Customer Reviews

Tennessee Williams' South

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The disc is worth grabbing if only for the opportunity to see Jessica Tandy do a chunk of STREETCAR. She created the part of Blanche (it was written for her), but, because of the omnipresent film, the performance everyone knows is Vivien Leigh's. It is excellent, of course, but it's illuminating to see the different take Tandy brings. Also, there is precious little film of the late great Canadian actor William Hutt, and the chance to see him should be precious to anyone in the theatre. The excerpts from the plays are not great cinema, but they do offer flashes of undiluted Williams. And then there's Williams himself, playing host to his own life. There are all sorts of ways to pick this program apart for what it lacks, but what it offers cannot be replaced or duplicated by anything elsewhere.

Tennessee Williams is interviewed in Key West and New Orleans, and talks about his childhood, family, religion, race relations in the south, his eccentricies and demons and his love for Chekhov. His observations are often illuminating and provide good analysis for some of his writings. He also reads some of his poetry and prose (the poem from "Night of the Iguana" and "Life Story" and a section from "The Glass Menagerie"). This odd film also contains dramatic pieces at intervals with Williams commenting on the characters and their motivations. The dramatic clips are about 5 minutes each and include Burl Ives in a scene from "The Last of my Solid Gold Watches," Jessica Tandy in "A Streetcar Named Desire," William Hutt in "Small Craft Warnings," Colleen Dewhurst and John Colicos in "Night of the Iguana," and Maureen Stapleton, Michael York, James Naughton and Carol Williard in "The Glass Menagerie."

This is the best way to meet T.Williams and his works. Better than a Biography, it combines live interviews with TW along with clips from his most important plays. In just 80 minutes, you will understand TW and his genius without having to read or watch movies. 10 times better than Cliff Notes...99% more entertaining than most documentaries.
HIGHLY RECCOMMEND.
-Bob Monement, Sylvan Lake, MI

An 80-minute appreciation of Tennessee Williams in the form of an interview juxtaposed with scenes of biographical import from Williams' plays. This film was produced in 1973 when Williams was 62 years old. The interviews occur over a one-year period set in New Orleans and Key West. The viewer also sees outdoor settings and photographs that evoke Williams' childhood in small towns of Mississippi. There are pictures of his grandparents (described as the "gentlest" people he has ever known), his parents, his sister, and numerous photos of Williams as a child and at various ages throughout his life. There are several interior and exterior views of Williams' actual dwelling places as a writer. The film focuses most on the "world" of Williams' Memory, which is where Williams feels he truly "lives." His memories derive from his life spent in the South.

Tennessee comes across as a genial and perhaps unintentionally charming person. He laughs often. It's a pleasure to listen to his Southern accent. He's careful and thoughtful before answering the interviewer's questions. Most moving for me were his frequent readings from his poetry and plays. By the time the film was ending, I'd concluded that most of his works and his thought processes were Poetry.

Williams is an excellent reader of his works. His poems are more exquisite than I've ever guessed, having seen only a few movies based on some of his more outstanding plays.

It was interesting to hear Williams speak of the origins of Southern idioms. Also to learn of his penchant for Chekhov and how he felt that Chekhov's own particular Russian "world" was very comparable to the world of Williams' world of the American South. I found that a most unexpected comparison.

In a phrase from one of his poems, Williams speaks of himself as telling "Truth disguised as illusion."

When asked why he thinks so many people identify with his characters and thus with him, he expresses surprise. He says he can't imagine that many people do identify with his eccentric characters and with a character so eccentric as himself. The interviewer says that many people may see themselves as inwardly, though not apparently, eccentric. Williams then experiences an illumination. He laughs and says that he feels relieved to know that it is alright for him to be eccentric and he says he'll go on being so with greater ease now!

There was a lovely guilelessness about Tennessee Williams. He had a sense of humor, and he enjoyed laughing at his own humor!

I felt that the characters in the plays and Williams himself were almost all persons who expressed themselves, generally speaking, in a startling, "naked" way. Or, perhaps, another popular adjective from our contemporary usage would be "transparent." So, the frankness and honesty of Williams and the characters who, by his own admission, represent his own inner selves, are salient features of the illusionistic but non-illusory Truth Williams brings to life on the stage.

This film is an excellent study of Tennessee Williams as a person and an artist (who happens to reflect the phenomenon of Southern culture at a particular point in its transition). As an opportunity to listen to Williams read from his works, the film is a moving experience. There is the added advantage of being able to view scenes featuring some of the 20th century's most outstanding actors. I place a high value on this study of Williams and his work.

This is an outstanding 1974 Canadian television documentary on America's greatest playwright, Tennessee Williams which consists of a detailed exclusive interview with Tennessee and excerpts of his work performed by, among others, Burl Ives, Jessica Tandy, Colleen Dewhurst, Maureen Stapleton, Michael York, and James Naughton. These little dramatic segments were also performed exclusively for this production. This remarkable film took several years to cross the American border because Tennessee talks frankly, if briefly, about being gay which even PBS was uncomfortable with at the time. (The excerpt from STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE with Tandy also features the unedited monologue about discovering her beau's homosexuality that was watered down in the film version).

It's really wonderful to see and hear Tennessee talk about his work. He seems friendly, lucid, and amusing. I am a huge fan of Tennessee's work and have wanted this DVD for years and finally bought it. This DVD is also in the Warner Bros. collection of film adaptations of Tennessee's plays, that set is often on sale so you might want to get the "full" collection and not just this documentary. This DVD is a must for fans of the American theater.

This filmed Canadian interview biography was probably the last that Tennessee Williams gave. For years it languished as VHS only. When it was included in the Tennessee Williams films collection, it was the only DVD available of this rare insight to the private Tennessee Williams with him reading and commenting on his own works and inspriration.