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for
Vivien
A Streetcar
Named Desire  Film
(1951)
Starring: Marlon Brando, Vivien Leigh, et al. Director: Elia Kazan
The role of Vivien Leigh's second Oscar, playing the character who
entwined herself with Vivien's own madness.
Robert Horton, Amazon.com essential video
Looking for a benchmark in movie acting? Breakthrough performances
don't come much more electrifying than Marlon Brando's animalistic
turn as Stanley Kowalski in A Streetcar Named Desire. Sweaty,
brutish, mumbling, yet with the balanced grace of a prizefighter,
Brando storms through the role--a role he had originated in the Broadway
production of Tennessee Williams's celebrated play. Stanley and his
wife, Stella (as in Brando's oft-mimicked line, "Hey, Stellaaaaaa!"),
are the earthy couple in New Orleans's French Quarter whose lives
are upended by the arrival of Stella's sister, Blanche DuBois (Vivien
Leigh). Blanche, a disturbed, lyrical, faded Southern belle, is immediately
drawn into a battle of wills with Stanley, beautifully captured in
the differing styles of the two actors. This extraordinarily fine
adaptation won acting Oscars for Leigh, Kim Hunter (as Stella), and
Karl Malden (as Blanche's clueless suitor), but not for Brando. Although
it had already been considerably cleaned up from the daringly adult
stage play, director Elia Kazan was forced to trim a few of the franker
scenes he had shot. In 1993, Streetcar was re-released in a
"director's cut" that restored these moments, deepening a film that
had already secured its place as an essential American work.
From Leonard Maltin's Movie & Video Guide
Stunning production of Tennessee Williams' play, with Brando as the
animalistic Stanley Kowalski and Leigh as his wistful, neurotic sister-in-law,
Blanche Dubois, pressed together in a grim New Orleans tenement. Oscars
went to Leigh, Hunter, and Malden for their flawless performances,
as well as for the art direction-set decoration--but it's Brando who
left an indelible mark on audiences. Highly influential jazz score
by Alex North. Re-released in 1993 with 4m. of footage that was censored
in 1951, playing up the sexual tension between Blanche and Stanley,
and Stella's carnal attraction to her husband.
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