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A Letter to Elia

| 04 September 2010 (USA)

Director Martin Scorsese speaks candidly and passionately about one of his formative filmmaking influences: the late Elia Kazan. Utilizing precisely chosen clips from Kazan's signature films including "On the Waterfront," "A Streetcar Named Desire," "Gentleman's Agreement," "Baby Doll," "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn," "A Face in the Crowd," "America, America," and "The Last Tycoon," and interview footage of the director himself, co-directors Scorsese and Kent Jones recount the director's tumultuous journey from the Group Theatre to the Hollywood A-list to the thicket of the blacklist. But most of all, they make a powerful case for Kazan as a profoundly personal artist working in a famously impersonal industry.

Tacticalin

An absolute waste of money

Afouotos

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

Maidexpl

Entertaining from beginning to end, it maintains the spirit of the franchise while establishing it's own seal with a fun cast

Jenni Devyn

Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

tavm

After a year of having it on my DVR, I finally watched this "American Masters" document just now along with the short Reflections on Kazan which followed it. Martin Scorsese co-wrote, co-directed, and appears telling how much film director Elia Kazan meant to him from childhood on to his first meeting with him when he was a guest speaker at New York University where Marty was a student in 1964. Especially being discussed are On the Waterfront and East of Eden, both of which resonated so personally with him. Quite touching is A Letter to Elia and highly recommended to followers of both. In Reflections on Kazan, actors Alec Baldwin, Al Pacino, Ellen Burstyn, and Robert De Niro who appeared in Elia's The Last Tycoon, among others discuss the director's unique methods and his demeanors and attitudes. Both films touch on his naming names during the Communist witch hunts. Also highly recommend. Makes me want to watch or rewatch many of the movies that were showcased...

Michael_Elliott

Letter to Elia, A (2010) *** 1/2 (out of 4) This Martin Scorsese directed film isn't so much a documentary but instead, as the title says, a letter from one director to another. Throughout the running time Scorsese makes such comments as Kazan shaped his life in terms of film and even calls him a father figure. Towards the end of the film Scorsese also mentions that even though he became friends with Kazan he was never really able to explain to him what his movies really meant and what impact they had on his life. So, since he could never express it to Kazan himself, we get this film instead. This isn't a complete look at the career of Kazan as several films are overlooked. Instead, we get some terrific comments from Scorsese who talks about some of his favorite movies from the legendary director. ON THE WATERFRONT and EAST OF EDEN are the two films that get the majority of the running time. I really enjoyed hearing Scorsese's comments on ON THE WATERFRONT because it's obvious the impact this film had on him and you can see this in countless movies from the director. Just listen to the way Scorsese talks about the people in the movie, the look of the sets and of course the way Kazan tried to be as real as possible. You can then look at GOODFELLAS, it's characters and the look of that film and see that Scorsese was going for the same thing. The EAST OF EDEN comments are also very interesting including Scorsese talking about Dean and the impact of the film's story on him. Fans of either Scorsese or Kazan should certainly check out this love letter between one master to another.