I Love Tennessee Williams. Glass Menagerie, Streetcar Named Desire,Night of the Iguana; they are works of art full of poetic language and fascinating, complex characters.
I was expecting to love The Fugitive Kind as well. Marlon Brando is a brilliant actor, as is Joanne Woodward, and Sidney Lumet is a great director. The cinematography is excellent, and some of the best moments in the movie are from great visuals.
So if I don't care for this movie - and I don't - I'm inclined to think the problem is the script. Williams dialog is not especially poetic. His characters are not particularly sympathetic; Brando is intriguing even if he never entirely catches fire, Magnani also performs well but isn't likable or deep, and Woodward's caricaturish party girl is kind of annoying.
Williams is still, to my mind, a genius, but after seeing this I think of him as a more fallible one than I had.
I was expecting to love The Fugitive Kind as well. Marlon Brando is a brilliant actor, as is Joanne Woodward, and Sidney Lumet is a great director. The cinematography is excellent, and some of the best moments in the movie are from great visuals.
So if I don't care for this movie - and I don't - I'm inclined to think the problem is the script. Williams dialog is not especially poetic. His characters are not particularly sympathetic; Brando is intriguing even if he never entirely catches fire, Magnani also performs well but isn't likable or deep, and Woodward's caricaturish party girl is kind of annoying.
Williams is still, to my mind, a genius, but after seeing this I think of him as a more fallible one than I had.