Last weekend I decided to watch the movie versions of a few of my favourite Tennessee Williams plays. I'm a sucker for old classic films anyway, but there's something about Williams' plays that are so character driven and that's what I love, interesting characters. Characters that are intriguing & you can't help but want to know why they're like this, or what would bring them to do that or act like that...
So I curled up on the lounge with the cat & watched these 3 classics...
Image of Katharine Hepburn from here
St Louis, 1937. Aspiring poet, Tom, narrates the story. Tom tells his recollection of working in a shoe warehouse to support his overbearing Mother, Amanda, and his introvert Sister, Laura, after their Father long ago abandoned them.
I love this play and the introverted character of Laura who lives in a world of glass figurines & old records.
"She lives in a world of her own — a world of — little glass ornaments."
Tom about Laura, The Glass Menagerie
Image of Elizabeth Taylor from here
Catherine Holly seemingly goes insane after her cousin, Sebastian, mysteriously dies on a European trip that they take together. Sebastian's mother, Violet, trying to hide the truth about her son's homosexuality & death, has Catherine committed to an insane asylum & employs a doctor to perform a lobotomy on her to stop her apparent incoherent utterances about Sebastian & the reasons for his death.
Both the play & the film attracted controversy for the themes dealt with. Definitely a mesmerizing film.
"Truth is the one thing I've never resisted."
Catherine Holly, Suddenly, Last Summer
Image of Elizabeth Taylor & Paul Newman from here
'Brick, an alcoholic ex-football player, drinks his days away and resists the affections of his wife, Maggie. His reunion with his father, Big Daddy, who is dying of cancer, jogs a host of memories and revelations for both father and son.'
IMDbThis film is hot, hot, hot!
"You can be young without money, but you can't be old without it."
Maggie, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
Another of my favourites is
A Streetcar Named Desire, which I was lucky enough to see last year at Sydney Theatre Company starring the phenomenal Cate Blanchett. She left me speechless. She was superb!
"Whoever you are, I have always depended on the kindness of strangers."
Blanche DuBois, A Streetcar Named Desire
So that took up some of my weekend last weekend, along with reading a bit of Shakespeare, dinner with lovely friends and I managed to squeeze in a voice-over job which was a bit of fun!
~ Clare x
