955 Best Dramatic Film

East of Eden (1955)

N O M I N AT E D

1955 Palme d’Or

East of Eden (1955)

N O M I N AT E D

1972 Palme d’Or

The Visitors (1972)

WRITERS GUILD OF AMERICA

USA

N O M I N AT E D

1964 Best Written American Drama

America America (1963)

AWARDS


BLUE RIBBON AWARDS

GERMANY

W O N

1956 Blue Ribbon Award

Best Foreign Language Film

East of Eden (1955)

DIRECTORS GUILD OF AMERICA

USA

N O M I N AT E D

1952 Outstanding Directorial Achievement

in Motion Pictures

A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)

N O M I N AT E D


in Motion Pictures

Viva Zapata! (1952)

W O N


in Motion Pictures


Shared with:

Charles H. Maguire (assistant director) (plaque)

N O M I N AT E D

1956 Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures

East of Eden (1955)

N O M I N AT E D

1958 Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures

A Face in the Crowd (1957)

NATIONAL BOARD OF REVIEW

USA

W O N

1947 Best Director

Boomerang! (1947)


W O N

1996 Special Citation

For lifetime achievement in direction.

NEW YORK FILM CRITICS CIRCLE

AWARDSUSA

W O N

1947 Best Director


Boomerang! (1947)

W O N

1951 Best Director


W O N

1954 Best Director


2 N D P L A C E

1956 Best Director

Baby Doll (1956)

VENICE FILM FESTIVAL

ITALY

N O M I N AT E D

1948 Grand International Award


W O N

1950 International Award

Panic in the Streets (1950)

N O M I N AT E D

1950 Golden Lion

Panic in the Streets (1950)

W O N

1951 Special Jury Prize


N O M I N AT E D

1951 Golden Lion


W O N

1954 OCIC Award


W O N

1954 Silver Lion


W O N

1954 Pasinetti Award


N O M I N AT E D

1954 Golden Lion



INTERVIEW

With George Stevens. Jr. on October 8, 1973

IN A FILM WHAT YOU’RE trying to do is to lay down the basic behavior patterns

of a person. For example, I’m now doing The Last Tycoon. Robert Niro is playing

Monroe Stahr, an urban Jew, an intellectual who was born with a rheumatic

heart, who dresses up to his role as the head of the studio. Bobby has never

played anything but a street-smart kid. Bobby has never played an educated

part, an executive who could run a studio. So I’ve been doing improvisations

with him in an office, which is as near to the set as can be, and he’s got a

secretary and an assistant secretary and four or five people coming in, waiting

in his anteroom, each of whom has a different demand on him at the same time.

The phone never stops ringing.

I’VE IMPRESSED ON BOBBY THAT what he says is never a comment; it’s an

instruction which someone has to do something about. For several days on the

set I’ve harassed the hell out of De Niro. I’ve made him feel that his life is at

the mercy of his anteroom, that he’s a victim of the phone. I’ve now got him

realizing what it means to be an executive, how he has to talk without shouting,

showing only the extreme clarity of his mind, the depth of his instructions, and

that he has a certain severity in dealing with his problems, and that he’s not to

be thwarted or challenged or denied In the improvisations, I’ve tried to use the

actors whom I’m going to use in the movie so he’ll begin to get familiar with the

world he’s going to move in.

As a theater-trained director,

what difference do you find in

working with actors in film?


I’VE ALSO TRIED TO GET Bobby to think like an intellectual, to consider

things in ambivalence, to see more than one side of something. Also, I’ve kept

him away from the actress who’s playing Kathleen, an ethereal o unearthly

figure. If he becomes too familiar with her it’ll hurt the scenes when we shoot

them. So he’s been instructed by me not to chat with her, not to make friends

with her, not to go around with her, not to have dinner with her, but to keep her

at a distance. However, the other girl, Cecilia, is all over him. She’s become a

sort of a nuisance to him, so she’s pressing at him all the time. He’s so familiar

with her that he has the basis psychologically for saying, “I never thought of you

that way.”

