I saw what others wrote here..Manipulative, annoying?! Cmon, she was a fragile woman who was desperately seeking for love from men who brought her only destruction.
shareI feel sympathy for her situation... but, that doesn't make her any LESS manipulative or annoying! It explains her behaviour, but it doesn't totally absolve it.
"Your mother puts license plates in your underwear? How do you sit?!"
I really did, and I'm surprised to see how many don't...
shareShe was flawed but in the way that made me want to take care of her (and wish I was her former beau Shep Huntley!)...she was driven to madness by Stanley!
THE MITCH ANGLE: Even if Stanley hadn't told Mitch about Blanche's past (and Mitch ended up marrying her), I couldn't see the two couples going out on the town together! Wayyy too much tension! Mitch and Blanche would have had to move away when Mitch's mother died, or Mitch could have gotten another job!
I absolutely love Blanche DuBois. It would take a whole lot more than anything she did in this movie for me to not be on her side 100%. She is definitely in my top ten all time favorite fictional characters. Her delicacy of feeling is enchanting.
I thought I was gonna die! - Roseanne Roseannadanna
I really need to see this again, it has been several years. I do own a copy on dvd. Got it for $2 bucks at a thrift shop.
I like the performances in the film, but I can't get past Blanche being a pain in the butt to be around. I will need to look deeper and I love what you comment about her character, you are really in touch and in tune with her? This says so much about your own compassionate personality and character and it is pretty much hard to dispute. Although I know you can be evil when you want to be Mr. H.
Don't eat the whole ones! Those are for the guests. 🍪
Yeah, I am very much in tune with Blanche DuBois. Basically, I love and even admire individuals who have that ultra sensitivity of feeling, and sometimes at the expense of almost everything else. Blanche's psychological disposition renders her on the verge of nervous collapse, and I find her exquisite. There are so many examples one could cite.
I guess I do have evilness in me, Rascal. But that evilness/dark side cannot go unchecked or else it can surface and manifest in really ugly and destructive ways.
And I do have a long way to go.
I thought I was gonna die! - Roseanne Roseannadanna
Yes, Blanche was the total opposite to Stanley and she was a wilting flower just ready to get crumpled. Her inordinate sensitivity though, was something that I feel she played on for attention and pity and she was her own worst enemy.
Don't worry about your evilness Mr. H , as long you don't go on a mass killing spree or sell others out for you own personal gain, I doubt it is anything you need bother about. Blanche could have done with a dose of evil in her being.
Don't eat the whole ones! Those are for the guests. 🍪
Blanche was the total opposite to Stanley
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Yes, Rascal. Tennessee Williams was very interested in gender and sexuality, and in Blanche, he conveyed the ultimate in a certain kind of femininity - for better or for worse - and in Stanley, the ultimate in masculinity, ditto. I felt her sensitivity was pretty genuine, though she did tell Stanley she was "fishing for a compliment" once. Blanche obviously had a problem with gay men (maybe it offended her feminine sensibilities), and I probably couldn't have been friends with her, but the lady has seen ghosts. She is haunted, she is at the mercy of her own feminine wiles and she is mesmerizing.
Her last line, especially, "I have always depended on the kindness of strangers" is something that completely resonates with me. Strangers charm. And I can appreciate your comment about Blanche needing a "dose of evil". I think "dose of reality" works well, too. Without whatever ego strength I possess, I just might find myself in the same boat as Blanche.
My favorite moments are the quiet ones when Blanche is melancholy with memory, when she is talking about her dead husband.
"This boy who wrote poetry, didn't seem able to do anything else. He lost every job."
My favorite people are usually people who, perhaps above everything else, feel deeply. (I'm sure that's why I was so hard on Mary. That lady was CALLOUS!) My sense of humor and basic good nature has likely saved me from the fate of that boy, but I totally get him. And I would probably like him very much. And not only because he was homosexual.
Then there is Stanley, who hasn't an ounce of poetry in him.
Trivia: (from Susan Tyrrell's IMDB bio) Supposedly, 'Tennessee Williams' once confided to her [Tyrrell], "My favorite actors are 50 percent male and 50 percent female. You, my dear, are neither."
I love Susan Tyrell (and probably, to some extent, for the very reason Williams cited. She was something of an alien), and even though that's a very biting, and possibly evil (?), thing to say to someone, it's also kind of accurate.
Blanche Du Bois is TW's creation, and I worship the soul of the man who could conceive of such a person. Truly, Tennessee Williams, psychologist Carl Jung and poet/criminal/man lover extraordinaire, Jean Genet are the three MEN I would fall down for. There are probably more, but these three guys are tops for me.
Three WOMEN who completely disarm me with their female charms are Marilyn Monroe, writer Shirley Jackson and - I am delighted to come to know her - "Elvira, Goddess of the Dark"! Again, there are more (I have lots of idols/heroes), but these three ladies can do no wrong in my book.
