A Streetcar Named Desire

Plot synopsis:
After the loss of her family home, Belle Reve, to creditors, Blanche DuBois travels from the small town of Laurel, Mississippi, to the New Orleans French Quarter to live with her younger, married sister, Stella, and brother-in-law, Stanley Kowalski. Blanche is in her thirties and, with no money, she has nowhere else to go.
Blanche tells Stella that she has taken a leave of absence from her English-teaching position because of her nerves (which is later revealed to be a lie). Blanche laments the shabbiness of her sister’s two-room flat. She finds Stanley loud and rough, eventually referring to him as "common". Stanley, in return, does not care for Blanche's manners and dislikes her presence.
Stanley later questions Blanche about her earlier marriage. Blanche had married when she was very young, but her husband died, leaving her widowed and alone. The memory of her dead husband causes Blanche some obvious distress. Stanley, worried that he has been cheated out of an inheritance, demands to know what happened to Belle Reve, once a large plantation and the DuBois family home. Blanche hands over all the documents pertaining to Belle Reve. While looking at the papers, Stanley notices a bundle of letters that Blanche emotionally proclaims are personal love letters from her dead husband. For a moment, Stanley seems caught off guard over her proclaimed feelings. Afterwards, he informs Blanche that Stella is going to have a baby.
The night after Blanche’s arrival, during one of Stanley’s poker parties, Blanche meets Mitch, one of Stanley’s poker player buddies. His courteous manner sets him apart from the other men. Their chat becomes flirtatious and friendly, and Blanche easily charms him; they like each other. Suddenly becoming upset over multiple interruptions, Stanley explodes in a drunken rage and strikes Stella. Blanche and Stella take refuge with the upstairs neighbor, Eunice. When Stanley recovers, he cries out from the courtyard below for Stella to come back by repeatedly calling her name until she comes down and allows herself to be carried off to bed. After Stella returns to Stanley, Blanche and Mitch sit at the bottom of the steps in the courtyard, where Mitch apologizes for Stanley's coarse behavior.
Blanche is bewildered that Stella would go back with him after such violence. The next morning, Blanche rushes to Stella and describes Stanley as a subhuman animal, though Stella assures Blanche that she and Stanley are fine. Stanley overhears the conversation but keeps silent. When Stanley comes in, Stella hugs and kisses him, letting Blanche know that her low opinion of Stanley does not matter.
As the weeks pass, Blanche and Stanley continue to not get along. Blanche has hope in Mitch, and tells Stella that she wants to go away with him and not be anyone’s problem. During a meeting between the two, Blanche confesses to Mitch that once she was married to a young man, Allan Grey, whom she later discovered in a sexual encounter with an older man. Grey later committed suicide when Blanche told him she was disgusted with him. The story touches Mitch, who tells Blanche that they need each other. It seems certain that they will get married.
Later on, Stanley repeats gossip to Stella that he has gathered on Blanche, telling her that Blanche was fired from her teaching job for having sex with a student and that she lived at a hotel known for prostitution (the Flamingo). Stella erupts in anger over Stanley’s cruelty after he states that he has also told Mitch about the rumors, but the fight is cut short as she goes into labor and is sent to the hospital.
As Blanche waits at home alone, Mitch arrives and confronts Blanche with the stories that Stanley has told him. At first she denies everything, but eventually confesses that the stories are true. She pleads for forgiveness, but an angry and humiliated Mitch rejects her. He then advances toward her as though to rape her; in response, Blanche screams "fire", and he runs away in fright.
When Stella has the baby, Stanley and Blanche are left alone in the apartment. In their final confrontation, it is strongly implied that Stanley rapes Blanche, imminently resulting in her psychotic crisis.
Weeks later, at another poker game at the Kowalski apartment, Stella and her neighbor, Eunice, are packing Blanche's belongings. Blanche has suffered a complete mental breakdown and is to be committed to a mental hospital. Although Blanche has told Stella about Stanley's assault, Stella cannot bring herself to believe her sister's story. When a doctor and a matron arrive to take Blanche to the hospital, she initially resists them and collapses on the floor in confusion. Mitch, present at the poker game, breaks down in tears. When the doctor helps Blanche up, she goes willingly with him, saying: "Whoever you are, I have always depended upon the kindness of strangers." The play ends with Stanley continuing to comfort Stella while the poker game continues uninterrupted, as Steve says: "This game is seven-card stud".