SO WHAT AM I DOING? I’m building up behavior patterns. In a play, you have

two have two and a half weeks to prepare. Somewhere in the third week

everyone descends on you with the sets and the costumes and their worries.

Everyone comes after you, saying this is not working, that is not working. You

have to be very strong and very clear about what you want, because one of the

first things you have to do is mount the play. I take much longer than most.

I don’t do it until the end of the second week. A lot of anxious directors do it

earlier, and maybe they’re right. Garson Kanin has a run-through after two days.

I just don’t believe in that. No play is per fect, and you’re going to make changes

in it. You may also go out on the road with it. You’re trying out the play, not just

the performances.

SAM SPIEGEL, WHO’S PRODUCING The Last Tycoon, worked a year and a half

with Harold Pinter on the script. Pinter is one of the most ambiva lent men I

know. His favorite word is constraint, and his next-favorite stage direction is

“Pause.” I made up my mind to do the script as written and not fool around with

the dialogue. So here I’m not trying out the play anymore. I’m trying to do what

the French call “realize” the play. It’s a very apt word. You do realize it. You

bring it to life.


“So I became a fi lm director out of admiration, out of wanting to be like that—hero worship.”


I GUESS SO. I DON’T give a damn, though.

THE UNWRITTEN PREMISE OF EVERY director, in my opinion, is this—if it moves

me, it’s going to move other people. Sometimes a lot of other people, sometimes

a few other people. If you’re finally asking, whom do yo make them for? Well,

you make them for yourself. I think that’s the same reason painters paint.

I WAS JUST ANXIOUS TO make films. For a while I was the fair-haired boy of

Broadway, and I got a lot of offers from Warner Bros. and Metro and Fox. I liked

the producer at Fox best, and I committed myself. But it was much harder to get

into films then than it is now. There is a big road to films now called television.

A lot of film directors-Arthur Penn, Marty Ritt, John Frankenheimer—came

out of television. Television is sort of a training ground, although it’s a monster

training ground for a little job. But back then it was very hard to get into film, so

I just grabbed that opportunity.

THE FIRST ARTIST I ADMIRED in my life was Sergei Eisenstein. The second

man I admired was Alexander Dovzhenko and a picture called Air City, made

in 1935. These men were idols, and you are affected by your idols, as I was by

Renoir’s films. So I became a film director out of admiration, out of wanting to

be like that—hero worship. I think it’s the most wonderful art in the world.

Do you think that the more

personal you get in your

films, the more you lose your

dramatic objectivity?

For whom do you make

your films?

What made you take the

long trip from Broadway to

Hollywood back in 1944?

You already had a strong

interest in films?


THE KEY WORD IN ART—it’s an ugly word but it’s a necessary word—is power,

your own power. Power to say, “I’m going to bend you to my will.” However you

disguise it, you’re gripping someone’s throat. You’re saying, “My dear, this is the

way it’s going to be.” Whenever anybody blocks that, you have less power. So for

me I would say that things have gotten better, and they’re going to get better yet.

I had trouble with California financially because both America, America and

The Arrangement lost a fortune. I would say most of my films lost money,

except Splendor in the Grass, On the Waterfront and East of Eden. The studios

finally said, “If you leave him alone he’s liable to lose you a bundle.” So power

interests me very much. The guy with the greatest power in the world is Ingmar

Bergman, because he makes his films with few people and he makes them with

few sets. But read Bergman on Bergman and see how even he has to practically

crawl to someone in Stockholm and say, “What about this project? I want to

make this project.” It’s shocking that probably the most acclaimed director in

the world, along with Fellini, has to practically crawl, and the guy says, “No, you

can’t make it.” And Bergman says, “Well, look. I’ll make you two comedies after

I do that. Will that make it all right?’

