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From the Fog City Divas Blog Archives "Candice Muses on a Film Classic"
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The other night our local PBS station broadcast A Streetcar Named Desire, the 1951 movie based on Tennessee Williams' play. I hadn't seen it in over 20 years but had always found it too stagey, so I had no intention of watching. But I kept it on while I cleaned up the dinner dishes (we have a little TV on the kitchen counter), and soon was hooked completely. I ended up standing in the middle of the kitchen floor for 2 hours, never even taking the time to sit down, thoroughly mesmerized ... by the young Marlon Brando.
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The next morning, when Blanche finds Stella in bed, obviously naked beneath the covers and sexually satisfied, she chastises her for giving into her sexual need for Stanley, calling it nothing more than brutal desire, "Like the name of that old rattletrap streetcar." And one of my favorite lines is Stella's reply: "Haven't you ever ridden on that streetcar?" This was very sexy stuff for 1951, and the frank treatment of female sexual desire was something quite new and rather shocking in its day. It's still a very sexy movie. But still very stagey, too. There is a lot about the film that seems dated, including the style of acting, especially that of Vivian Leigh. Brando, however, is startling in his seeming artlessness, that raw and more naturalistic method of acting that makes it appear as though he's not acting at all. You can't help but realize that you're watching something entirely new in film acting, a groundbreaking performance that changed everything that came after it. But mostly, I confess that I was transfixed by the pure sex appeal of the man.
So many lessons to be learned from this film classic.
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candicehern.com |
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When he first came on the screen, I swear my jaw dropped. I know I said, "Oh. My. God." out loud. For the first time -- perhaps because I've spent the last dozen or more years trying to create sexy heroes on the page -- I realized why Brando's performance was so legendary. He was pure sex on the screen. Raw animal magnetism. I couldn't take my eyes off him. And neither could Vivian Leigh as Blanche DuBois. When he first came into the room, she was as mesmerized as I was. The 27 year-old Brando filled out a t-shirt to perfection (and made the t-shirt a staple of the male wardrobe). But when he stripped it off ... well, let's just say he was worthy of posing for one of Monica's highlander covers. The man was gorgeous.
But it was more than a great body that made him sexy. It was the way he moved, the crooked smile, the arched eyebrow, and the way he looked at a woman like he was stripping her bare. He was liquid sex, molten and hot, sweating in the New Orleans heat, and burning up the screen. Whenever he was in a scene, everyone else almost disappeared. Tennessee Williams wrote Stanley Kowalski as a sexual creature, simple and brutish, and Brando played the role to perfection. Blanche complains to her sister Stella that Stanley is "common." Stella knows it, but doesn't care. He gives her what she needs. In fact, her sexual need for Stanley is so strong that she will put up with being beaten by him and lie to herself about his role in the destruction of her sister. 
The famous scene of Brando, with his wet t-shirt ripped and hanging off his back, bellowing, "Stella! STELLA!" is followed by a moment that defines Stella's relationship to him, how her desire for him drives everything. Stanley has fallen to his knees at the bottom of an outdoor stairway, still crying out for Stella. She slowly descends the stairs to him, her movements lanquid, her mouth sensual, and there is no mistaking the look in her eye. She wants him. But there is a hint of triumph in her eyes as well, a glimmer of satisfaction that she can reduce her husband to such desperation. You suddenly realize that Stanley and Stella are truly in this marriage together, each getting what he or she wants and needs. When Stella reaches the bottom of the stairs, she drapes herself over Stanley, clinging to him, and he rises with her in his arms and slowly walks into the house. It's surely one of the sexiest scenes since Rhett carried Scarlett up the stairs. When Blanche peeks in a window, we have no doubt what she sees.
Brando in his sweaty T-shirt seems more dangerous and sexual than most present-day actors manage to be when naked. And that scene when Stanley carries Stella into the house is pure eroticism, even if we don't see what happens when they get inside. It's not simply a matter of leaving something to the imagination, but an astute understanding (by Tennessee Williams and the director, Elia Kazan) that sexual tension is at its height during the the power plays -- emotional, psychological, sexual -- that take place before people actually get naked and into bed. 
