The story behind the creation of Tennessee Williams's iconic play is partially drawn from interviews with surviving live performance cast members, shares insights into the connection between Vivien Leigh's personal life and the role of Blanche, and traces the history of the play's adaptation to film.

Exhaustively researched and almost flirtatiously opinionated, When Blanche Met Brando is everything a fan needs to know about the ground-breaking New York and London stage productions of Williams' "Streetcar" as well as the classic Brando/Leigh film. Sam Staggs' interviews with all the living cast members of each production will enhance what's known about the play and movie, and help make this book satisfying as both a pop culture read and as a deeper piece of thinking about a well-known story. Readers will come away from this book delighted with the juicy behind-the-scenes stories about cast, director, playwright and the various productions and will also renew their curiosity about the connection between the role of Blanche and Viven Leigh's insatiable sexual appetite and later descent into breakdown. They may also-for the first time-question whether the character of Blanche was actually "mad" or whether her anxiousness was symptomatic of another disorder. "A Streetcar Named Desire" is one of the most haunting and most-studied modern plays. Staggs' new book will fascinate fans and richen newcomers' understanding of its importance in American theater and movie history.

To millions of fans, All About Eve represents all that's witty and wonderful in classic Hollywood movies. Its old-fashioned, larger-than-life stars--including Bette Davis, Marilyn Monroe, Anne Baxter, George Sanders, and Celeste Holm--found their best roles in Eve and its sophisticated dialogue has entered the lexicon. But there's much more to know about All About Eve. Sam Staggs has written the definitive account of the making of this fascinating movie and its enormous influence on both film and popular culture. Staggs reveals everything about the movie--from who the famous European actress Margo Channing was based on to the hot-blooded romance on-set between Bette Davis and costar Gary Merrill, from the jump-start the movie gave Marilyn Monroe's career and the capstone it put on director Joseph L. Mankeiwicz's. All About "All About Eve" is not only full of rich detail about the movie, the director, and the stars, but also about the audience who loved it when it came out and adore it to this day.

¿A Streetcar Named Desire¿ launched Marlon Brando¿s career. The film also redefined Vivien Leigh as another kind of Southern belle: Blanche DuBois as Scarlett O¿Hara on the skids. It is more than a classic piece of American art -- it¿s a daring and raw masterpiece as alive with meaning today as it was when first performed in 1947. Witty, and rich with detail, this book tells the full behind-the-scenes story of ¿A Streetcar Named Desire.¿ Moves from the opening of Tennessee William¿s groundbreaking play and the scandalized audiences it left on Broadway, to its London debut, and then to Elia Kazan¿s exceptional movie version. ¿Illuminates the surprising complexities of ¿Streetcar¿ and the powerhouse personalities behind them.¿ Photos.

As a medium that aims to connect people through the communication and interpretation of experiences, cinema is uniquely positioned to showcase cultural misunderstandings around issues of mental health. Frames of Minds traces a history of psychiatry in film, concentrating on the major paradigm shifts in neuropsychiatry over the last century. Oftentimes, representations of psychiatry, mental illness, and psychotic breakdown are reduced to tropes and used by filmmakers as a tool for plot progression. Conversely, films can be used as an avenue to voice common concerns about the missteps of psychiatry, including overdiagnosis and mistreatment. Dr. Eelco Wijdicks provides fresh insights into the minds of filmmakers and how they creatively tackle this complex topic. How do filmmakers use psychiatry, and what do they want us to see? What is their frame of mind--psychoanalytically, biologically, sociologically, anthropologically? Were they influenced by their own prejudices about the origins of mental illness? How does this influence the direction of their films? Examining the history of film alongside developments in neuropsychiatry, Frames of Minds uncovers a cinematic language of psychiatry. By taking chances to portray mental illness, filmmakers aim to achieve a sense of reality, and provide catharsis for viewers through the act of dramatization. Ultimately, the history of psychiatry in film is a history of the public perception of medicine, and the ways psychiatry is understood by directors, writers, actors, and audiences.

Relates the story of how Sunset Boulevard became a screen classic, revealing the secrets and scandals involving the big names associated with the movie and documenting the impact of this film on society.

National Book Critics Circle Award Winner, Nonfiction NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF 2022 BY THE NEW YORKER, TIME MAGAZINE, SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE, VOX, SALON, LIT HUB, AND VANITY FAIR “Entertaining and illuminating.”--The New Yorker * “Compulsively readable.”--New York Times * “Delicious, humane, probing.”--Vulture * “The best and most important book about acting I've ever read.”--Nathan Lane The critically acclaimed cultural history of Method acting-an ebullient account of creative discovery and the birth of classic Hollywood. On stage and screen, we know a great performance when we see it. But how do actors draw from their bodies and minds to turn their selves into art? What is the craft of being an authentic fake? More than a century ago, amid tsarist Russia's crushing repression, one of the most talented actors ever, Konstantin Stanislavski, asked these very questions, reached deep into himself, and emerged with an answer. How his “system” remade itself into the Method and forever transformed American theater and film is an unlikely saga that has never before been fully told. Now, critic and theater director Isaac Butler chronicles the history of the Method in a narrative that transports readers from Moscow to New York to Los Angeles, from The Seagull to A Streetcar Named Desire to Raging Bull. He traces how a cohort of American mavericks--including Stella Adler, Lee Strasberg, and the storied Group Theatre--refashioned Stanislavski's ideas for a Depression-plagued nation that had yet to find its place as an artistic powerhouse. The Group's feuds and rivalries would, in turn, shape generations of actors who enabled Hollywood to become the global dream-factory it is today. Some of these performers the Method would uplift; others, it would destroy. Long after its midcentury heyday, the Method lives on as one of the most influential--and misunderstood--ideas in American culture. Studded with marquee names--from Marlon Brando, Marilyn Monroe, and Elia Kazan, to James Baldwin, Ellen Burstyn, and Dustin Hoffman--The Method is a spirited history of ideas and a must-read for any fan of Broadway or American film.