12 Absorbing Films About Insanity

3. A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)

The highly acclaimed adaptation of Tennessee Williams' play which features an Oscar winning turn from Vivien Leigh as Blanche DuBois, a faded Southern belle who pretends to be the very epitome of a well-bred lady, but who becomes flummoxed in a sweaty urban setting (when she visits her sister) and comes across her sister's husband Stanley. Stanley is a force of pure raw masculinity and increasingly pissed off at Blanche's extended stay at his abode, her genteel manners and delusions of grandeur. He lets her know this. Blanche is disgusted at how Stanley treats her sister and Stanley retorts that Blanche seduced a school pupil when she was a teacher. Eventually, Stanley gets so wound up, he rapes Blanche who then has a massive breakdown and is carted off to the asylum. Okay, Blanche is deluded and flakey, but her plight at the end of the movie when she goes totally doolally is utterly heartbreaking, tear inducing stuff. With her cheap evening clothes and gentrified manners, Blanche cannot face her reality - mainly that she is getting older and her looks are fading. Still stuck in her debutante days, Stanley's devastating act of sexual violence is what tips her into total insanity.
Contributor
Contributor

My first film watched was Carrie aged 2 on my dad's knee. Educated at The University of St Andrews and Trinity College Dublin. Fan of Arthouse, Exploitation, Horror, Euro Trash, Giallo, New French Extremism. Weaned at the bosom of a Russ Meyer starlet. The bleaker, artier or sleazier the better!