Tennessee Williams a Streetcar Named Desire [DVD] [1995] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC]

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Stella. In Almodóvar’s scene, Blanche nervously rushes into the room asking “Where is my heart?” (Pedro Almodóvar, 1999, 48:19-48:21) and her sister Stella, when seeing the confusion on the face of Eunice (who is with them in the room), explains what Blanche meant by her heart, saying “She means her jewel-box, it’s heart-shaped” (Pedro Almodóvar, 1999, 48:2248:24). The next cut shows Manuela as she watches the actors on the stage and then closes her eyes in pain. The alteration, therefore, suggests that Manuela refers to her dead son, Esteban, whose heart was transplanted into someone else’s body after he died. The famous opening scene of the film shows Blanche arriving at Stella’s French Quarter apartment aboard a trolley car displaying the name “Desire,” on the front. This is referential to the Desire Streetcar line, which ceased operation before the film was released. One of the “Desire” cars was recalled from retirement by then Mayor Morrison and New Orleans Public Service for the shooting of the opening scene at the L&N station at the foot of Canal street. [2] Tennessee Williams’s A Streetcar Named Desire is an intriguing play, one of the most well-known dramas in the history of the United States of America and global modern theater as well. After its enormous success on the Broadway in 1948 and 1949, director Elia Kazan adapted A Streetcar Named Desire and created a film that became a pioneering adaptation in terms of censorship and stardom. This movie was also selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry of the Library of Congress as one of the “culturally, historically or aesthetically significant films” of the country. However, the movie caused great controversy for the ruling censorship office for its explicit themes and became subject to strict censorship, finally leading to become the first adult movie in the United States. In the following, I intend to highlight the advantages and disadvantages of the regulations that the film producers had to keep due to the PCA and investigate the changes that came after the PCA reached its end and ceased to exist. In a 1992 episode of The Simpsons, " A Streetcar Named Marge", a musical version of the play, titled Oh, Streetcar!, was featured. Ned Flanders and Marge Simpson took the leading roles as Stanley and Blanche, respectively.

All in all, the film often drags its feet to not have enough exposition to entirely sell you on character types, let alone on conventional melodramatics and a staginess which in turn make it hard to disregard the minimalism of this story concept, which gradually loses momentum, until the final product stands as decidedly underwhelming, yet still on the brink of rewarding, thanks to the fine cinematography, sharp heights in direction and writing, worthy subject matter, and generally decent acting - the strongest of which being by a show-stealing Marlon Brando - that secure Elia Kazan's "A Streetcar Named Desire" as a seriously improvable, but generally effective and sometimes moving melodrama. By writing about the negative traits of the stars in a rather positive manner, People changed the previously known, ’perfect-persona’ image into a more real, vulnerable image which, in fact, appealed more to readers. However, the magazine did not wish to alter the view that appearance is less important than acting or having creative qualities; on the contrary, it put the look first and qualities on the second place. What is more, actors and actresses began to replace models on the covers of the magazines, such as the cover of Vogue. With such new conditions, People magazine codified that “a name links to a look, and a look fills out a name” and “in this sense the stars become the authors of their own images” (King 2015, 160). By openly writing about their drug, alcohol or sexual scandals, mental breakdowns and private life issues, magazines made stars to be the authors of their own identities, trying to show their most attractive sides they could or fail in doing so (Gabler 1998, 144–151). The latter means, in King’s words, that “if stars become instantly knowable through their appearance, then the career of a star can become a career of appearances without reference to actual motion picture-related involvements” (King 2015, 161). In the film, Blanche is shown riding in the streetcar which was only mentioned in the play. By the time the film was in production, however, the Desire streetcar line had been converted into a bus service, and the production team had to gain permission from the authorities to hire out a streetcar with the "Desire" name on it. [14] I happen to agree with Louis L'Amour. As a red-blooded American, I am perplexed at the way this movie unfolds. As Blanche waits at home alone, Mitch arrives and confronts Blanche with the stories that Stanley has told him. She eventually confesses that the stories are true. She pleads for forgiveness. An angry and humiliated Mitch rejects her. Nevertheless, he demands intimacy with her, suggesting that it is his right since he has waited for so long for nothing. Blanche threatens to cry fire and tells him to get out.

My Book Notes

Sambrook, Hana (2015). A Streetcar Named Desire: York Notes for A-level by Hana Sambrook. Pearson Education Limited. ISBN 9781447982265.

The first adaptation of Streetcar in Greece was performed in 1948 by Koun's Art Theater, two years before its film adaptation and one year before its London premiere, directed by Karolos Koun starring Melina Mercouri as Blanche and Vasilis Diamantopoulos as Stanley, with original music by Manos Hadjidakis. In April 2012, Blair Underwood, Nicole Ari Parker, Daphne Rubin-Vega and Wood Harris starred in a multiracial adaptation at the Broadhurst Theatre. [18] Theatre review aggregator Curtain Critic gave the production a score of 61 out of 100 based on the opinions of 17 critics. [19]

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In this context, Elia Kazan’s Streetcar was the first adaptation of Tennessee Williams’s play after its enormous success on the Broadway. Considering the fact that Streetcar was made in the early 1950s when the studio system was in its golden years, the role of the auteur was crucially important since the auteur was “the central figure in filmmaking,” standing “as an emblem for her/his films” (Cristian 2008, 68), which meant that in Hollywood then all wellknown directors had strikingly recognizable stylistic features and directing techniques. Kazan made his name recognizable in Hollywood, too, after the release of Streetcar which was considered to be the first adult film in the USA. The Variety magazine wrote about this adaptation by praising its truly creative mise-en-scéne and by saying that “the camera has done greater justice to the Williams play, catching the nuances and reflected tragedy with an intimacy that is so vital in a story of this type” ( The Variety). In spite of the censorship regulations, Tennessee Williams and Elia Kazan kept their new Streetcar as an almost fidelity to the letter adaptation of the original play. In 1995, an opera was adapted and composed by André Previn with a libretto by Philip Littell. It had its premiere at the San Francisco Opera during the 1998–1999 season, and featured Renée Fleming as Blanche.

Abstract: This paper discusses the issue of censorship in Hollywood and beyond from the onset of the Production Code Administration through the Rating System alongside with that of the classical stardom. I will map the ways in which censorship and stardom developed and changed in time from the 1950s to the 2010s through various film adaptations of Tennessee Williams’s A Streetcar Named Desire (1947). I am going to analyze the first film adaptation of A Streetcar Named Desire directed by Elia Kazan in 1951, then its 1984 adaptation directed by John Erman along with the 1995 version directed by Glenn Jordan, followed by Pedro Almodóvar’s All About My Mother (1999), and finally, Woody Allen’s Blue Jasmine, which came out in 2013. By examining the above listed films, my focus will also be on various methods of adapting Williams’s play to film and on the ways in which these adaptations actually altered the dramatic plot and how the issue of censorship and stars have altered, in turn, various adaptations. Newmark, Judith (May 11, 2018). " 'A Streetcar Named Desire' sizzles in its own poetry". St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Wiegand, Chris (January 25, 2023). "A Streetcar Named Desire with Paul Mescal transfers to West End". The Guardian. Archived from the original on January 29, 2023 . Retrieved January 26, 2023.