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

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Streetcar begins with Blanche (Vivien Leigh) arriving at her sister Stella’s (Kim Hunter) run-down apartment in the French Quarter. Blanche lives in a “dream world of long-gone gentility,” and is dismayed by her sister’s way of life, including her marriage to brutish Stanley (Marlon Brando). Throughout the script, Stanley taunts Blanche, eventually revealing a secret that sends her into a complete breakdown. Ultimately Stanley is rebuffed by his wife and friends, left alone to witness the result of his cruelty. [2] The first censorship concerning movies was enacted by the city of Chicago early in 1907; the people who created a prohibiting law believed that certain silent films and melodramas would go as far as to threaten the Anglo-Saxon race and womanhood (Couvares 2006, 91). However, “early American films enjoyed an unrestricted artistic freedom and proliferated accordingly in the absence of censoring ‘frontiers” (Cristian 2014) and years after the first controlling law, film studios on the West Coast became the world leaders from the 1920s on in filmmaking. However, during the Great Depression and the New Deal, themes like sexuality and violence were still considered to be morally unacceptable and were all banned (Cristian 2008, 73-74). Moreover, showing the latter mentioned features on screen were interpreted as fake values and false illusions. Religious groups in the U.S. started to protest against films which, according to them, were destructive and harmful (73). Later on, in 1930s, institutions like the Catholic Legion of Decency was also established. These institutions were responsible for controlling the film studios on what they could show in their films and what they must not. In other words, the leaders of these institutions thought the viewers needed to be protected from the violent, morally incorrect content they saw proper in the television and in the cinema, otherwise the public would be exposed to dangerous visual content that would affect their mental stability. Advocates of censorship called the members of this kind of audience the „Vulnerable Viewer;” and this was often idealized into the figure of a young person (child) or, in most cases, a (grown-up) woman (Couvares 2006, 3). The scene involving Stanley raping Blanche is cut short in the film, instead ending dramatically with Blanche smashing the mirror with the broken bottle in a failed attempt at self-defence. Obituary: Rose Williams". The Independent. September 12, 1996. Archived from the original on October 4, 2012 . Retrieved May 28, 2020.

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. In 1997, Le Petit Theatre du Vieux Carré in New Orleans mounted a 50th Anniversary production, with music by the Marsalis family, starring Michael Arata and Shelly Poncy. In 2009, the Walnut Street Theatre in Philadelphia, where the original pre-Broadway tryout was held, staged a production of the play.Maxine Peake stalks to the heart of Blanche DuBois". Theguardian.com. September 18, 2016 . Retrieved September 23, 2016.

I happen to agree with Louis L'Amour. As a red-blooded American, I am perplexed at the way this movie unfolds. Fenske, Sarah (May 11, 2018). " A Streetcar Named Desire Triumphs at the Tennessee Williams Festival". Riverfront Times. Keywords: PCA, Hollywood, censorship, stardom, Tennessee Williams, Elia Kazan, Glenn Jordan, Woody Allen, Pedro Almodóvar The 2005 Broadway revival was directed by Edward Hall and produced by The Roundabout Theater Company. It starred John C. Reilly as Stanley, Amy Ryan as Stella, and Natasha Richardson as Blanche. [16] The production was Richardson's final appearance on Broadway; she died in 2009 following a skiing accident. in show business, the noun ‘personality’ refers to a special performer whose fame rests on being him/herself rather than seeming to be someone else. Yet personality can also refer to an impression of a person projected by a fictional character and/or the impression of a person created in social interaction. (151)The movie also seems to be trying to put the audience on the side of Blanche. But I can only see where she went wrong, and is very much to blame. Everything Stanley does is nothing in comparison to her own misdemeanor. And I have a hard time reconciling to the ending. I mean-- what the--? This movie leaves too many gaps for the audience to fill in. When a story is told, the audience shouldn't have to invent it's ending. We all know there's more to this story, because like Mitch said to Blanche about Stanley and Stella "There's nothing to be scared of-- they're crazy about each other." 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] A Tribute From Tennessee Williams To 'Heroic Tallulah Bankhead' ". archive.nytimes.com . Retrieved December 23, 2022.

For my investigation, I will use some important sources regarding the issue of censorship and adaptation. The first is R. Barton Palmer’s study, titled Hollywood in Crisis: Tennessee Williams and the Evolution of the Adult Film which investigates the ways in which the Hollywood filmmaking system changed radically from the 1930s because of the introduction of the censorship. Palmer takes his example based on Tennessee Williams’s celebrated play which was adapted into film by Elia Kazan in 1947, A Streetcar Named Desire. The first Broadway revival of the play was in 1973. It was produced by the Lincoln Center, at the Vivian Beaumont Theater, and starred Rosemary Harris as Blanche, James Farentino as Stanley and Patricia Conolly as Stella. [11]Blair Underwood On Stanley, Stella And 'Streetcar' ". National Public Radio. May 1, 2012 . Retrieved May 2, 2012.