Streetcar Named Desire (A)

Genre: psychological drama (in black and white)

With: Vivien Leigh (Blanche DuBois), Marlon Brando (Stanley Kowalski), Kim Hunter (Stella DuBois Kowalski), Karl Malden (Harold ‟Mitch” Mitchell), Rudy Bond (Steve Hubbell), Peg Hillias (Eunice Hubbell), Nick Dennis (Pablo Gonzalez)

Director: Elia Kazan

Screenplay: Tennessee Williams (from his play, adapted by Oscar Saul)

Release: 1951

Studio: Charles K. Feldman Group, Warner Bros.

Rating: PG

MBiS score: 8.8/10 

 

The Kindness of Strangers 

 

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Story-line: Blanche, elegant and insecure, has just arrived in New Orleans and seems lost among the crowd at the train station. With the help of a seaman, she reaches Elysian Fields where she is to reunite with her sister Stella after several years of separation. Finding her sibling at the neighbourhood bowling alley, Blanche is reassured – although disappointed to see Stella living in a working-class milieu – but her real challenge will be getting along with Stanley, her new brother-in-law, an earthy and intimidating fellow.

Pluses: richly nuanced, full-ranged performances by Vivien Leigh (a fancy, talkative and complicated Blanche), Marlon Brando (as the crude and violent Stanley), Kim Hunter (a lovestruck Stella) and Karl Malden, fine support from a good cast, masterly direction, a vivid, unsparing screenplay that sets up a psychological battle filled with innuendo, spot-on repartees and classic moments in cinema, able cinematography, appropriate production values and a strong ending.

Minuses: be warned that some sequences, albeit in no way obscene, are imbued with sexual meaning. 

Comments: A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE paints the stunning portrait of two souls instinctively in awe of each other: the multi-faceted Blanche – a woman as charming as she is infuriating, traumatized and troublesome – and Stanley, her enemy in life but a man she can’t help admiring on a certain level. And their clashes are only aggravated by the heat, squalor and promiscuity ambient. Entrusted with Tennessee Williams’ Pulitzer Prize-winning play – a mesmerizing story about love, family crises, secrets revealed and the ruthlessness of life –, Elia Kazan has fashioned a milestone movie with the help of thespians among the best in cinematic history. The honours showered upon this one-of-a-kind motion picture (4 Oscar wins and 8 other nominations at the 1952 Academy Awards) are proof positive of its value as a work of art. Stella-a-a-a!!! 

 

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