Hello and thank you for your question.
You are quoting one of the user comments on the IMDB page at
http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0053318/usercomments-29
Glorious gothic
"Tennesee Williams is much overrated - and I say this as a fan of his
work: two or three of his overheated plays (The Glass Menagerie, A
Streetcar Named Desire) are beautifully carved pieces of dreams
shattered on the rocks of reality. He has been ill-served by film -
even Kazan's much-lauded film of Streetcar, based on his Broadway
production - suffers from the text being bowdlerised
(Possible Spoilers) Suddenly Last Summer started life as a one-acter,
but is masterfully filled out here by Williams and Gore Vidal. It is a
perfect gothic gem of lust, love, evil and revenge. In the lush,
primeval garden that forms the set, Katherine Hepburn gives one of her
defining performances - the quavering voice, the tremulous hands, the
muted hysteria. Her oedipal relathionship with her son Sebastien (who
died, suddenly, last summer) is fiercely, brutally protective, almost
incestuous. This is a tale of betrayal and - as often with Williams -
a symbolic dissection of his own homosexuality. Sebastien, an aesthete
in the spitit of Oscar Wilde feasting with panthers, uses the women in
his life to attract the men. He is callous, brutal, mercenary - his
worldview sees all life, all creation as predatory. The baroque rhythm
of the Louisiana voices, the sets and Mankewicz's direction add to the
artifice as Hepburn and clean-cut brain surgeon Montgomery Clift
struggle for the soul of Elizabeth Taylor (underplaying brilliantly -
if uncharacteristically) , Sebastiens niece, his lure, the bait he
used, the woman who watched him die and who knows the truth. Hepburn
wants Taylor lobotomised: it would tear out the evil of her son. The
struggle is the play.
It is a perfect piece of gothic and, while the Williams psychology and
his insights are highly dubious, it matters little. This is a drama of
symbols, of good and evil, love and predation, played to the hilt by
an almost perfect cast. "
Search terms used
http://www.alltheweb.com/search?cat=web&cs=utf8&q=%22suddenly+last+summer%22+homosexuality+gothic+gem&_sb_lang=pref
Cheers!
Richard-ga |
