Milestones Oct. 13, 2003

He changed everything. Before ELIA KAZAN, movie and stage acting occupied a realm of easy glamour. Actors prized articulation; even street-bred stars like Cagney and Stanwyck spoke with a cutting efficiency. But with A Streetcar Named Desire, the Tennessee Williams play Kazan directed on Broadway in 1947 and filmed in 1951, pop culture was yanked into real life.

Early in the film, Vivien Leigh, as the Southern belle with patrician airs, lays eyes on Marlon Brando as sweaty, sexy, brutal Stanley Kowalski. That's the crucial moment when films gave up a love of the American aristocracy for a fascination with the...

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