A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)

 Elia Kazan's "A Streetcar Named Desire"

Perhaps one of the most iconic stage-to-screen adaptations in Hollywood history is Elia Kazan's 1951 film "A Streetcar Named Desire." The film was completely translated from the stage to screen and included the director Kazan, along with all of the original cast, save Vivien Leigh who replaced Jessica Tandy in the role of Blanche Dubois. Many consider the film version to be a completely transformative and elevated version of the stage play. In fact, the film version has gone on to be one of the most quotable, memorable, and iconic films in the history of American cinema.

The film stars Vivien Leigh as a Mississippi girl named Blanche Dubois who moves into the French Quarter in New Orleans with her sister and her sister's abusive husband. Her flirtatious Southern-belle presence causes problems for the household and sends Marlon Brando's Stanley Kowalski into fits of rage and violence. The film's tragedy comes from the unravelling of Blanche's remaining sanity and her sister's volatile relationship. 

Kazan could have filmed "A Streetcar Named Desire" as simply and dare I say, as boring, as his two previously successful breakout films, "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" and "Gentleman's Agreement." Going into the film, after having seen both of those films, I was expecting much of the same. What I got, however, was something so completely different from those films and something so completely different than the typical Hollywood film at the time. One could say that Kazan was borrowing from the film noir movement from the past decade. However, it would be wiser to cut out film noir and get right to the source of this inspiration, the German Expressionist movement (which is basically what film noir was attempting to mimic a la Fritz Lang). Kazan infuses his film with gothic imagery that adds another psychological dimension that elevates this film version from the stage adaptation.

On top of the gothic imagery, the production design is riddled and oozing with destitution, decay, and claustrophobic clutter. When watching these characters in this film, you almost feel as though you are trapped by your environment, wanting to leave but simply can't. In fact, Blanche continually throughout the film doesn't leave and can't make herself leave. This feeling gets amplified and the viewer feels this dingy desperation and despair as it continues to mount. In fact, the production team, as the filming progress, redesigned the space so that it would get smaller and smaller as the film went on. This added to the claustrophobic feeling and intensified the emotional and psychological unravelling taking place.

Apart from the stunning visualizing, the actors themselves laid the groundwork for a new style and a new phase of dimensional acting in Western culture. This brought tension to the set, as Vivien Leigh was the only actor not from the original stage production and wasn't familiar with the "Stanislavski Method" of acting. Because of Leigh was a classically trained actress, her performance is more traditionally emotive and presentational. However, this 'tension' only added to the tension being portrayed in the story. 

Amongst these group of 'Stanislavski' actors was an actor that would change the landscape of performative screen actor forever. This gentleman's name is Marlon Brando. Brando had been a part of the original stage production and when he got to play in this screen role, it changed his life forever and the lives of every actor henceforth. Brando's acting is not only iconic in this film, but revolutionary. Brando's performance, unlike Leigh's 'outward' and emotive performance, was inward and naturalistic. To say that it was 'inward' isn't to say Brando's character didn't have bursts of outward emotion. In fact, he has many. Rather, it's to say that Brando separated his acting from the acting of Hollywood performers that had come previously and acting by the simple act of 'being.' Today's film heads would call this 'method' acting. Rather than perform the lines with external emotion, speak them clearly and without pause, and wait until the other performer is done with their line before starting yours, Brando would act internally and say lines as a typical person would say them. That is, he would sometimes mumble, speak not so clearly, use pauses in his speech, let sentences rise and fall, and interrupt others' lines. To aid this 'naturalistic' style, he would use his physicality more naturalistically as well. He would scratch himself, lick his fingers, and move and walk clumsily. Brando behaved on screen as a real human being would behave. Saying this today sounds almost obvious. However, up until this point, screen acting was a very specific type of acting that required something more similar to stage acting. With Brando, everything changed. Brando did for acting what the realist movement did to cinema: it created a more natural, realistic style that was able to capture as close to real life as cinema could.

Overall, the incredibly script by Tennessee Williams, the American gothic and claustrophobic direction of Elia Kazan, and the insanely breathtaking acting of Vivien Leigh, Marlon Brando, and Kim Hunter created a perfect storm of a film that changed the landscape of American cinema forever.