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Stella!

Prior to today, I had little to no knowledge at all of A Streetcar Named Desire. Sure, being a drama student, I realized that it was an influential Tennessee Williams play in the American theatre, and being a Simpsons fan, I knew the basic plot line from Episode 402, “A Streetcar Named Marge”… but I had never actually taken the time out to read it. Hell, even when the opportunity came up to see Broadway’s production of Streetcar earlier this year, I hesitated on the opportunity… and the production has since closed.

See, I’m not the biggest Tennessee Williams fan, for some reason. I absolutely hated reading The Glass Menagerie — it was like some form of ancient torture to me. I didn’t feel a personal connection to any of the characters, and therefore didn’t really sympathize with any of the events of the play. I was uninterested as a whole — and felt that I would be that way with any other Williams play… so I avoided them like the plague for the rest of the year.

I stumbled across the movie version on IMDB earlier this summer, when I was looking at the career of Marlon Brando. I was ashamed to say this, but, aside from Guys & Dolls, I’ve never seen Brando in any movies (yes, that includes The Godfather). I felt the need to correct this, and saw Streetcar toward the beginning of Brando’s career. Why not kill two birds with one stone? I’ll finally know more about this play that apparently everyone in school has read, and I’ll have seen Brando in an Academy Award nominated performance.

Despite my loathing Tennessee Williams, I thoroughly enjoyed this movie. The film was released well over 50 years ago, so I’m sure there’s nothing to be said about it that hasn’t been said — so I’ll try to keep any review of this short (the post is already far too long!).

I’m not too sure that the script itself is all too different from Menagerie… that is to say that I don’t think I personally connect with the characters on paper… but the wonderful thing about film and theatre is that the characters come alive through the embodiment of the actors. The actors in this film are all particularly exceptional — Brando, Vivien Leigh (despite her use of the “classical” acting approach as opposed to “method” — if you’re not an acting student, disregard that sentence), and Kim Hunter really keep the thing together — and I thoroughly enjoyed the performance of Karl Malden in his scenes in the film.

However, I feel that the unsung hero of this film is Alex North’s score. It really helped to create certain moods, and really helped me to believe and connect with Blanche’s descent into absolute insanity. If you’re watching this film — pay attention to the details.

I know that this really isn’t all-too-relevant in the film, but I noticed that most of Marlon Brando’s scenes involve him eating something. Foreshadowing?

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On another note, I had mentioned before that I was looking Brando up on IMDB. Here’s one of my favorite trivia facts from his listing:

He reputedly suggested that his cameo role as Jor-El in 1978’s “Superman” be done by him in voice over only, with the character’s image onscreen being a glowing, levitating green bagel. Unsure if Brando was joking or not, the film’s producers formally rejected the suggestion.