Tags: tragedy, insanity, romantic, atmospheric

Review:
It's the clash between Blanche's stately delusions and Stanley's gritty realism that soups up the drama in this Tennessee Williams play, converted to film classic by director Elia Kazan.The drama is absorbing.
But the performances of Marlon Brando and Vivien Leigh, as Stanley and Blanche, are what make the film the cinematic powerhouse that it is.
Tennessee Williams himself wrote of Vivien Leigh"s performance in "Streetcar Named Desire": "She brought everything I intended to the role and even much more than I had dared dream of".Brando is wonderful as Stanley Kowalski, but the new viewers to the film seem to come away with the haunting greatness of Vivien Leigh in what is one of the most harrowing and shattering pieces of acting ever committed to film.Although some have expressed regret that Jessica Tandy did not repeat her stage performance, it is probably good to note that her husband Hume Cronyn and Elia Kazan (the director of the film and play) both never felt that Tandy quite got the character right.
He agrees that she plays this Hamlet of female roles better than anyone because he felt she was quite like the character...sadly.If anyone is interested in great acting check out "Streetcar" for Vivien Leigh's Academy Award winning performance.
Stanley Kowalski, played by Marlon Brando in perhaps one of the greatest performances ever to project off the big screen, is a young Polish American living in a cozy apartment with his quasi-newlywed bride.
I just read one user review here that completely misinterpreted the character of Blanche Dubois to the point of my utter exasperation, another one that had absolutely nothing to do with this film, and a third that expressed total boredom with it, so pardon me while I take a deep breath and count to ten so that I don't write what I might regret, even if it does pass the IMDb censors."Streetcar Named Desire" is an exceptionally good film due to (1) the superb acting ability of its two leads, Vivien Leigh and Marlon Brando, as well as the few members of its outstanding supporting cast, (2) an excellent screenplay by the original playwright, Tennessee Williams, that is packed from beginning to end with explosive, conflict driven dialogue, and (3) the brilliant direction of Elia Kazan.From the very start, the central character, Blanche DuBois (Vivien Leigh), is helped onto a streetcar by a perfect stranger, a sailor, in a simple act that neatly ties the film's beginning to her final, heartbreaking line, "I have always depended upon the kindness of strangers".
Blanche is lost in the big city, and she becomes more and more hopelessly adrift in the world as the film approaches its very tragic end.Broke and friendless, Blanche lands in New Orleans where her sister, Stella (Kim Hunter) lives with her coarse, crude husband, Stanley Kowalski (Brando).
I just couldn't help myself.While Brando was beaten out of the Oscar by Humphrey Bogart in "African Queen" (not my favorite Bogey movie by a long shot), Leigh, Malden, and Hunter swept these awards for their performances here and deservedly so.
A goodly number of cast and production people from the hit play directed by Elia Kazan were engaged by the director for the film version, and they were not at all enthusiastic about risking a "clash" of acting styles in the leading, pivotal role of Blanche.
Brando was not a movie name yet and the decision was made to recast the female lead with Vivien Leigh instead of Jessica Tandy who played Blanche Dubois on Broadway.In doing so this gave Vivien Leigh the very unique position of having played opposite the two men who are held up as male acting icons for the last century, Marlon Brando and Leigh's husband at the time Laurence Olivier.
But he proves to be something less than meets the eye in his dealings with Leigh.A Streetcar Named Desire won all kinds of Awards, the three acting Oscars, one for Elia Kazan as Best Director and a whole bunch of technical ones.
But An American In Paris won for Best Picture and Hollywood decided young Brando could wait for his and they gave it that year to Humphrey Bogart for The African Queen.This film is still the best adaption to the screen of a Tennessee Williams play and is an absolute must to see..
With a screenplay by Tennessee Williams, direction from Elia Kazan and quite possibly the greatest performance ever in Vivien Leigh's Blanche DuBois- you can't go wrong.
