A Streetcar Named Desire (1951 film)

A Streetcar Named Desire is a 1951 American drama film, with elements of film noir, an adaptation of Tennessee Williamss Pulitzer Prizewinning 1947 play of the same name. It is the story of a southern belle, Blanche Dubois, who, after encountering a series of personal losses, leaves her aristocratic background seeking refuge with her sister and brotherinlaw in a dilapidated New Orleans tenement. The Broadway production and cast was converted to film with only minor changes. True to the play, the film is both lyrical and gritty, with complex and contradictory characters. Chief among these was Blanche Dubois who has become a legendary and iconic figure in film history.

Under mysterious circumstances, Blanche DuBois, an aging high school teacher, leaves her home in Auriol, Mississippi to travel to New Orleans to live with her sister, Stella Kowalski. She arrives on the train and boards a streetcar named Desire and reaches her sisters home in the French Quarter where she discovers that her sister and brotherinlaw, Stanley Kowalski, live in a cramped and dilapidated tworoom apartment in an old New Orleans tenement. Blanche and Stella are all that remain of an old aristocratic family. Blanche discloses that the family estate, Belle Reve, has been lost to creditors, and that she wants to stay with Stella and Stanley for a while. Blanche seems lost and broke, with nowhere to go. Stella welcomes her with an open heart.From the start, Blanche and Stanley are wary of each other. Blanche imitates a softspoken manner Stanley is rough and loud. His mere presence seems to threaten her, while her behavior and manner arouse suspicion in him. She is especially adroit at patronizing and criticizing Stella from the start. When interrogated about her past, struggling to be polite, Blanche says that she was married and widowed at a young age. She says that she has taken a leave of absence from her job due to her nerves. To satisfy Stanleys skepticism about the loss of the estate, Blanche hands over her papers pertaining to Belle Reve. But Stanley grabs at some of her private papers that she is holding back, and they cascade to the floor. Weeping, she gathers them all back, saying that they are poems from her dead husband. He defends himself by saying that he was just looking out for his family, and then announces that Stella is going to have a baby. ........

Source: Wikipedia