Film

A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)

Director: Elia Kazan

Movie review

From Time Out Film Guide

The film in which the Marlon mumble and scratch gave the Method a bad name and Tennessee Williams a yellow paper reputation as the playwright of steamy sex. Actually pretty mild (Stanley's 'liberating' rape of Blanche is coyly elided while we watch a hose washing away garbage with portentous symbolism), it remains impressive largely because of Brando's superbly detailed performance (which rather wipes the floor with Leigh's showy but superficial bundle of mannerisms). Directing with his camera sticking as close to the characters as if they were grouped on a stage, Kazan achieves a sort of theatrical intensity in which the sweaty realism sometimes clashes awkwardly with the stylisation that heightens the dialogue into a kind of poetry. What the film lacks, in fact, is some sort of perspective - and perhaps a dash of the dark humour that made Baby Doll both Kazan's best film and the screen's best Williams adaptation.

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