A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE
US, 1983, 120 minutes, Colour.
Treat Williams, Ann- Margret, Beverly D' Angelo, Randy Quaid.
Directed by John Erman.
A Streetcar Named Desire is a telemovie remake of Elia Kazan's original film, based on a screenplay by Tennessee Williams. The film has become a classic with many Oscar nominations as well as awards for stars Vivien Leigh, Kim Hunter, Karl Malden. It was a stylised treatment of Williams' play.
This remake aims for greater realism. With colour photography, the film has a recognisable New Orleans even though the sets are as before quite stylised, light and dark, garish colours etc. The film is also a star vehicle for Ann- Margret who has a greater strength of presence than Vivien Leigh - but nevertheless conveys much of Blanche Dubois' faded elegance and her collapse into madness. Treat Williams is a robust Stanley. Beverley D Angelo is excellent as Stella and Randy Quaid is also very good as Mitch. The strength of the play is present in the film, with some more explicit and earthy treatment of themes than was possible in the early '50s. Direction is by John Erman, director of many telemovies.
1. The play as a classic? The original screen classic? Telemovie remake? The original cast and comparisons with the remake? Colour, '80s style with more realism and frankness?
2. Telemovie audience? The home audience and attention and concentration? New Orleans and locations, sleazy, garish, light and dark? Atmosphere? The strength of the cast and their style? The musical score combining New Orleans jazz and old-fashioned melodies?
3. The '80s and realism, frankness? The persuasiveness of Tennessee Williams' characters, situations, conflicts?
New Orleans and its faded gentility, surface decay, a place for collapse and madness? Post- World War Two atmosphere?
4. The French families and their reliance on elegant tradition? Decay and corruption? The move to the new parts of the city, slum tenements? The experience of World War Two? The contrast with the new Americans. the Poles? The clash of the two worlds, old and new? The locations: tenements, parks and carriages, tramcars?
5. The significance of the title, the streetcar? New Orleans and its districts? The symbolism of desire? Highlighting relationships, identity, psychological and emotional insight?
6. Ann Margret's portrait of Blanche: her arrival on the streetcar, dressed in white, lady and manners? Her dismay at Stella's home? Finding Stella at the bowling alley? The glimpse of Stanley? Her love for Stella yet her feeling Stella's blame? Memories of Bellerive? The initial clash with Stanley? Her reaction to his coarseness, calling him primitive? Her ladylike behaviour: baths, her elegant clothes? Yet her drinking? The blend of surface respectability and deeper sensuality? The long sequence of her flirting with the messenger boy? Her enjoying Mitch's company, outings with him. the possibility of marriage? The irony of never letting herself be seen in the light? Stanley's continued attack, suspicions of her, exposing her? The tense meal when Mitch did not turn up? Her drinking and the clash with Mitch? Truth told in anger? Stella going to hospital, Stanley coming home, the violence and the rape? Her physical and mental collapse? Her being taken off to the asylum - as a lady? Her strengths and weaknesses? Her story - her marriage, the homosexual, his relationship, shooting himself (and her continually hearing the shot)? A figure of pathos?
7. Stanley and his war experience, tough, insensitive, shrewd, brutal? His work, friends, the drinks, card-playing? His domination of Stella? His reaction when she seemed to order him about? His strong stance on being a Pole rather than a Polack? His taunts of Blanche, going through her clothes, looking for the documents about Bellerive? A sensual man, the heat and the sweat? The fight with Stella and her leaving, their continued reconciliations? Stella in hospital, the final confrontation with Blanche, attraction and repulsion, the violence and the rape? His not sensing his responsibility for Blanche's collapse?
8. Stella: a good woman, home, love for Stanley, sharing his life? Her not wanting to face the truth about Blanche? Suspicions about her? Covering up for her? The outings with her? Her drinking? The clashes with Stanley, his refusing to be dominated by her, her moving out, the returns? The meal with Blanche? Her telling the truth? The baby?
9. Mitch as one of the boys, his care for his mother, interest in Blanche, his becoming a gentleman caller, his refined manner, the outing, good manners, New Orleans style? His hearing Blanche's story? Her not telling him the full truth? Stanley's telling him the truth, his checking it out, not turning up for the dinner, his drinking, arrival and attack? Disillusionment?
10. The use of the tenements and the rooms, the friends playing cards, the place of the women, the disputes amongst the tenement-dwellers?
11. Ordinary life, squalor, clashes, love and hate? The intruder and her disruptions? Differences, difficulty and destruction? Sanity and madness?
