Kazan’s A Streetcar Named Desire: A Key to Confusion? Tennessee Williams’s A Streetcar Named Desire and Elia Kazan’s film version of the play share the same characters and the same story. Except for the opening scene, Kazan doesn’t change the plot at all. To emphasize the meanings of death and desire, the movie shows Blanche taking different streetcars in the area surrounding where Stanley and Stella live-and the viewer can imagine how difficult it is for Blanche to adjust.
In the play, Blanche simply talks about the streetcars, which puts the audience right into a situation ithout any introduction. The setting is also the same-and hardly changes-in the movie. Kazan tried to make the movie follow the stage directions as closely as possible. There are only a few changes in dialogue to emphasize Blanche’s accent. However, the two versions of the scene between Blanche DuBois, the main character, and a young man who is collecting money are not the same. Kazan’s use of narrative and film HOLT, RINEHART AND WINSTON Comparing a Play and a Film Copyright © by Holt, Rinehart and Winston. All rights reserved. 2 BODY Comparison of narrative techniques:
Theme-play Theme-film techniques helps the audience to visualize the play, but on the other hand, confuses them as well. The main thing that differs in Scene 5 is the theme. In this scene, Blanche flirts with the young man who is collecting some money for a newspaper. Blanche doesn’t have any money, but every time the boy tries to leave the room she invents some new excuse to try to make him stay longer. In the end of the scene, she kisses him without even waiting for his response to her request. In the play, the young man seems scared and shocked when Blanche approaches him.
The stage directions indicate, “The young man clears his throat and looks yearningly at the door” (Williams 84). In the movie, however, the boy never takes his eyes off Blanche. He stares at her the whole time. When Blanche calls him back, the stage directions indicate that “she crosses toward him,” but in the film version that’s not true (83). As she approaches him, he also moves toward her to meet her-not at the door, but in the middle of the room. The incident repeats itself shortly before the kiss when he doesn’t try to push her away, but instead leans
HOLT, RINEHART AND WINSTON Comparing a Play and a Film Copyright © by Holt, Rinehart and Winston. All rights reserved. 3 Evaluation of film techniques: 1. Lighting forward and doesn’t even try to stop. However, Tennessee Williams’s stage directions state: “Without waiting for him to accept, she crosses quickly to him and presses her lips to his” (84). The change of theme doesn’t bother the audience much; but if you know the real play, it’s difficult not to get confused. The young man obviously enjoys his fate in the film version, whereas in the play he is naive and scared.
Important film techniques help the audience to visualize the play. Although the movie is black and white, Kazan does an outstanding job in using different lighting effects. When the young man enters, Blanche doesn’t know who it is because of the light from outside. The darkness in the room lets the boy appear as a big black shadow, which helps to emphasize her interest in him when she finally realizes that it is a very young man. All of a sudden, when he steps into the light, Blanche can’t stop staring at the visitor. Blanche is also never shown in the direct spotlight so hat no one can see her real age or looks.
In the play it’s hard to imagine how Blanche looks because there is not enough HOLT, RINEHART AND WINSTON Comparing a Play and a Film Copyright © by Holt, Rinehart and Winston. All rights reserved. 4 2. Camera shots concrete detail. The only time she is described in the light is when Mitch turns it on. Here the stage directions indicate that “he tears the paper lantern off the light bulb” (117). In the movie it’s a whole lot easier to realize how much Blanche has to depend on the light. Whenever she is seen, she is in a partly arkened spot.
The only time she is standing right in the spotlight is after Mitch pushes her against the wall and holds a light right into her face. In that moment, not only is Mitch shocked, but also the whole audience finds out why Blanche prefers the darkness. She is old and ugly! The film uses great lighting effects to hide Blanche’s real looks and to create the right atmosphere for the more intense scenes. The camera shots in this particular scene are mostly medium shots or close-ups. When Blanche speaks, the close-up gives a good image of her interest in the young man.
The closeups of the young man show his interest, too, which leads to the difference and confusion between the play and the movie. If Kazan would have used only medium shots of him, the audience may not have realized that his appearance in the HOLT, RINEHART AND WINSTON Comparing a Play and a Film Copyright © by Holt, Rinehart and Winston. All rights reserved. 5 3. Sound effects movie differs from his appearance in the play. The camera angles mostly show the two of them or one person alone because they are the main figures in the scene, and nothing else matters.
The sound effects are not that special and can be recreated in the play easily. The film music, however, tells a lot about the scene’s importance. In the play, the music of the Four Deuces is played in a blue mood. The music in the movie varies from blue to childish. When Blanche is depressed and sad, the music is blue and sad; but as soon as she sees the young man standing in her room, it becomes the kind of childish music you would hear in a music box.
This type of music continues through the whole scene and gets louder when the boy is shown until Mitch, Blanche’s “Rosenkavalier,” finally ppears. The music gives the audience the right feeling about Blanche and the difference in age between her and the boy. In the play, it’s difficult to create an atmosphere of the scene when the stage directions indicate, “The music of the Four Deuces is played. ” What kind of music do they play in the HOLT, RINEHART AND WINSTON Comparing a Play and a Film Copyright © by Holt, Rinehart and Winston. All rights reserved. 6
CONCLUSION Restatement of thesis Closing statement Four Deuces? The stage directions obviously lack some extremely important details because a blue and sad music can e almost any type of music, and it’s impossible to hear it radiating from a book. Elia Kazan’s film version of A Streetcar Named Desire is interesting, but in some scenes a little confusing to those who have read the play. The benefits of film techniques entertain the audience even more and emphasize the dramatic situations between the characters. While the plot of the movie hardly differs from that of the play and the changes in the theme do not affect the plot much, the audience won’t miss a lot if they would rather watch the movie instead of reading or going to see the original play at a theater.