Saturday | August 22, 2009 9:15 pm

A Streetcar Named Desire

Screening on Film

Directed by Elia Kazan.
With Vivien Leigh, Marlon Brando, Kim Hunter.
US, 1951, 35mm, black & white, 125 min.
Print source: Warner Bros.

Perhaps the quintessential Kazan film, Streetcar is, ironically, among the closest to his stage work. Only the urging of his good friend Tennessee Williams convinced Kazan to reluctantly take on the screen version of a play he had already directed successfully on Broadway. Kazan decided eventually to retain the play's general form while also increasing the tightness and tension of the dominant interior scenes by shooting largely in close-ups and medium shots. The only aberration from the play's mesmerizing original line-up was Vivien Leigh—forced upon Kazan by producer Charles Feldman, who insisted on the presence of a tested marquee star.