Vivien Leigh is the real star of ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’

Vivien Leigh & Marlon Brando in 'A Streetcar Named Desire'

Though Vivien Leigh won Oscar’s Best Actress award for her heartbreaking role as Blanche Dubois in Elia Kazan’s A Streetcar Named Desire (watch the trailer in my vodpod in the right column), it was Marlon Brando’s performance (nominated) that’s the main attraction on the DVD. Somehow, they call A Streetcar Named Desire a Brando film. As much as I love Marlon Brando, that’s something that I found unfair for Ms. Leigh.

Pauline Kael ,who is considered to be the most influential film critic of all time, wrote that Leigh and Marlon Brando gave “two of the greatest performances ever put on film” and that Leigh’s was “one of those rare performances that can truly be said to evoke both fear and pity.”

Both performances were no doubt excellent with Brando’s tremendous presence throughout. It’s amazing how well Brando’s method acting blends with Leigh’s classical acting. Completely different but effective and mindblowing on their own. But I’ve always thought that Vivien’s acting is more complex and astounding simply because her character is more complex than Brando’s.

Some posters in IMDb immaturely criticize Vivien’s acting as “over the top”, melodramatic, theatrical. But they are downright missing the point. One way to appreciate Vivien’s acting is to comprehend the character she is playing.

Blanche, the exact difference of Gone with the Wind’s Scarlett O’Harra (both characters marvelously played by Vivien Leigh), is a prisoner of her old world. Both were remnants of South aristocracy but unlike Scarlett, who successfully survives the change, Blanche succumbs to fantasy to escape the harsh reality of change. Scarlett wants realism. Blanche wants magic.

In one scene, she said “I don’t want realism. I want magic! Yes, yes, magic. I try to give that to people. I do misrepresent things. I don’t tell truths. I tell what ought to be truth.”

Blanche is a very insecure, mentally unstable woman. She has gone through some of the harshest things in life. She’s lost her family’s fortune; her husband killed himself; she has succumbed to drinking and prostitution. She’s been a social outcast.

I guess Tennessee Williams, the playwright, more than any other, understood her character best. And when he said that Leigh brought to the role “everything that I intended, and much that I had never dreamed of” that may very well be the best recognition that can be bestowed upon an actor.

Never mind the Oscar’s, even Brando himself speaks highly of Leigh’s performance. If only I could find the quote. And I think the playwright himself has said well enough.

Note: Some of these thoughts were posted in IMDb.