YOU ARE DEALING WITH POWER in filmmaking, even with a low budget. I made

The Visitors for $165,000. The Last Tycoon costs $39,000 a day. Nobody would

put up money for The Visitors. I finally borrowed the money from a bank,

hocked some stuff, made an arrangement United Artists and did the film with a

crew of four. I did the properties, I arranged the sofas and the props. When there

was a pancake-eating scene, my son cooked the pancakes. He kept the books. I

made the film this way because I did not want to be terrorized by money. I went

to see Godard shoot A Woman Is a Woman in a room where there was barely

space to walk around in. He made that film for very little. When you reduce your

costs, you gain some power.

How has filmmaking changed

for you since those early days

at Fox?


I DON’T MOVE UNLESS I have some empathy with the basic theme. In some way

the channel of the film should also be in my own life. I start with an instinct.

With East of Eden I said, “I don’t know why it is but the last ninety pages of

Steinbeck’s book turn me on.” It’s really the story of my father and me, and I

didn’t realize it for a long time. When Paul Osborn and I began to work on the

screenplay, I realized that it’s just the way was. I was always the bad boy, but

I thought I was the good boy. In so subtle or not-so-subtle way, every film is

autobiographical. A thing in life is expressed by the essence of the film. Then

I know it experientially, not just mentally. I’ve got to feel that it’s in some way

about me, some way about my struggles, some way about my pain, my hopes.

What do you look for when

you consider doing a film?


An American society around 1880s to 1930s.

The FestivalCHAPTER TWO


You have to remind people of their own struggles.It’s a responsibility.

—Elia Kazan


HE FESTIVAL WILL FEATURE ELIA Kazan’s films that reflect American

society from the 1880s to the 1930s. The selected works are focusing on

women’s repressing situation in that era and their endeavoring efforts to live

their own life.

DURING THAT PERIOD IN THE United States, there were many social norms and

restriction imposed upon women, and those who wanted to live by their own

values had to endure some sacrifice in their lives.

THE GREAT HOLLYWOOD DIRECTOR ELIA Kazan was very concerned about social

issues in his films. He often condemned the repressive society and championed

vulnerable individuals, and the courageous women in these featuring movies

were his way of requsting justice in society.

AS HE WAS ALSO AN influential Broadway director and had moved his directed

stage play A Streetcar Named Desire into a renowned movie, this festival will

present a contemporary version of the stage play A Streetcar Named Desire

which is directed by Liv Ullmann.

THE DATE SEPTEMBER 7, 2009 is a hundred years after Elia Kazan was born,

which is also the closing night of this festival. There will be guests from the film

industry comes to share their story about Elia Kazan at the time.

SEPTEMBER 3–7, 2009HOLLYWOOD DOLBY THEATER


THIS FESTIVAL WILL BE HELD in Dolby Theater, a central location in Hollywood,

as a homage to this classic Hollywood director. It also named Kodak Theater, is

a live-performance auditorium in the Hollywood district of Los Angeles. It has

been hosting the Oscars and many other awards ceremony since its opening on

November 9, 2001.


DIRECTIONS

Metro Rail

» Take the Metro Red Line towards Hollywood &

Highland.

» Exit Hollywood and Highland Station.

Escalators up and Walk West on Hollywood Blvd to

the arch of Dolby Theatre.

Dolby TheaterHollywood & Highland6801 Hollywood BlvdLos Angeles, CA 90028


ATTRACTIONS

TCL Chinese Theatre6925 Hollywood Blvd.

Los Angeles, CA

323.461.3331

Lucky Strike Lanes6801 Hollywood Blvd.

Los Angeles, CA

323.467.7776

Madame Tussauds Hollywood Wax Museum6933 Hollywood Blvd.

Los Angeles, CA

323.798.1670

El Capitan Theatre6838 Hollywood Blvd.

Los Angeles, CA

818.845.3110

*Tours available

Universal Studios Hollywood100 Universal City Plaza

Universal City, CA

818.622.3801


DINING

Boa Steakhouse

Type American

Price $$

9200 Sunset Blvd.

West Hollywood, CA 90069

310.278.2050

Craig’s

Type American

Price $$$

8826 Melrose Ave


310.276.1900

Connie and Ted’s

Type American

Price $

8171 Santa Monica Blvd.


323.848.2722

Ed’s Coffee Shop

Type American

Price $

460 N. Robertson Blvd.


323.659.8625

Boxwood at the London

West Hollywood

Type American

Price $$$

The London West Hollywood 1020 N.

