From a Sunday afternoon spent cosied up in the BFI watching a re-run of A Streetcar Names Desire (the Vivien Leigh/Marlon Brando version of course...) came a few of my own Blanche DuBois moments... not in the strictest periodic form but more derived from the character; wanting to be hidden from all light, a fading youth, expressing a vanity in rags and jewels that she believes to be expensive and lavish...

All throughout the film, particularly at the scene where Blanche is deluded to the point of speaking to imaginary guests while dressed up in all her 'finery', I couldn't help but be reminded of my own masses of false finery...

-"Honey, will you get my blue net out for me?"

-"It certainly looks like you raided some stylish shops of Paris, Blanche."
-"Clothes are my passion!"

"After all, a woman's charm is fifty percent illusion..."

"Take a look at yourself here in a worn-out Mardi Gras outfit, rented for 50 cents from some rag-picker. And with a crazy crown on."

"Whoever you are, I have always depended on the kindness of strangers."