A Streetcar Named Desire (A- or 3.5/4 stars)
Adapted by Tennessee Williams' classic Pulitzer Prize-winning play & directed by Elia Kazan, 'A Streetcar Named Desire' is one hell of a drama. Set in the French Quarters of New Orleans after WWII, penniless, unstable Blanche DuBois (Vivien Leigh) arrives in town hoping to live with her stable, married, pregnant sister, Stella (Kim Hunter). Stella lives in a small one-bedroom apartment on the 1st floor of an old Victorian in the seedy part of the Quarters with her combustible war vet/factory worker husband, Stanley Kowalski (Marlon Brando). She loves him very much, though, that 'love' could easily be mistaken for outright lust. Stanley is derogatorily referred to by Blanche as a working-class Polack, but Stella accepts him as he is - a feverishly handsome, yet sweaty, tight T-shirt wearing brute.
Stanley takes an instant dislike to seemingly genteel Blanche & inflicts a relentless campaign of cruelty upon her. Stella is protective of her sister, as Stanley initially thinks that English teacher Blanche is holding back inheritance $$ that belongs to Stella from their Mississippi family plantation. On the brittle brink of insanity, Blanche tries hard to forget her checkered past. Attracted to Stanley's lonely, card-playing buddy, Mitch (Karl Malden), similarly lonely Blanche turns to him for hope of a better future. But he turns on her; ending their sweet romance when vengeful Stanley spills the beans to him about Blanche's unsavory past (prostitution, a career-ending affair with a 17 yr. old student, her ex-husband's death). This sets the stage for a brutal climactic confrontation btwn. Blanche & Stanley, in which he may or may not have raped his increasingly nutty sister-in-law. Drama ensues.
Shot in moody black-&-white, this film conveys the strikingly beautiful, yet also sleazy atmosphere of New Orleans. It is directed with intensity by Elia Kazan (who also directed most of this cast on Broadway). The film is art directed to seedy New Orleans perfection. And it's scored with cool jazz influences by Alex North. One more note on the art direction, Kazan had his team make the already cramped apartment increasingly smaller so as to emphasize the growing tensions within the characters as their psyches start to crack more & more. Brilliant. Also brilliant are the performances.
This was Marlon Brando's 1st major film and boy did he come firing in! Everything from his smoldering looks to his unique speech patterns to his vulgar, rageful demeanor is exceptional. He showed a raw, unsophisticated, animal magnetism that Hollywood had yet to see from an actor. Vivien Leigh is superb as the emotionally exhausted, artificially-refined Southern belle trying against all odds to still be a lady as her personal demons possess her mind.
Blanche's sexuality is as repressed as Stanley's is viril. It is a credit to Vivien Leigh's portrayal that while she says/does things which make it hard to sympathize with her character ... I actually felt devastated for Blanche by the end. Kim Hunter gives a marvelously understated performance as Stella; who finds it difficult to resist the sexuality of Stanley, while also trying to defend her sister against him. And Karl Malden is stellar as good-natured Mitch -- quite the ensemble. 'A Streetcar Named Desire' is a raw, powerful motion picture about complex people with pain, suffering, carnal longing, & other complications of the heart & mind. It also serves as an allegory for the overall sexual repression of the 1950s. And I thought that was fascinating.
Stanley takes an instant dislike to seemingly genteel Blanche & inflicts a relentless campaign of cruelty upon her. Stella is protective of her sister, as Stanley initially thinks that English teacher Blanche is holding back inheritance $$ that belongs to Stella from their Mississippi family plantation. On the brittle brink of insanity, Blanche tries hard to forget her checkered past. Attracted to Stanley's lonely, card-playing buddy, Mitch (Karl Malden), similarly lonely Blanche turns to him for hope of a better future. But he turns on her; ending their sweet romance when vengeful Stanley spills the beans to him about Blanche's unsavory past (prostitution, a career-ending affair with a 17 yr. old student, her ex-husband's death). This sets the stage for a brutal climactic confrontation btwn. Blanche & Stanley, in which he may or may not have raped his increasingly nutty sister-in-law. Drama ensues.
Shot in moody black-&-white, this film conveys the strikingly beautiful, yet also sleazy atmosphere of New Orleans. It is directed with intensity by Elia Kazan (who also directed most of this cast on Broadway). The film is art directed to seedy New Orleans perfection. And it's scored with cool jazz influences by Alex North. One more note on the art direction, Kazan had his team make the already cramped apartment increasingly smaller so as to emphasize the growing tensions within the characters as their psyches start to crack more & more. Brilliant. Also brilliant are the performances.
This was Marlon Brando's 1st major film and boy did he come firing in! Everything from his smoldering looks to his unique speech patterns to his vulgar, rageful demeanor is exceptional. He showed a raw, unsophisticated, animal magnetism that Hollywood had yet to see from an actor. Vivien Leigh is superb as the emotionally exhausted, artificially-refined Southern belle trying against all odds to still be a lady as her personal demons possess her mind.
Blanche's sexuality is as repressed as Stanley's is viril. It is a credit to Vivien Leigh's portrayal that while she says/does things which make it hard to sympathize with her character ... I actually felt devastated for Blanche by the end. Kim Hunter gives a marvelously understated performance as Stella; who finds it difficult to resist the sexuality of Stanley, while also trying to defend her sister against him. And Karl Malden is stellar as good-natured Mitch -- quite the ensemble. 'A Streetcar Named Desire' is a raw, powerful motion picture about complex people with pain, suffering, carnal longing, & other complications of the heart & mind. It also serves as an allegory for the overall sexual repression of the 1950s. And I thought that was fascinating.