Vivien Leigh plays the aging, isolated Mrs. Stone with a tragic grace and beauty that only she could bring to this exquisite, lyrical film of Tennessee Williams' haunting tale of the human need of permanence in a transitory world. (I remember reading Williams' Memoirs in which he says that this was his favorite film made from his work.) It is only now that I've attained Mrs. Stone's age that I've really come to understand the "drifting" that is portrayed here. Lotte Lenya is also brilliant in the role of the Contessa.Lenya was nominated for the Academy Award as "Best Supporting Actress" for this role, and she should have won. She is unctuous, smarmy, and brilliant. Vivien Leigh should also have been nominated, for her alienated, unfulfilled, sad ex-star. She gave another excellent performance-- an interesting bookend to her magnificent Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire, the other of Tennessee Williams' "lost" ladies she immortalized on the screen.
Review of The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone
