If We Make It Through the Night

LOVE! Can't stop listening to Portugal. The Man. Can't contain myself. Amazing amazing Alaskan band from Wasilla. Needless for me to explain, these songs say it all... See, I can't even make proper full sentences!

Wild Things Leave Their Skins Behind

REVELATION!!! Can someone tell me why I haven't seen this film before? I love what I've seen of Sydney Lumet's films, and of Tennessee Williams' scripts, and yet I waited so long to discover The Fugitive Kind! I came across it every week for the past three years telling myself "I'll rent it this week", and now that I have finally gone for it, I feel the relief I should have felt three years ago. But better late that never so they say.

Quick summary before I start praising the sweet bejesus out of this 1960 work of art. Valentine Xavier, also known as Snakeskin for his jacket that only Marlon Brando could have still worn nowadays and been incredibly cool, had spent his life "on the party", going from bar to bar as an entertainer, his best friend in the world being his guitar (which he always holds on to for dear life). Now 30 years old, and sick of getting in trouble, Xavier freshly arrives in a small town, ready to leave that lifestyle behind, find a regular job and spend his life doing an honest day's work. But this is the kind of character that just can't catch a break, no matter how pure his motives may be, for once a fugitive, always a fugitive. He starts working for Lady (Anna Magnani), the middle-aged wife of an ill, crippled and cruel shoe shop owner, Jabe Torrence, confined to his bed, but still more than capable of doing the damage from up that retched flight of stairs. As Xavier and Lady grow closer together in the most dramatic and passionate ways, falling and catching eachother constantly, the man up there boils until he pops. Between his hatred for his wife, his wife's abhorrence for the things that he had done to her family, and Xavier's failing to gain any popularity with the town's men, these characters have no chance in the world.

Tennessee Williams' dialogues are so poetic and genuine, and his characters extremely strong, beautiful and marvelously interpreted. Marlon Brando had by then already done A Streetcar Names Desire, The Wild One and On the Waterfront, and had by 1959 already hit a peak in his career. Anna Magnani was by then well-known on the Italian scene, and had already recently made an entrance into the world of American film. The growing chemistry between Xavier and Lady as they converse, philosophize, confide in eachother, tenderly hold eachother and ragingly clash is enough to give one chills down the spin. I can't stop thinking about the scene where Brando confronts Magnani about her lies and her motives for wanting him to stay, pushes her down and threatens to leave, before she avidly throws herself at his mercy.

Marlon Brando's Xavier doesn't need to say much for us to know that he understands everything that's going on around him. He's obviously been through it all in the past, and his lack of innocence makes him extremely conscious of the second degree to people's words and actions. His utter lucidity is what makes the plot advance the way it does. Jabe doesn't need to be direct in his thoughts for Xavier to know not only that he feels threatened, but that he is himself a threat. Xavier also always knows what Lady's intentions are, but never says anything until they burst. But even his consciousness can't tear him from his fate.

One might think that Lady's tormented character is pathetic and unable to relieve herself from all the burdens that she has carried around throughout her life, which is true in a way, but she is perhaps the strongest one of them all, for she demonstrates dignity through all her actions. Though broken in so many places, she can still stand tall, confront those who must be told off, and seek revenge on those who tried to destroy her. She never ran away though she had the chance, but there was nothing she could have done against the tragic outcome.

The only one left standing in the end is Carol (Joanne Woodward), the troubled and rebellious tramp, another outcast of society just like Xavier, but who, on the contrary, embraces her kind of decadent lifestyle, never trying to turn it around the way he did. Another thing remains undamaged in the end, Xavier's snakeskin jacket: "Wild things leave their skins behind them so the fugitive kind can follow their kind".

Amazing amazing film!