Show Goes On

The film version we saw of A Streetcar Named Desire took a few different turns than the written version of the play. For one, it had a less tragic end because Stella left Stanley, together with the baby, which certainly satisfied all the feminists out there. A violent husband isn’t a place for a woman and her newborn baby! One would say. Blanche’s destiny stays similar to the book. Blanche is taken away by a doctor and her last scene ends dramatically with the words along the lines of ‘I’ve always relayed on the kindness of strangers’. What was really interesting to see about Blanche’s story was that the director chose to leave out the part of Blanche’s dead husband being homosexual. There might be many reasons as to why one would make that choice, even though I think that it takes out a whole big chunk of interesting analysis.  As Tennessee Williams was gay himself, I find that taking out that piece of information ruins a whole part of the story. There seems no valid reason anymore as to why her husband shoots himself after she confronts him.

Because it was a movie, the set was a little different than described in the book, as there were multiple perspectives that the actors could be looked at. A thing that they did very well was that they didn’t show the bathroom either, just like in the book. There are only supposed to be two rooms, the living room and the bedroom, but in the movie there is also some sort of small area at the door, which seems like a practical adjustment to the set, as it creates more privacy.

Stella is portrayed much older than she’s described in the book. Blanche doesn’t look old at all and she doesn’t seem old either when Stanley rips off the cover of the lamp. Stella, who is described as a young, vivid and pretty girl, looks old and almost unattractive.

What was also a little irritating were the stairs and Eunice’s balcony. They don’t correspond at all to what was described in the book. It is possible that it was done for practical purposes, but it ruins the whole idea of an old fire escape staircase across the wall that one imagines when reading the italics of the play.

The movie is a great interpretation of the book, even though it left out some important parts of the actual story.