I thought I was gonna die! - Roseanne Roseannadanna
Three WOMEN who completely disarm me with their female charms are Marilyn Monroe...Shirley Jackson and ..."Elvira, Goddess of the Dark"!...these three ladies can do no wrong in my book.
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Ida doesn't rate a mention??? 😉 She would disarm, rather than charm and sell you out faster than you can say Okey Dokey! Ida is your evil eye, and instead of peeking, she will glare once in awhile. You go girl!
That Tennessee Williams quote about what he commented to Susan Tyrell was hilarious. Poor Susan, her lack of ying\yang balance within her, made her one of the strangest, wackiest, yet one of the most positively unique ladies to ever grace the silver screen..."Pffft! The mouth on that f<>king broad". 😄
Yes, a dose of reality wouldn't have done Blanche any harm, the thing is, she was living reality, yet couldn't cope with it. She was such a twit, that she married a "sensitive" man and couldn't finger out why he was so "thensitive". I guess she was just another veiled homophobe like the rest of em. It affected her precious feminine sensibilities. Have you seen Streetcar with Jessica Lange? I have seen once and thoroughly enjoyed. It is missing Brando's presence the most; but Diane Lane is fine and even Alec Baldwin is ok. There is another version from the early 80's with Anne Margaret, Treat Williams and Beverly D'Angelo. Sounds intriguing, I like all 3 of those actors.
Don't eat the whole ones! Those are for the guests. 🍪
I love and adore Ida, and she scares me and makes me laugh in equal measure. I'm not sure how impressed by her female-ness I am, though.
I haven't seen the Jessica Lange version or the Ann-Margret one. I like both actresses quite a bit, even if I don't see too many similarities between them. Jessica, with her histrionics and quivering neurosis, might seem an ideal Blanche Du Bois, but I can just as easily see her becoming overwhelmed by the character and drowning in tics. She might be a little distracting. Ann-Margret is likeable and always seemed kind of sexually aggressive. It might be the opposite scenario. I do like Treat Williams and Beverly D'Angelo also.
I thought I was gonna die! - Roseanne Roseannadanna
I don't recall Lange being overwhelmed or drowning in tics 😄; but it has been a while since I viewed the film. Lange is way too professional and expereienced to become daunted by a nervous and emotionally exposed character. Look at her tour-de-force with Frances. I like what you have commented about Anne Margaret being sexually aggressive. This would be something she would need to tone down, and it would have been a challenge for her to become more fragile and demure. I think I might have to track it down.
Don't eat the whole ones! Those are for the guests. 🍪
Hi Rascal. I'm getting ready to go to sleep (my internal clock is so whacked right now), but I just wanted to comment on the raw power of Lange's amazing Frances Farmer. FF was neurotic, all right, but unlike Blanche, FF was a true fighter.
Night night! [Sleep]
I thought I was gonna die! - Roseanne Roseannadanna
Mr. H, I found this review about the Lange version and the reviewer seems to know what they are talking about. I have edited it:
If you are a major fan of Jessica Lange then I would rent this, otherwise stay away! While Ms. Lange's portrayal is interesting, I'm not sure it is the Blanche, that Tennessee Williams envisioned. At times her slyness distorts the character of Blanche's and gives her the appearance of being nothing more than a manipulative, self-centered woman. Blanche is a woman holding onto her sanity by the skin of her delicate fingernails. Her lies and illusions are her retreat from the cold reality of life and the bad hands of cards she has been dealt...The conflict is between the oversensitive aristocratic world of Blanche and the brutal, realistic, present-day world represented by Stanley. But as an afternote, it should be added that Stanley is the type of person who likes his "cards on the table." He doesn't go in for subtleties and deception that Blanche has created to survive. As for the rest of the cast, ugh. Diane Lane is adequate at best...John Goodman is all wrong with to start with and he only gets worse as the film goes on...This leaves Alec Baldwin who can be summed up with one word - why?... He is horrible in this production; I now can understand why his performance in this role on Broadway elicited belly laughs. The audience wasn't laughing with him they were laughing at him. He preens and over-emotes, uses an accent...then changes it mid-sentnce...He prisses about and poses...At times it seemed as though Blanche wasn't physically afraid of him, but more afraid that he was going to go into her trunk and start parading around the apartment in her wardrobe...Save for Ms. Lange's performance this "Streetcar"...is almost like a work of science fiction...While the 1951 version certainly has superior actors, the Ann-Margaret-Treat William's "Streetcar" is a true ensemble production in which all four principals shine. This production is truer to the theme of the play of the artist (Blanche) ultimately being destroyed by realism and the harsh realities of a world that does not understand her (represented by Stanley).I can just imagine the slyness in my minds eye regarding Lange. Still, I will need to view again.
I definitely felt sympathy for Blanch. She was a very disturbed woman played brilliantly by Vivian Leigh.
shareBecause men hate women. They find unacceptable from women things that wouldn't bother them in men.
shareShe is an overly fragile, whiny, helpless, dotty, lying, demented, attention-sucking mental case whose entire self-proclaimed identity revolves around being a pitiful victim. She is nothing but annoying.
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