A Streetcar Named Desire

1951, Elia Kazan, USA, 125 min.

Selected and introduced by theater director JoAnne Akalaitis

Based on the play by Tennessee Williams, this renowned drama follows troubled former schoolteacher Blanche DuBois (Vivien Leigh) as she leaves small-town Mississippi and moves in with her sister, Stella Kowalski (Kim Hunter), and her husband, Stanley (Marlon Brando), in New Orleans. Blanche’s flirtatious Southern-belle persona causes problems for Stella and Stanley, who already have a volatile relationship, leading to even greater conflict in the Kowalski household. The movie features a groundbreaking, Oscar-nominated jazz score by Alex North, who composed a musical identity for each character, from lush violins with dissonant undertones for Blanche’s doomed romance to sultry horns for Stanley’s brute masculinity.

About Cabaret Cinema: Soundtrack

You can probably name the best movie you’ve seen, but what about the best movie you’ve heard? It might be your favorite because of its sound effects, sound engineering, score, or another element of the audio experience. Watch—and hear—a series of films that caught the ear of notable New Yorkers.

About the introducer

Theater director and writer JoAnne Akalaitis is the winner of five Obie Awards for direction (and sustained achievement) and founder of the critically acclaimed Mabou Mines theater company in New York. She has staged works by Euripides, Shakespeare, Strindberg, Schiller, Beckett, Genet, Williams, Philip Glass, and Janacek, as well as her own work at Lincoln Center Theater, Court Theater, Opera Theater of Saint Louis, and The Guthrie Theater. She is the former artistic director of the New York Shakespeare Festival and chair of the Directing Program at Juilliard School, and was head of the Theater Department at Bard College for fourteen years.