Every time I watch this film I notice a new nuance in her performance, whether it's a look in her eye that I hadn't noticed before or a change in her voice as Blanche lets her mask slip- never has there been such a true embodiment of a character.So all this considered, with Kazan's brilliant direction, great cinematography and the unique "jazzy" score, is why I consider 'A Streetcar Named Desire' one of the greatest films ever made.
Favorite movie-quote - (Blanche speaking to Stella behind Stanley's back) - "There's even something subhuman about him." Now, I would never, ever say that A Streetcar Named Desire is a film that can be appreciated by everyone, but, regardless, it is still certainly well-worth a view for anyone who's at all interested in seeing top-notch film-making, early 1950's-style.If you ask me - This film is the absolute epitome of powerhouse movie-making from a very specific era in Hollywood history.Being someone, like myself, who can often be quite bluntly critical about films, I'm really very surprised and, yes, quite pleased to see how well this film actually holds up today, 64 years later.Containing some very well-defined characters - A Streetcar Named Desire certainly delivers, in aces, equal helpings of insensitive brutality, heartless viciousness, and despairing mental instability.
Believe me, this is not a happy story.When it comes to that old, familiar saying - "They don't make movies like this anymore." - A Streetcar Named Desire certainly packs a powerful punch and lives up to its stellar reputation very satisfactorily..
The story has a woman, Blanche DuBois, played by Vivien Leigh, who moves in with her sister, played by Kim Hunter, and her brother in law, Marlon Brando.
Imagining/fantasizing about being a character in the film, I'd love to inhabit the talked about role of Blanche's former boyfriend Shep Huntleigh, reconnecting with her while visiting New Orleans (one night when she sneaks off to a high class Mardi Gras ball), sweep her off her feet again (better than Malden managed to!) and rescue her from Stanley's sexual wrath!
Judging by Brando's performance in the film version, he must have gone down just as well when he was cast as the bullying, controlling, vulgar and brutal Stanley Kowalski in the theatre production that ran on Broadway for something like 2 years.
The movie feels very old....black and white films by nature feel less lively, the poor and inappropriate soundtrack that should have been used for a high school play, the cheezy directional effects (like the rinings of voices in Blanche's head), and the EXTREMELY theatrical writing ("my, in all heavens, daylight has never exposed such a lie").....who talks like that, really?
Stanley in turn does not like Blanche and not approve of her as he thinks she will come in between his happy marriage.This movie introduced me to the young Marlon Brando after his idolizing performance in The Godfather, And Boy!!!
A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) **** (out of 4) Diva Blanche DuBois (Vivian Leigh) moves to New Orleasns to live with her younger sister Stella (Kim Hunter) but it doesn't take long for the sister's husband Stanley (Marlon Brando) to aim his brutish ways on her.A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE was a landmark play and it carried over to the big screen thanks in large part to the terrific performances as well as the frank sexuality.
As a rather newcomer at the time, Marlon Brando (his second screen role) and already a great star Vivien Leigh appear to stand out among the best character portrayals ever.
Just a note: famous actor Jack Palance here began his acting career as Brando's understudy.SUPPORTING CHARACTERS: Crowther rightly notes that others from the cast "fill out the human pattern within a sleazy environment that is so fitly and graphically created that you can almost sense its sweatiness and smells." A note, of course, must be made of Kim Hunter as Stella, Blanche's sister and Stanley's wife and Karl Malden as Mitch, "more of a sap" (Ebert), a typical mom's boy who seems to do anything for his mother and, yet, appears to hate her deep down.
(In addition to "Streetcar Named Desire" "Glass Menagerie" is another excellent example of such a venue!!) From the offset, Stanley Kowalski (Marlon Brando's character) was a man who was socially ostracized !!
Every time I watch this it is so clear that Blanche De Bois is one of the great tragic heroines of modern drama, and Vivien Leigh, halfway through her own real-life crack-up, plays her brilliantly, with more insight than most Method actresses could summon up.
The young Marlon Brando exploded onto the stage, and then into the cinema, with his performance as Stanley Kowalski in Tennessee Williams' play 'A Streetcar Named Desire'.
