Потрясающе красивая Элизабет Тэйлор в жутковатом фильме «Внезапно прошлым летом» по пьесе Теннесси Уильямса
Мой давнишний отзыв о фильме (многабукаф на английском)Something Bitter Cooked Suddenly Last Summer
When watching Suddenly, Last Summer, a 1959 movie after Tennessee Williams’ play, one makes a long way from a state of blissful ignorance to the truth. The structure of the play with its repeated returns to the same parts makes this way even longer. At the end, one can get to the heart of the story. The story itself is a cake. It is a cake cooked suddenly last summer.
In public, an adult person would eat a cake by taking small vertical slices with a spoon. But a child would most probably eat it by layers, first enjoying the cream on the top, then consuming whatever is inside, and finally getting to the biscuit shortcake. That is what we do in Suddenly, Last Summer. Getting to the very heart of the matter, or the very truth, is so hard, because we have to uncover it layer by layer, which makes it complex and slow. The lengthy dialog in the garden between Mrs. Venable and Dr. Cukrowicz is the cream on the top. It is nice, but even the good-looking top layer has a slight but relentless aftertaste of the burnt shortcake. The first doctor’s conversation with Catherine, interference of Mrs. Grace Holly and George, and all of Catherine’s desperation are the filling that the cook Tennessee Williams has made for us. Consuming the filling, we can feel the smack of the truth on the bottom even better. Of course, the least tasty is the resolution of the cake, the very burnt shortcake, the confession of Catherine with the dressing of truth serum. The cake was cooked last summer; the layers are hard to uncover; it is stale. It is stale and bitter, and even Dr. Cukrowicz cannot sweeten it.
An indirect proof supporting my cake metaphor could be the constant presence of the eating process in the play. Starting from the Venus Flytrap in the garden, through persistent mentioning birds, reminding us of consumption, up to the final scene, there are at least several hints of devouring as well as of death (cf. the hooded skeleton in the garden and how in Spain Catherine sees a skeleton instead of an old woman). There are even more of inner references within the movie. We can see the similarity between the episode of the beggars hungering after Sebastian’s flesh and the episode of the madmen clinging to beautiful Catherine’s body. On the other hand, we can see the parallel between the episode of Catherine going into the sea, wearing an open swimsuit, and being watched by men and the episode of Catherine about to jump into the seething sea of the lunatic women. Also, we can say that Sebastian’s garden is the pivot of the play, which passively leads it and contains the essence of it. The first “layer of the cake” was eaten in the garden; there is an obvious hint to eating (Venus Flytrap); sometimes the cameras are focused on the skeleton rather than the actors in the scene, which makes a clear reference to a death living in the characters’ lives; the garden is the main remaining of Sebastian as well as Catherine’s and Violet’s memories, which also take place in the garden; the last “layer” was consumed in the garden too. All these reasons make the garden the central spot of the movie.
I also have to mention that most of the inner references are made by the movie authors, rather than Williams. The episode parallelisms are compete creation of Mankiewicz and company. The scenes in Spain would not even be performed on the stage; instead they would be recited by Catherine. Therefore, what I analyze is Mankiewicz’ interpretation of the play, not the play itself.
Mrs. Violet Venable has her own idea of her relationship with Sebastian, while we can only suppose what was his vision of it. Her tender and caring, but selfish attitude towards her son surely has impacted him a lot, which made him live his empty and pointless life, indirectly led to his stupid actions in Spain “last summer” and partly contributed to his death. She tried to create a new pure Sebastian, a celibatarian or even an asexual person, a poet, who unfairly died from a heart attack. Her attempt failed, because the burnt shortcake still smelled too much to be ignored.
Katharine Hepburn’s Violet is intelligent and tough, but volatile. She lobbies her own profit throughout the story and is at a complete loss when she has to face something unacceptable for her. While another female character, Catherine, is not that intelligent and reasonable, but once she faces her horrible memories, she gains something out of it for herself.
There is a very interesting thing going on with Dr. Cukrowicz. Throughout the movie, up to the final scene, we do not see and know Sebastian (on the stage we would not see him at all), although the whole plot of the movie is centered on him. Whom we see instead a lot is a good-looking doctor, trying to penetrate the whole Sebastian issue. In some way, we may subconsciously substitute Dr. Cukrowicz for Sebastian’s place. But at the very moment, when we, the audience, see Sebastian (even without the face), learn what happened, and put everyone in their own places, then the female characters start to think the doctor to be Sebastian, in such a way substituting their dreams and dreads into the bitter reality.
Now, when I have found a recipe to this cake, I can say that about a half of the drama of the movie is there thanks to the movie’s authors, and only about a half belongs to Tennessee Williams and his life. I would like to pay the tribute to the director of the film Joseph Mankiewicz.