A Streetcar Named Desire Review

Elia Kazan's adaptation of Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire tells the story of Stella (Kim Hunter) and Stanley (Marlon Brando), a couple expecting a baby whose relationship is put to the test when the deranged Blanche DeBois (Vivian Leigh), Stella's sister, comes and stays with them.

A Streetcar Named Desire was released in 1951, with the '50s being notoriously responsible for films such as Vertigo, Rear Window and Seven Samurai, films that all explored and pushed boundaries in the developing form of film, we see A Streetcar Named Desire step aside from the technological advancements of cinema and focus on the performances given by cast. This leads the film's camerawork to be almost unnoticeable, sticking with static shots for the majority of the feature, allowing us to feel intimacy with the characters, ignore the fact that there is a whole crew of people behind the camera and feel almost as if we are watching it as a play, which it was originally performed as.

The performances from Marlon Brando and Kim Hunter, who were both a part of the original Broadway production of the play, are absolutely breathtaking. Brando's portrayal as the dominant and heavy handed Stanley is so pure, showing the raw talent that Brando had and the genuine connection he had with his character, with it only being his second feature film. Brando and Hunter's performances are so subtly brilliant that it is only until after the film, once we have taken our eyes off of their characters and realised that they are fictional, that we understand just how mesmerising their performances were. Vivian Leigh's portrayal of Stella is a much more Hollywood one, with her feature film career running sixteen years prior to the release of the movie, her experience in playing the dramatic female lead is evident. Her overcompensation in some aspects of her performance runs in correlation with her character's eccentric and dramatic personality, however, and the casting director's were extremely clever when it came to the casting of Blanche DeBois.
It is no surprise to me that three Academy Awards were won for acting in this film, however, it both confuses and angers me how Marlon Brando was not in the list of winners, with his performance being the main brilliance of the film.

The film does stick to the main story of the play, with just a few minor changes due to the obligations required by the Hollywood Code, and doesn't try and jazz up the feature with quirky camerawork or crazy sets, the sets are simple and the camera is static, we are aware from the beginning that we are watching an adaptation and that the narrative and relationships between characters are the most important part of this film. In a time when the world was going crazy for innovational camerawork and technology, the film would have been, and still is, a breath of fresh air that I'm sure no fans of the original play would be disappointed with.

REVIEW: ALFRED HITCHCOCK'S 'TO CATCH A THIEF'

Opening with a shot of a travel agents window advertising France as a tourist destination, Hitchcock's 1955 'To Catch a Thief' could very well be mistaken for a advertisement funded by the French tourist board. That is, however, until a sudden cut to a panic-stricken woman screaming takes over the screen and we are violently thrust back into the world of Alfred Hitchcock, where the pleasant parts of life are overlooked in favour of the sinister.

We see the character of John Robie, played brilliantly by Cary Grant, living a reformed life of peace in the south of France after living the life of a well-known jewel thief, however in the typical Hitchcock trope of 'the wrong man', he is accused of being responsible for a new set of jewel robberies in France and is pursued by the police. The film follows Robie's attempts to catch the real jewel thief and clear his name of the crimes he has not permitted.

The first thing to comment on about this film is the absolutely stunning cinematography  The
picturesque backdrop of the south of France combined with the beautiful camerawork makes for one of Hitchcock's most aesthetically pleasing films. Robert Burks, the cinematographer for this feature, worked on many other Hitchcock films such as North by Northwest and Vertigo, however he seemed to have peaked before either of these two films with the beautiful camerawork featured in To Catch a Thief.

The plot is good, not the best of Hitchcock's, but the performances from Grace Kelly and Cary Grant are as brilliant as ever. The suspense and intrigue caused from the two actors is really quite something, with Kelly looking fantastic and desirable as the infamous 'Hitchcock Blonde' and Grant playing the role of a man wrongly convicted nicely. It seems that Grant's performance in this film was perhaps his warm-up role to the peak-performance of his career, North by Northwest which was produced four years later.

The directing is as good as any other Hitchcock film, with the film being released in the '50s, it is clear that Alfred Hitchcock was in the prime of his career, becoming an auteur and finding both his strengths and weaknesses as a director. The film is definitely worth watching, if it's just for the cinematography itself, however, like all Hitchcock films, the audience is taken on a journey of suspense, with pauses for comedy and a subplot of a love interest with complications, the film boasts perhaps one of Hitchcock's most well-rounded features.

SPRING BREAKERS- INNOVATIVE DRAMA AT ITS BEST:

I know it's been out for a few weeks in the US now, but over here on my little island (the UK), Harmony Korine's Spring Breakers has only just hit cinemas. After just getting back from my second time seeing the film, I thought I would add to the various opinions and reviews of the film surfacing the internet.

Taking into consideration that this film is directed by Harmony Korine, I'm astounded at the amount of critics who are complaining that in this film, substance was overpowered by style. Although being Korine's debut mainstream film, I honestly don't know what film reviewers were expecting, the film completely works as a mainstream piece of art (after seeing it with a number of friends who are in no way film buffs, and almost all of them thinking highly of the film), and still sticks to Korines roots as an independent and stylistically innovative director.

The four female actors playing the young college students fit their roles perfectly, the acting is supreme, with another stellar performance by James Franco. This film shows teen actress' such as Selena Gomez and Vanessa Hudgens displaying a wider set of acting skills than they have shown before, proving they are not bound to a one-type character.

This breaking out of the comfort zone for the actors is also reflected in the characters they play. Four college students leave their ordinary, mundane lives for a world of drugs, sex and crime. It is almost as if the roles were made for these actors, and I believe Korine was extremely clever in picking who he did to play his lead roles.

The film does ask a lot of the audience in terms of suspending their disbelief, such as the consequence-less hold-up of a fast-food joint, as well as numerous crimes and drug scandals, with the teens eventually being caught at a party taking drugs, one of their lesser crimes, to say the least. This, almost mockery, of the US Police Force is shown alongside an interesting outlook on the classic 'American Dream'. Alien (his character's name immediately presenting the idea of someone foreign to this planet - an exaggeration of the foreigners entering America) is a character who has lived the American dream. Money, women, a house on the beach, he seems to have it all. However his 'dream' turns into a nightmare when his past catches up with him, and an old friendship turns into a rivalry, ultimately leading to his death.

One of the biggest arguments against the film I have heard is that the cinematography and editing techniques are too 'try hard'. The fact of the matter is, Korine is exactly the type of director that a film such as this one needed. A simple crime-drama, however with shots showing exactly why Korine got the mainstream break he deserved- my favourite being the in-car tracking shot showing the two teens robbing the diner, accompanied by Nicki Minaj's 'Moment 4 Life' on the radio. This intensely thought out camerawork and sound recording shows the a change in the girls, and the new them that they have just discovered exists.

Overall the film is a work of art, and risk-takers are something I believe cinema needs more of. Through the advancing digital age, Korine uses classic equipment and stories and innovates new and exciting ways to present them to an audience. An extremely self-aware director, this reasonably unheard of director has made his mark on the mainstream world and has gained the interest of myself, and many others like me, I will definitely be looking out for future films by him.