The Fugitive Kind October 15, 2010

1960, U.S.
Directed by Sidney Lumet With Marlon Brando, Anna Magnani, Joanne Woodward

Screens again Oct. 17 @ 7PM

Marlon Brando is an enigmatic drifter in a snakeskin jacket who arrives in a small town in the Deep South and finds work in a shop run by the love-starved Lady Torrence in this screen adaptation of Tennessee Williams’ Orpheus Descending. Before he defined the craft of film acting for generations to come Marlon Brando achieved stardom on the stage, as Stanley Kowalski in Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire. The twenty-three year old’s performance, brimming with raw emotion and sensitivity, derived from his training with Stella Adler, whose teaching drew on an actor’s imagination and understanding of emotional mechanics rather than what she viewed as Method Acting’s exploitative approach.

For more on performance and Tennessee Williams, see the Paramount Black Box presentation of The Method Gun, an exploration of Stella Burden (“the other Stella”) and her extreme acting technique “The Approach.”

A decade after Streetcar Brando worked with Williams again, on The Fugitive Kind, a screen adaption of the playright’s Orpheus Descending. Brando is Val Xavier, an enigmatic drifter in a snakeskin jacket who arrives in a small town in the Deep South and finds work in a shop run by the love-starved Lady Torrence (Magnani). As her tyrannical husband lies on his deathbed, Lady’s passion is ignited by Val’s magnetism. Interpreting Williams’ story with daring close-ups and mesmeric pacing Lumet showcases his actors’ intelligent, throbbing performances.

Official Website: https://artsemerson.org/Online/default.asp?doWork::WScontent::loadArticle=Load&BOparam::WScontent::loadArticle::article_id=35A71281-94A1-4F26-9433-147F3BA8A4C3