Kazan on Directing

April 13, 2009
Verdict: On this 100th anniversary of Kazan's birth (he died in 2003), Cornfield collects the director's insights on his plays and films. Given Kazan's tremendous stature in 20th-century drama, this is an essential purchase for most large film and theater collections. Background: At mid-century, Kazan (A Streetcar Named Desire; East of Eden) was renowned as the foremost interpreter of America's leading playwrights. Cornfield mines Kazan's notebooks-full of observations about his craft-and adds chapter introductions and a lengthy summary of Kazan's achievements. The book includes surprising revelations-e.g., Kazan held James Dean as second only to Marlon Brando but thought Dean lacked technique and showed an "irksome" inclination to self-pity. Kazan concludes with bittersweet reflections on the rewards of directing and the decline of his creative powers with advancing age.-Stephen Rees, Levittown Lib., PA

Copyright 2009 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from April 15, 2009
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 periodAll My Sons, A Streetcar Named Desire, Death of a Salesman, On the Waterfront, and othershas Kazans fingerprints on it. This fascinating book collects Kazans 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 Kazans journal entries how self-lacerating his criticism of his own artistic missteps could be. Also included is Kazans fine essay on the craft of directing, The Pleasure of Directing, and editor Cornfields extensive notes and commentary, providing a context for Kazans words. An invaluable resource for American theater and film aficionados.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)