A streetcar by any other name
I had a most interesting dream this past weekend. I don’t remember my dreams very well, but the overall impression of this one is fairly fresh in my mind. Last week on the radio I heard quite a bit about Elia Kazan’s death. As many of you know, Mr. Kazan is responsible for the film adaptation of Tennessee Williams’ play A Streetcar Named Desire starring Marlon Brando and Vivien Leigh.
My dream involved Kazan and I toiling over a screenplay for a sequel to A Streetcar Named Desire, entitled A Streetcar Named Juanita. In the dream Mr. Kazan and I argue over the diction for Stanley Kowalski’s barber, Enrique. I imagine that Mr. Kazan and I were penning this script shortly after his famous film, On the Waterfront, because one of the points of contention between Elia and myself was whether or not Enrique, played by Brando (who was simultaneously cast for four other roles in A Streetcar Named Juanita should utter the phrase, “I coulda been something. I coulda been a mortuarial scientist.”
I remember that Elia got very mad at my insistence that this line make it into the screenplay. He threw a bialy at me. I had an asthma attack.
I don’t quite recall where Juanita came into the script. She wasn’t a streetcar, per se…more like a large taxi in bright colors. I seem to recall something tacky hanging from the rear-view mirror, like fuzzy dice or those cardboard, car-freshening Playboy bunny silhouettes. I remember someone in the room saying that we need to work into the script that Juanita was named after an Ecuadorian whore. For some reason Charlton Heston was to provide the voice for Juanita (apparently Juanita was some kind of talking streetcar—a 1950’s version of Knight Rider’s KITT).
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You wonder why I don’t sleep very much.
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5 responses
inspoetica
Comment posted at 12:47 on Monday, October 13, 2003
After reading your post, I went to The Morning News. They feature Sam Brown of Exploding Dog - “Our dreams often help us understand ourselves, who we love, or how we look naked. Other times theyÕre simply worth ignoring. Artist Sam Brown offers his interpretive talents.”
Click me!
I found it uncanny that the f@rm and TMN both feature dream stories…what does it all mean?
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heisenberg
Comment posted at 09:59 on Tuesday, October 14, 2003
Brando doing multiple roles, like Sellers in Strangelove? Juanita like the car in Repo Man, with something special in the trunk? Or like the taxi having a bigger role in Taxi Driver?Wierd shit. And yeah, I’m talking to you. You English-Film majors and grad students. I always dream about flying, falling, or being caught naked in public. Standard stuff. You dream screenplays. You’re going to end up dreaming a long novel, a War and Peace, and sleep through and miss your thesis defense, and end up a taxi driver. How’s that for a bad dream?
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heisenberg
Comment posted at 10:01 on Tuesday, October 14, 2003
Forgot to say, I checked the masthead description. Good I read it. I thought when I first saw it it was one of your furniture projects, and I was going to compliment the design and workmanship.
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Comment posted at 12:10 on Tuesday, October 14, 2003
I think that, normally, dreams are interesting only to those who had them, but that was hilarious. Were you laughing in your sleep?
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Comment posted at 01:00 on Wednesday, October 15, 2003
inspoetica, I’ll tell you what it means—that at least two sites on the web got it goin’ on!
heisy, I don’t order these dreams, they just happen. I doubt I’ll dream a War and Peace. With my luck, my unconscious will probably fall victim to an interminable vortex resembling something like a Bridges of Madison Country. Jesus, I hope I die in my sleep.
dave, I don’t know if I was laughing in my sleep, but I woke up in an amazingly good mood. I woke up at some point when I heard the title of the screenplay, and I heard myself saying the word “Juanita”.
I was sure to explain the dream to Poog first thing the next morning.
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