A Streetcar Named Desire

Overly dramatic? Yeah at times.

Bits of slow pacing? Sure I’d say that.

A poetic and nightmarishly atmospheric story that’s stood the test of time because of it’s universal themes ingeniously executed by the truly extraordinary performances? Absolutely.

Well, that was disturbing. I felt uncomfortable with Blanche. Mental illness is a heavy burden. Obviously, Brando should have won an Oscar here.

I tend not to like filmed versions of plays, and I'm definitely not a fan of Tennessee Williams. But to see this movie in the context of other films of the era (during my chronological watch of the 1001 series) really makes it stand out as a leap forward in acting style. Brando especially just takes my breath away--his Stanley is a raw, feral animal and his t-shirt alone should have won an Oscar. I've never liked Leigh's performance, but on this viewing I was struck by the thematic resonance of seeing Leigh's old-school acting technique matched up with Brando/Hunter's Method approach. I'm glad I rewatched this; it was a lot more intense and interesting than I had remembered.

Blanche is just the worst. Really great performances all around but the movie is a little too slow for me.

I really can t get over the old overdramatic style of acting. It doesn t make me feel it, the weight of the scene, the burden of the emotions portraited on the screen. Comparing with something new, take Jordan Pelee`s Get Out! scene where the protagonist is in the chair being hypnotyzed by the mother of the family. I FELT THAT IN MY BONES!

That being said, some movies and actors stand out more than others and go over that obstacle that you end up finding to enjoy a movie. I didn t really feel anything over Brandon s Character crying. I felt something watching Vivien Leigh right at the end when things happen. But that accomplishment are given to the actress, Leigh, and what the plot is about. Brandon and his character are good-to-great at being the awful partner, Kim Hunter is good as the sister and the rest of the cast is meh-to-good (sometimes the worse was Karl Malden s Mitchell, but at the end he was upt to good). Leigh obviously was a way more experienced actress compared with Brandon at the time, so, only during the climax she outshone him, but for the rest of the movie, I really liked Brandon style, it was less overdramatic but real enough, but, of course, really far from being a sublime performance.

I prefer Brandon over The Men (1951) that got a lower score than this one and I don`t want to accept it. He, too, lacks the emotional convincing when he starts crying over The Men, but during the rest of the movie he really did stand out and was a great perfomance, while, of course, being far from sublime.

Cinema Paco 2 image 4/5, sound 3/5. Great performances, great movie. Is this the best performance of Brando?

As great as the performances are in this, I just couldn't get into this dull story.

More like a play than a movie, but enjoyable all the same with the little twists.