San Vicente Blvd.


310.358.7788

Cavatina

Type American

Price $$

1200 Alta Loma Road


310.358.3759


LODGING

1

5

3

7

2

6

4

8


1 Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel

7000 Hollywood Blvd.

Hollywood, CA

323.466.7000

2 Loews Hollywood Hotel

1755 N. Highland Avenue

Hollywood, CA

323.856.1200

3 Hilton Garden Inn


Hollywood, CA

323.876.8600

4 W Hollywood

6250 Hollywood Blvd.

Hollywood, CA

323.798.1300

5 The Redbury Hollywood

1717 Vine Street,

Los Angeles, CA 90028

323.962.1717

6 Saharan Motor Hotel

7212 Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles, CA

90046

7 Hollywood Orchid Suites

1753 Orchid Ave,

Hollywood, Los Angeles, CA 90028

323.874.9678

8 The Blvd Hotel & Suites


Hollywood, CA

323.874.4300


2:30pm – 5:30pm

F ILM

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

7:00pm – 9:00pm

EVENT

Opening Night

2:30pm – 5:30pm

F ILM

The Sea of Grass

7:00pm – 9:00pm

EVENT

Method Acting LectureBy Al Pacino

FESTIVALSCHEDULESEPTEMBER 3–7, 2009

DAY

DAY

1TUESDAY | September 3

WEDNESDAY | September 4

2


2:30pm – 5:30pm

F ILM

Pinky

7:00pm – 9:00pm

EVENT

Photography ExhibitionWomen in historical American society

2:30pm – 5:30pm

F ILM

A Streetcar Named Desire

7:00pm – 9:00pm

EVENT

Stage PlayA Streetcar Named Desire, directed by

Liv Ullmann

2:30pm – 5:30pm

F ILM

Splendor in the Grass

7:00pm – 9:00pm

EVENT

Closing NightHosted by Martin Scorsese

DAY

DAY

DAY

3

4

5

THURSDAY | September 5

FRIDAY | September 6

SATURDAY | September 7


Encouraged by her idealistic if luckless father, a

bright and imaginative young woman comes of age in

a Brooklyn tenement during the early 1900s.

A TREE GROWS IN BROOKLYN


SYNOPSIS

This adaptation of the classic novel tells the story of young Francie Nolan (Peggy

Ann Garner) who yearns for life beyond her Brooklyn apartment building. While

her daily routine is difficult, she makes the best of her situation, living with her

hard-working mother (Dorothy McGuire), alcoholic father (James Dunn) and

tough little brother (Ted Donaldson). Encouraged by her kind but irresponsible

dad, Francie struggles to keep her hopes up and persevere despite all the odds

against her.

RECOGNITION

In 2010, the film was preserved in the United States National Film Registry by

Library of Congress as “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant”.

R E L E A S E D AT E

February 28, 1945

R U N N I N G T I M E

128 minutes

C A S T

Dorothy McGuire — Katie Nolan

Joan Blondell — Sissy Edwards

James Dunn — Johnny Nolan

Lloyd Nolan — Officer McShane

James Gleason — McGarrity

Ted Donaldson — Neeley Nolan

Peggy Ann Garner — Francie Nolan

Ruth Nelson — Miss McDonough

John Alexander — Steve Edwards

B.S. Pully — Christmas Tree Vendor

AWA R D S

1945 National Board of Review USA

Won

Top Ten Films

1946 Academy Awards USA

Won

Best Actor in a Supporting Role: James Dunn

Academy Awards USA

Nominated

Best Writing, Screenplay: Frank Davis : Tess Slesinger

2010 National Film Preservation Board USA

National Film Registry


“Why sure baby. Don't tell me that tree is gonna lay down

and die that easily. Look at that tree. See where it's

coming from. Right up outta that cement! Didn't nobody

plant it. Didn't ask the cement to grow. It just couldn't

help growing so much it just pushed that old cement out

of the way. Now when you bust it with something like

that, can't anybody help it, like... like that little ole bird

up there. He didn't ask anybody could he sing and he

certainly didn't take any lessons. He's so full of singing it

just has to bust out someplace. Why they could cut that

ole tree right down to the ground and a root would push

up someplace else in the cement.”

