Years ago I saw Lumet's 'The Fugitive Kind' and more recently Peter Hall's 1990 film of the play (with its original title 'Orpheus Descending'). After seeing the Hall film, I went to Williams' text, then re-visited 'The Fugitive Kind', which I remembered as having brilliant moments but as finally somewhat confused.
Lumet's film differs significantly from the play: incidents mentioned in a line or less of dialogue, get acted out with (too) much variety of settings in the film; apart from the inevitable cuts, lines are transposed in different sequence in the film script and the play's pinpoint progression of human relations is blurred in the film.
The film credits are impressive: Williams helped prepare the screen adaptation. The two films that came after this one in Sidney Lumet's filmography were also adaptations of stage plays and both have terrific impact: 'Long Day's Journey into Night' and 'A View From the Bridge'. Brando and Magnini were great screen presences. I don't know what went on in behind the scenes, but to my mind more turns out to be less in this celluloid adaptation. Williams felt this play to be 'special' among his works. Some critics thought his perfecting it over very many years was an obsession that got him nowhere. The 1990 Peter Hall film can help us re-appraise William's work. The two main characters have a vulnerability (not in the Brando/Magnani version) which opens our receptiveness to the play. The bit of ballad Brando sings to no one is banal, for example, while Kevin Anderson/Valentine's songs send a haunting beauty to us the viewers and to characters in the drama: he is Orpheus descending--to the Hell of our world!
Lumet's film differs significantly from the play: incidents mentioned in a line or less of dialogue, get acted out with (too) much variety of settings in the film; apart from the inevitable cuts, lines are transposed in different sequence in the film script and the play's pinpoint progression of human relations is blurred in the film.
The film credits are impressive: Williams helped prepare the screen adaptation. The two films that came after this one in Sidney Lumet's filmography were also adaptations of stage plays and both have terrific impact: 'Long Day's Journey into Night' and 'A View From the Bridge'. Brando and Magnini were great screen presences. I don't know what went on in behind the scenes, but to my mind more turns out to be less in this celluloid adaptation. Williams felt this play to be 'special' among his works. Some critics thought his perfecting it over very many years was an obsession that got him nowhere. The 1990 Peter Hall film can help us re-appraise William's work. The two main characters have a vulnerability (not in the Brando/Magnani version) which opens our receptiveness to the play. The bit of ballad Brando sings to no one is banal, for example, while Kevin Anderson/Valentine's songs send a haunting beauty to us the viewers and to characters in the drama: he is Orpheus descending--to the Hell of our world!