Wow! I didn’t see this one coming. Warner has announced that it’ll be releasing a 60th Anniversary Edition Blu-ray book edition of the 1951 Elia Kazan classic A Streetcar Named Desire, adapted from Tennessee Williams’ masterwork. There’s no mention of any restoration or transfer particulars in the press release so I’m assuming the film won’t be receiving the Ben-Hur/Wizard of Oz 8K scan treatment but here’s hoping the studio manages an outstanding presentation nonetheless. Package art, audio details and pre-order information should hit soon, so check back!
UPDATE: Actual, for-real package art now pictured below!
From the press release:
- “Williams — from whose pen came stunning unforgettable characters, powerful portraits of the human condition and an incredible vision of life in the South — stands with Eugene O’Neill and Arthur Miller as one of the three quintessentially eminent American playwrights. His classic Streetcar…was selected by the United States Library of Congress for preservation in the National Film Registry.
A Streetcar Named Desire depicts a culture clash between Blanche DuBois (Vivien Leigh), a pretentious, fading relic of the Old South, and Stanley Kowalski (Marlon Brando), a rising member of the industrial, inner-city immigrant class. Blanche is a Southern belle whose pretensions to virtue and culture only thinly mask her nymphomania and alcoholism. Arriving at the house of her sister Stella Kowalski (Kim Hunter), Stella fears Blanche’s arrival will upset the balance of her relationship with her husband Stanley, a primal, rough-hewn, brutish and sensual force of nature. He dominates Stella in every way, and she tolerates his offensive crudeness and lack of gentility largely because of her sexual need for him. Stanley’s friend and Blanche’s would-be suitor Mitch (Karl Malden) is similarly trampled along Blanche and Stanley’s collision course. Their final, inevitable confrontation results in Blanche’s mental annihilation.
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A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE: 60TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION
(April 10, 2012 – MSRP $34.99)
Video: 1.37:1 1080p
Audio: TBA
SPECIAL FEATURES:
- 40-page Digi-book filled with dazzling photos, film history trivia and more
- Commentary with Karl Malden, film historian Rudy Behlmer, and Jeff Young
- Elia Kazan movie trailer gallery
- Movie and audio outtakes
- Marlon Brando screen test
- Elia Kazan: A Director’s Journey documentary
- Five insightful documentaries:
- A Streetcar on Broadway
- A Streetcar in Hollywood
- Desire and Censorship
- North and the South
- An Actor Named Brando
