AMERICA AMERICA

AMERICA AMERICA was the first of a series of popular and generally acclaimed novels that Kazan wrote later in his life, as filmmaking and fundraising became more demanding. It is based on the actual experiences of his uncle and his adventuresome trip to America, which eventually brought Elia and the rest of his family from Anatolia to New York. There are many parallels between AMERICA AMERICA, photographed by Haskell Wexler, and THE GRAPES OF WRATH, John Ford’s adaptation of Steinbeck’s novel. The films share starkly spectacular black-and-white photography, a picaresque structure, an emphasis on family as the fundamental human value, and a quasi-religious belief in the enduring myth of America. Ultimately, in the character of Stavros, Kazan also acknowledges his roots in the exotic primitiveness of classical Greek culture, the eternal mystery of which we can never fully understand. (Charles Silver)

From the collection of Österreichisches Filmmuseum