Essay 3 Plays into Films
Plays into Films Essay 3 on our two plays made into films (two pages minimum, double spaced):
a) Write a comparison/contrast using Shakespeare’s play, Romeo and Juliet, and the film version:
1) note at least three changes and defend why you think the changes were effective or ineffective.
2)Do you think having unknown young actors, Leonard Whiting and Olivia Hussey, as opposed to recognizable stars, made the film more or less appealing? Please explain…. One of the significant attributes of this movie is that the two leads were played by actual teenagers (unlike previous versions).
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b) Discuss the film version of Tennessee Williams’ play, A Streetcar Named Desire, concentrating on three changes specifically due to
(1) censorship considerations,
(2) the Hollywood studio star system, and so forth. (The original Blanche on the New York stage was an actress named Jessica Tandy, at the time not a Hollywood draw.) Consider the casting of the two leads, Vivian Leigh and Marlon Brando, and the differences in emphasis—if any—between the main character as written in the play and who ends up the main character in the film. You saw three trailers for the movie in the “Streetcar Trivia” video, showing the growth of the emphasis on Marlon Brando . Even now over 70 years later people immediately associate Brando with this movie, not Vivian Leigh even though she won an Oscar for playing Blanche.
________________________________________________________________________c) Now, also, compare the two films: compared to its play source, which do you think was opened up better visually? This does not refer to the first scene, but to which you feel looks better as a movie, i. e. cinematically, as opposed to looking “stage-bound.”
Note: You will be writing about two different plays-to-films in one essay. Each half should be connected in the middle with some sort of transition like “on the other hand,” “in contrast,” etc. Please see the separate Doc on transitions, which are useful in all essay and paragraph writing.
Please note you are looking for different things in each story: changes, censorship, casting, and so forth.
