1. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
2. A Streetcar Named Desire
Okay, so so far there has been a theme to my classic movies list- movies based on classic novels. Okay, two themes- movies based on classic novels related to mental breakdowns. But hey, those are two elements of a great movie.
A Streetcar Named Desire is the story of Blanche Dubois (played by Gone with the Wind's Vivien Leigh) who goes to live with her sister Stella and Stella's husband Stanley Kowalski (Marlin Brando) in New Orleans. Blanche soon reveals that she has lost her job as a teacher and lost her and Stella's childhood home after the death of her father. The life she finds in New Orleans is not what she expected nor what she claims to have been used to in Mississippi.
This movie is a feminist's dream/nightmare. I'm not sure whether to be more outraged by the terrible manipulation of Blanche's mental state, the terrible treatment by Stanley of his wife, or the fact that Stella can be summoned back to said relationship by a simple call of "STELLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"
Not to mention the burden that Blanche must bear about her past and the way everyone responds when they find out about her secrets.
As I imagine is typical in New Orleans, the story includes alcohol, loud music, violent psychoses and a good deal of sweating and inappropriate levels of clothedness.
The movie stars Marlin Brando in his heyday as the sexy bad boy. Having never seen The Godfather (I know, I know, I will sometime this year) I can't attest to how weird and fat he gets, but he looked pretty good in 1951.
I'll admit that this movie sat in its red Netflix envelope for quite awhile before we got around to watching it, with much protestation from Ronnie ("Awww, two hours! AND its in black and white?!") but we both wound up enjoying it. Surprisingly we even wound up agreeing about what the ambiguous ending really meant.
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