Reviewing “A Letter to Elia,” Martin Scorsese and Kent Jones’s loving documentary tribute to Elia Kazan, out of Venice on Sunday, I wrote that the 60-minute film was “clearly designed for a PBS-style TV airing.”
Lo and behold, it was announced yesterday that the film, having been acquired by 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment, will premiere on PBS on October 4 — after having played the Venice-Telluride-Toronto-New York festival track.
Furthermore, for those of us without the luxury of American television, the documentary will also feature in Fox’s 15-film DVD box set of Kazan’s work, due to hit shelves on November 9. I don’t know about you, but my Christmas list is being updated as we speak.
Press release extract after the cut.
Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment and THIRTEEN’s “American Masters” series today announced that they have acquired A Letter to Elia, Martin Scorsese’s new documentary exploring the life and talent of Oscar©-winning director Elia Kazan … Of making the film, Scorsese says, “It took many years. I asked my old friend and collaborator Kent Jones to work with me, and we spent quite a long time looking at the films, talking about them, looking at the life, the fame, the infamy, and finding the tone, the balance that felt right for this picture. I feel that the finished film speaks to the power of art, in this case the art of Elia Kazan.”
With respect to the Elia Kazan Film Collection, Scorsese added, “I’m very excited that Fox is making our film available as part of a box set of Kazan’s work – I’m especially pleased by the inclusion of five pictures that have never been released on DVD, Wild River and America, America in particular. Getting the movies seen – that’s what we’re all aiming for.”
Good news all round. I imagine the thoroughly enjoyable but slightly surface-level “A Letter to Elia” might play better in such a context than as a theatrical feature; in a perfect world, it’d be but one part of a more probing mini-series, but it’s hard enough to bring even one niche item like this into the world.
[Photo: DoctorMacro]
Comments
2 responses to “Fox and PBS open Scorsese’s ‘Letter to Elia’”
I know there is no way I can wait until Christmas for this. I’m there on day one. Awesome news.
[…] Fox and PBS open Scorsese's 'Letter to Elia' I imagine the thoroughly enjoyable but slightly surface-level “A Letter to Elia” might play better in such a context than as a theatrical feature; in a perfect world, it'd be but one part of a more probing mini-series, but it's hard . […]