He became controversial during the McCarthy era, but actors praise his craft. His films captured the emerging Method. Both of those movies are included in the American Cinematheque's "Waterfronts and Streetcars: An Elia Kazan Retrospective," which begins Thursday and concludes Sunday evening at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood. Hirsch will be conducting discussions with actors from Kazan films at each program, which opens Thursday with 1957's dazzling "A Face in the Crowd," starring Griffith in his film debut as Lonesome Rhodes, an Arkansas derelict who becomes a TV sensation while crushing everyone around him. The second feature is the rarely seen 1960 drama "Wild River," with Montgomery Clift as a Tennessee Valley Authority representative who comes to a rural area to build a dam.
Read More