Johnny Nolan aka The Brooklyn Thrush


A wife has difficulty reconciling her husband’s beliefs

and passions with her own in western farmland.

THE SEA OF GRASS


SYNOPSIS

This western begins with St. Louis resident Lutie Cameron (Katharine Hepburn)

marrying New Mexico cattleman Col. James B. ‘Jim’ Brewton (Spencer Tracy)

after a short courtship. When she arrives in “Salt Fork, NM” she fi nds that her

new husband is considered by the locals to be a tyrant who uses force to keep

homesteaders off the government owned land he uses for grazing his cattle—the

so-called Sea of Grass. Lutie, has diffi culty reconciling her husband’s beliefs and

passions with her own.


April 25, 1947


123 minutes

C A S T

Katharine Hepburn — Lutie

Spencer Tracy — Col. Jim Brewton

Robert Walker — Brock

Melvyn Douglas — Brice Chamberlain

Phyllis Thaxter — Sara Beth

Edgar Buchanan — Jeff


“Why do women insist on loving men for

what they want them to be instead of what

they are?”

Brice Chamberlain


A white skin African American lives a life that is true

to herself.

PINKY


SYNOPSIS

It is about a mulatto woman (played by Jeanne Crain) passing for white in the

North, who returns home to the South to visit her grandmother (singer-actress Ethel

Waters). There she tends to the white Miss Em (Ethel Barrymore) and confronts

racism head on, leading her to confess the truth of her paternity to her white fi ancé

Thomas Adams (William Lundigan). Upon Miss Em’s death, it is discovered that

she has bequeathed her entire estate to Patricia. Miss Em’s family disputes the

will because Patricia is black, but the court judge rules in Pinky’s favor. Her fi ancé

wants her to sell the inheritance and go west with him where she can once again

pass as white. But Pinky has learned that she must be true to herself. Eventually, she

converts the inherited house into Miss Em’s Clinic and Nursery School, serving the

black community to which Pinky now proudly belongs.


September 29, 1949


102 minutes

C A S T

Jeanne Crain — Pinky “Patricia” Johnson

Ethel Barrymore — Miss Em

Ethel Waters — Dicey Johnson

William Lundigan — Dr. Thomas “Tom”

Adams

Basil Ruysdael — Judge Walker

Kenny Washington — Dr. Canady

Nina Mae McKinney — Rozelia

Griff Barnett — Dr. Joe McGill

Frederick O’Neal — Jake Walters

Evelyn Varden — Melba Wooley

Raymond Greenleaf — Judge Shoreham

Arthur Hunnicutt — Police Chief

AWA R D S


Nominated

Best Actress in a Leading Role: Jeanne Crain

Best Actress in a Supporting Role: Ethel Barrymore

Best Actress in a Supporting Role: Ethel Waters

Writers Guild of America USA

Nominated

The Robert Meltzer Award

(Screenplay Dealing Most Ably with

Problems of the American Scene): Philip Dunne : Dudley Nichols


“Miss Em told me to always be myself, not to

pretend. You told me that after I marry you,

there won’t be a Pinky Johnson anymore.

How can I be myself if there’s no Pinky

Johnson anymore?”

Patricia ‘Pinky’ Johnson


A fading southern belle unfit in her new life with her

sister in New Orleans.

