Dressing Vivien Leigh

DRESSING VIVIEN LEIGH

Vivien Leigh was not just one of the most beautiful actresses of her day, she also took a keen interest in the way she was dressed for her films. She collaborated brilliantly with many major film costume designers and many became close friends.

Theatre & Performance Curator Keith Lodwick discussed the important relationship between Vivien Leigh, the costumes she wore, her film directors, costume designers and characters.

VICTORIA AND ALBERT MUSEUM – FRI 5 DEC | 7.00PM

THE ROMAN SPRING OF MRS STONE

dir: José Quintero
with Vivien Leigh, Warren Beatty, Coral Browne, Jill St. John

USA | 1961 | 103 min | cert. 12 | In English

Vivien Leigh plays Karen Stone, a middle-aged actress who suddenly finds herself too old for the ingénue roles that initially made her famous. After the death of her husband, she flees public scrutiny and settles in Rome, where she meets the malicious contessa Terribili-Gonzales, and the young, ambitious and beautiful Paolo, played by Warren Beatty. The idea of drifting alone through middle age is so frightening to Karen that she accepts Paolo’s arrogance and narcissism. Leigh, for the second time, plays a heroine created by Tennessee Williams (the film is closely based on his novella of the same title) and again, one that was somewhat close to aspects of her own life. As always, her performance is both memorable and graceful. Leigh was dressed for the film in haute couture by Balmain.

The film was introduced by Kendra Bean, author of Vivien Leigh: An Intimate Portrait.

HAM YARD HOTEL – SAT 6 DEC | 7:00PM

A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE

dir: Elia Kazan
with Vivien Leigh, Marlon Brando, Kim Hunter, Karl Malden

USA | 1951 | 122 min | cert. 15 | In English

Based on Tennessee Williams’s 1947 play, the film of A Streetcar Named Desire had almost the same cast as Kazan’s previous Broadway production, but with the addition of Vivien Leigh who had been directed for the London production by her then husband, Lawrence Olivier. Leigh played her now famous role of Southern belle Blanche Dubois, a woman desperately clinging to what remains of her own attractiveness – as well as to traditions of the ‘old South’. Having lost almost everything she once had, Blanche runs to her younger sister Stella, only to meet the brutality of Stella’s husband Stanley, superbly played by Marlon Brando. Leigh, who was meticulous about her approach of “looking right rather than looking good” for the part, won her second Oscar for her remarkable cinematic performance as the wounded, unbalanced but unforgettable Blanche.

The film was introduced by John Lahr, author of Tennessee Williams: Mad Pilgrimage of the Flesh, and Vivien Leigh’s biographer Kendra Bean.

CINÉ LUMIÈRE – SUN 7 DEC | 4:15PM