A Streetcar Named Desire
Blanche DuBois is a high school English teacher from Auriol Mississippi. After creditors seize Belle Reve, the family’s property, she decides to relocate to New Orleans with Stella Kowalski and Stanley Kowalski. Blanche also decides to stop teaching because she feels that the current situation is causing her anxiety. Blanche has no idea about Stanley and the Kowalskis and is surprised to discover that their apartment is a rundown ground-floor one. She then beautifies the space by placing shades on the light bulbs and softening the lighting. Blanche and Stanley are antagonistic from the beginning. Blanche believes Stanley’s excessive-masculinity (which often manifests itself as physical outbursts) is vulgar and common. This is what attracted Stella. Blanche is not only a delicate, hoidy-toidy performer who puts on shows, but Stanley, a worker in the plant industry, thinks she might have actually sold Belle Reve, and that Stella has been withholding her fair share. The relationship is further complicated by the fact that Stella, Stanley’s first baby, is still in her early stages of pregnancy. Blanche meets Mitch soon after she arrives at the Kowalskis. Mitch is one of Stanley’s coworkers and friends who is more laid back than Stanley. Mitch doesn’t hide that he wants Blanche to become his wife. Mitch doesn’t know that Blanche managed to control their courtship in an effort to portray herself as the most attractive person, literally and metaphorically. In Stanley’s search to discover the truth about Blanche and Belle Reve’s lives in Auriol the interrelationships among Stanley, Stella, and Mitch could be irrevocably altered. Any revelations about Blanche’s past life may even further damage Blanche’s mental health. –Huggo
Genre: Drama
Director: Elia Kazan
Actors: Karl Malden, Kim Hunter, Marlon Brando, Nick Dennis, Peg Hillias, Rudy Bond, Vivien Leigh
Country: United States