I know, I know, two different styles, but the pretty same bad taste.A Streetcar Named Desire, has histrionic characters, plain progression, bad sound effects, not the best photography (which explores always shadows in the exactly same way), bad romance, disconnected scenes and at last, poor speeches.All that Brando does throughout the entire movie is either to shout or say incomprehensible words, as if he had marbles in his mouth.
The viewing medium becomes all too two-dimensional when he is not on screen.On the other hand, Vivien Leigh's acting style, though lauded by film aficionados as a symbiotic, diametric marriage of intensity with Brando's, is just plain hard to watch and truthfully quite embarrassing at points.For modern viewers, she cannot seem to "convince" with her old-school Presentational/Theatrical style, clashing irreconcilably with Brando's Method.The icy romance between Leigh and Karl Malden's character only serves to pound home the truth that sexual morés have moved too far from filmic 50s etiquette, to be in any way considered vital or even interesting to modern viewers, even though, for its day, much censorship was brought down upon "Streetcar".
Elia Kazan doesn't let you out of your small corner while you await each confrontation, yet this would have boiled over early if not for our married sister caught in the middle.Marlon Brando was absolutely brilliant and Vivien Leigh, in the later stages of her "Scarlett" genre was completely terrifying in her cover up acting inside of the characters she floated willingly down the Denial River.
Focusing on the film as a whole, A Streetcar Named Desire is a film that plays similar instruments to a melodrama or even a soap opera, concerning three main characters, one of them Blanche DuBois (Vivian Leigh), a Southern belle worrying about her deteriorating beauty as she enters old age.
She loves clinging to the materialistic thought that possessions such as jewelry and clothes are all she'll ever need to be happy and to attract a man to her presence.Blanche visits New Orleans all the way from Missouri to see her sister Stella Kowalski (Kim Hunter), presumably to catch up, but really to mooch off of her and her husband Stanley (Marlon Brando) for as long as she possibly can.
Brando gives a knockout performance here, naturally cycling from abnormally aggressive and frightening to tender, likable, and even somewhat sensual in certain scenes.The likes of Leigh and Hunter only add to the wealth of talent on display here, playing characters that also carry unlikable traits with them like albatrosses but each one resulting in an interesting and wildly human portrayal of the how marriage and love can destroy a person in the weirdest ways.
Kazan's persistency and desire to etch incredible performances in the zeitgeist of America goes criminally unnoticed, but when one chooses to pay mind to his works, they realize they are watching the true building blocks and outstanding features of cinema.A Streetcar Named Desire may need some nudging when it comes to mentions in the list of greatest films of all time, but its trio of performances by three exceptional actors shows it may be one of the best acted dramas to ever come out.Starring: Marlon Brando, Vivian Leigh, and Kim Hunter.
In Blanche and Stanley, Tennessee Williams created two of the stage's truly great characters, and the translation to film by director Elia Kazan is fantastic, aided considerably by some legendary performances from a cast which included Marlon Brando, Vivien Leigh, Kim Hunter, and Karl Malden.Blanche (Leigh) faces alcoholism, faded beauty, and lost status; she tries to cover up past scandals both as a teacher and in her marriage, all while desperately trying to keep up her appearance and the illusion that she's a proper Southern belle.
(Note: Over 500 of my movie reviews are now available in my book "Cut to the Chaise Lounge or I Can't Believe I Swallowed the Remote!" Get it at Amazon.)'I've always relied on the kindness of strangers,' Blanche DuBois tells us near the end of this mesmerizing adaptation of the Tennessee Williams play; but what we have found out is that she has often relied on the warmth of strangers, very often, and now with her looks faded and her charm gone, she has become a sad, neurotic creature desperate for any sort of attention.Vivian Leigh's portrayal of Tennessee Williams's languished southern rose is one of the most memorable and haunting performances of the American cinema.
'A Streetcar Named Desire' also launched the Hollywood career of one of the all-time great actors, Marlon Brando, whose mesmerising performance as Stanley Kowalski (and especially his inimitable cry of "Stella!" at the foot of the apartment stairway) continues to resonate even with those who have never seen the film in its entirety.Blanche DuBois is an intriguing character because she is a tragic victim despite bringing much of her fate upon herself.