A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE


SYNOPSIS

In the classic play by Tennessee Williams, brought to the screen by Elia Kazan,

faded Southern belle Blanche DuBois (Vivien Leigh) comes to visit her pregnant

sister, Stella (Kim Hunter), in a seedy section of New Orleans. Stella’s boorish

husband, Stanley Kowalski (Marlon Brando), not only regards Blanche’s aristocratic

aff ectations as a royal pain but also thinks she’s holding out on inheritance money

that rightfully belongs to Stella. On the fringes of sanity, Blanche is trying to

forget her checkered past and start life anew. Attracted to Stanley’s friend Mitch

(Karl Malden), she glosses over the less savory incidents in her past, but she soon

discovers that she cannot outrun that past, and the stage is set for her fi nal, brutal

confrontation with her brother-in-law.


September 18, 1951


122 minutes

C A S T

Vivien Leigh — Blanche DuBois

Marlon Brando — Stanley Kowalski

Kim Hunter — Stella Kowalski

Karl Malden — Harold “Mitch” Mitchell

Rudy Bond — Steve Hubbel

Nick Dennis — Pablo Gonzales

Peg Hillias — Eunice Hubbel

Wright King — a Collector

Richard Garrick — a Doctor

AWA R D S

1951 New York Film Critics Circle AwardsWon

Best Film

Best Director: Elia Kazan

Best Actress: Vivien Leigh

Venice Film Festival1951

Special Jury Prize: Elia Kazan

Best Actress: Vivien Leigh


Won

Best Actress in a Leading Role: Vivien Leigh

Best Actor in a Supporting Role: Karl Malden

Best Actress in a Supporting Role: Kim Hunter

Best Art Direction-Set Decoration,

Black-and-White: Richard Day : George James Hopkins

Golden Globes USA

Won

Best Supporting Actress: Kim Hunter

1953 BAFTA AwardsWon

Best British Actress: Vivien Leigh


“What you are talking about is desire—just

brutal Desire. The name of that rattle-trap

streetcar that bangs through the Quarter, up

one old narrow street and down another.”

Blanche DuBois


The values of the business-oriented civilization — at

the time of its greatest crash — coincides with the

collapse of a young couple’s tender romance.

SPLENDOR IN THE GRASS


SYNOPSIS

The story of two Kansas high school sweethearts growing up in the late 1920s

through the stock market crash of 1929. Bud and Deanie are very much in love,

but the pressures of sex in society creates a rift in their relationship. Bud’s father

encourages him to leave Deanie to fi nd “another kind of girl” which drives Deanie

into madness. She is committed into an institution while Bud reluctantly obeys his

father and enrolls in Yale. The crash of ’29 hits and changes the lives of both their

families. Together they learn the harsh lesson of love and life in the ’20s and sadly

go their separate ways.


October 10, 1961


124 minutes

C A S T

Natalie Wood — Wilma Dean “Deanie”

Loomis

Warren Beatty — Bud Stamper

Pat Hingle — Ace Stamper

Joanna Roos — Mrs. Stamper

Audrey Christie — Mrs. Loomis

Fred Stewart — Del Loomis

Barbara Loden — Ginny Stamper

Zohra Lampert — Angelina

AWA R D S


Won

Best Writing, Story and Screenplay -

Written Directly for the Screen: William Inge

Academy Awards USA

Nominated

Best Actress in a Leading Role: Natalie Wood

Golden Globes USA

Nominated

Best Motion Picture — Drama

Best Motion Picture Actress — Drama: Natalie Wood

Best Motion Picture Actor — Drama: Warren Beatty

Directors Guild of America

USA

Nominated

Outstanding Directorial Achievement

in Motion Pictures: Elia Kazan

Laurel Awards1962

3rd place Golden Laurel—Top Female

Dramatic Performance: Natalie Wood

1963 BAFTA AwardsNominated

Best Foreign Actress: Natalie Wood


“Though nothing can bring back the hour of

splendor in the grass, glory in the fl ower, we

will grieve not; rather fi nd strength in what

remains behind.”

Wilma Dean

Elia Kazan Film Festival Catalog

Documents

Transcript of Elia Kazan Film Festival Catalog