A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)

[David Mullen ASC]

I finally sat down and watched a blu-ray of this movie, mainly because I want to see more of Harry Stradling's b&w work, which Gerry Finnerman, who shot "Star Trek" and was Stradling's operator before that, cited as a major influence in terms of his use of shadows.  "Streetcar" is sort of an extreme example, it's almost German Expressionist.  The shadowy lighting, with off-camera sources flashing the windows as if from nightclubs, is motived story-wise by the plot point that Blanche hides her aging by staying out of bright lights, living in the shadows.  (At the climax, her angry boyfriend Mitch shoves her under a lightbulb to see her face clearly.). The set designs by Richard Day are amazing, the interiors seem to flow into the exteriors.  And I've never seen Marlon Brando look so handsome, I can see why he became a star, despite the fact that he plays an unpleasant character.

The Warners Bros. transfer feels like they only had a dupe to work with, it is softer and more contrasty than many recent restorations of b&w work of the time (sometimes I have the opposite problem with modern restorations from original b&w negatives... they are too flat-looking because they aren't matching the contrasty look of how these movies looked projected from prints.)

 

[Daniel D. Teoli Jr.]

Thanks for rundown. Are you saying the Blu-ray is not good? If so, is there a version does justice to the BW?

[David Mullen ASC]

The blu-ray is fine, just not a modern restoration from the o-neg or fine grain master, more like a good transfer of an archived print. In some ways, it feels more like it would if you saw it in a revival theater screen. This title is owned by Warner Home Video and this is their transfer so I doubt you’ll see anything better by an outside distributor.