Though Marlon Brando had previously performed the role on Broadway to great acclaim, the studio-appointed casting of Vivien Leigh provoked some consternation among the crew, who feared a clash of "classical" and "method" acting styles.
Director Elia Kazan, fragile leading actress Vivien Leigh (as Blanche DuBois), muscular leading actor Marlon Brando (as Stanley Kowalski), writer Tennessee Williams, photographer Harry Stradling, composer Alex North, supporting actress Kim Hunter (as Stella Kowalski), supporting actor Karl Malden (as Harold "Mitch" Mitchell), art director Richard Day, and producer Charles K.
With this film, you get both.********** A Streetcar Named Desire (9/18/51) Elia Kazan ~ Vivien Leigh, Marlon Brando, Kim Hunter, Karl Malden.
Disturbed Blanche DuBois (Vivien Leigh) moves in with her sister Stella (Kim Hunter) in New Orleans and is tormented by her brutish brother-in-law Stanley (Marlon Brando) while her reality crumbles around her.Karl Malden (as Mitch) is always nice to see, and his story of the cigarette case is delightful.
In the classic play by Tennessee Williams, brought to the screen by Elia Kazan, faded Southern belle Blanche DuBois (Vivien Leigh) comes to visit her pregnant sister, Stella (Kim Hunter), in a seedy section of New Orleans.
Brando lost out to Humphrey Bogart for the 1951 Best Actor Oscar, but Leigh, Hunter, and Malden all won Oscars.A Streetcar Named Desire is another one of those must see films for film buffs.
The Elia Kazan-directed film version of Tennessee Williams' "A Streetcar Named Desire," with Marlon Brando and Vivien Leigh, is the best big-screen adaptation I have seen of any classic American play.
Amazingly, in "Streetcar" Vivien Leigh (as Stella's sister Blanche) and Kim Hunter hold their own against him.A lot of thought went into how to film this.
Here, director Elia Kazan captures the steamy New Orleans atmosphere with polish, meaning that few who board this 'Streetcar' can be disappointed.At the height of his powers as an actor, Marlon Brando commands the screen with a stirring performance as the fiery Stanley Kowalski, whose modern man persona juxtaposes dramatically with that of his incongruous and deluded sister-in-law, Blanche DuBois (Vivien Leigh), who symbolises the mannerisms of yesteryear with a strong sense of irony.
the story is about Blanche DeBois a faded southern belle who arrives in New Orleans and travels on the streetcar named desire to stay with her sister Stella and her husband Stanley Kowalski a brutish but needy man.
Released in late 1951 and directed by Elia Kazan based on Tennessee Williams play, "A Streetcar Named Desire" stars Vivien Leigh as the neurotic Blanche DuBois, who moves in with her sister (Kim Hunter) in the French Quarter of New Orleans where she is antagonized by her brutish brother-in-law, Stanley (Marlon Brando).
Brando is the one who gave a best performance in this movie, a classical one.Overall, "A Streetcar Named Desire" is a disappointment for my.
Everything is great in this movie, but especially the performances by Marlon Brando, and especially again by Vivien Leigh, are awesome.
Streetcar named Desire is a classic movie because of very fine acting performances done by Marlon Brando, Vivien Leigh, and Kim Hunter.
Vivien Leigh is Blanche Stella's sister who has come to live with her and Stanley.
There are several strong points in this adaptation of Tennessee Williams's "A Streetcar Named Desire", but what stands out most of all is the pair of impressive leading performances by Vivien Leigh and Marlon Brando.
Based on a classical Tennessee Williams play, 'A Streetcar Named Desire' follows Blanche DuBois (Vivien Leigh), an emotionally frail and disturbed woman, who goes to live with her pregnant sister Stella (Kim Hunter).
Marlon Brando (in his breakthrough performance, and still one of his best) and Vivien Leigh (as good as, if not better than in 'Gone with the Wind') are perfect in their roles, truly making their characters real and making it impossible not to feel towards them; maybe that is what was missing from the other versions I watched.