3. A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)
Blanche DuBois is a fading Southern belle whose manners and pretensions cannot disguise the fact that she is an alcoholic with delusions of grandeur. She thinks she is so attractive, she can wind any man around her little finger. She visits her sister Stella in New Orleans and gets on Stella's husband Stan's bad side. Blanche says she is taking a break from her job as an English teacher due to her delicate 'nerves' but in reality she seduced a 17 year old male pupil. Now that she is in New Orleans she plans to stay with Stella and Stan indefinitely. Stan is a very macho man. He is domineering, brutal and harsh towards Stella. He goes against her breeding and morals but she cannot tear herself away from him, especially now that she is pregnant. Blanche's presence in the cramped flat is oppressive - she likes to hold court and spin a line of BS. Mitch, one of Stan's friends is smitten by Blanche and listens, enraptured, to her tall tales. Stan is sickened by this and pulls Blanche up onto the blunt truth about her failed marriage, disgrace at the school and generally her deceit and fancy airs. Stan steps way over the line whenever he rapes Blanche. This sends her into a mega crack up mind frame. He calls the funny farm people to take her away. And Stella finally cops on to what a brute Stan is - leading to the famous utterance "STELLA! STELLA!" and the end of the film as Stella seeks refuge with the neighbours. Blanche was already touched in the head at the beginning of the film. She spoke a lot of crap and her affectations were frankly annoying. However, at the end of the film, watching her descend into outright insanity at the hands of Stanley is extremely upsetting - a marvellous performance by Vivien Leigh (an actress who knew all about insanity in her own private life) who deservedly won an Oscar for her labours. Her performance as the fragile Blanche is so intricate and multilayered, by the time she goes completely doolally, I was sobbing my head off. One of the greatest portrayals of female crack up on celluloid.