SEPTEMBER HIGHLIGHTS ON TCM
In partnership with The Film Foundation, Turner Classic Movies is proud to bring you this exclusive monthly column by iconic film director and classic movie lover Martin Scorsese.
DIRECTED BY ELIA KAZAN (September 7, 6am - 8pm)--On September 7, TCM is paying a birthday tribute to Elia Kazan--he would have been 108. I've covered Kazan and his films many times in this column over the years. There are a few reasons for that, the most obvious of which is that he was a giant, one of our greatest directors. And then, on a personal level, he had a profound effect on me as a filmmaker and, in the last few years of his life, as a human being. Actually, we had met when I was a student at Washington Square College back in the 60s--I wanted to work as his on-set assistant and, of course, to show him my script. He said no to both, and I was crushed at the time but in the end it was a good thing: I held him in such reverence that I would have been a terrible assistant, and he let me know by example that the best thing I could do for myself was to find my own way. I realize that he's a controversial figure to some because of his friendly testimony before HUAC, but there's no denying that he was a giant: this was the man that started the Actors' Studio and transformed American theatre and cinema at the same time, and he accomplished almost all of it after the testimony.
DIRECTED BY ELIA KAZAN (September 7, 6am - 8pm)--On September 7, TCM is paying a birthday tribute to Elia Kazan--he would have been 108. I've covered Kazan and his films many times in this column over the years. There are a few reasons for that, the most obvious of which is that he was a giant, one of our greatest directors. And then, on a personal level, he had a profound effect on me as a filmmaker and, in the last few years of his life, as a human being. Actually, we had met when I was a student at Washington Square College back in the 60s--I wanted to work as his on-set assistant and, of course, to show him my script. He said no to both, and I was crushed at the time but in the end it was a good thing: I held him in such reverence that I would have been a terrible assistant, and he let me know by example that the best thing I could do for myself was to find my own way. I realize that he's a controversial figure to some because of his friendly testimony before HUAC, but there's no denying that he was a giant: this was the man that started the Actors' Studio and transformed American theatre and cinema at the same time, and he accomplished almost all of it after the testimony.