Vivien Leigh's character...annoying?

I agree with you. She made the film. How can you not feel for her. She is a woman trying so hard to retain something that is basically a facade. She plays the part in such a way that you can see through her and see this fragile, broken woman underneath. It is probably one of my favorite performances by any actress ever.

"Mr Corleone is a man who insists on hearing bad news at once."

I agree with you. Everytime I watch her I cry. I can't help but feel sorry for a woman who has been striped of everything.

"Mr Corleone is a man who insists on hearing bad news at once."

"I grew up and had a life and I recognized her for who she was; a deeply disturbed, emotionally fragile woman of intense intellect."

I just watched the movie for the first time and felt this about her exactly.

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Stanley & Stella's performances were great ... Blanche's, WAY OVER THE TOP!

This character, more than any other, is completely comfortable with theatricals and over-the-top dramatization - Blanche is hugely disturbed, and goes through life as if it's a bad play.
I agree with you on Vivien's acting, but for this role it's actually perfect!

I agree. Leigh's performance may have been great - for its time, when acting was all about showmanship and theatrics. But one of the greatest performances of all time is laughable. Cate Blanchette in Blue Jasmine being case in point. I think it is obvious Woody borrowed from Streetcar, and Blanche and Jasmine are in very similar situations and suffering from very similar problems. Imagine if Blanchette had played Jasmine like Leigh did Blanche - the performance would have seemed ludicrous. And imagine a performance like Cate's Jasmine being how Blanche was performed by Leigh - just thinking about it gives me chills as to how scary it might have been with more realism. Leigh was good for the time period - the performance does not at all hold up as the greatest if all time by a long-shot.

Yes, she is irritating but that is the role and it was perhaps done as well as it could be. It is not a realistic acting performance. It is "put on" and projected much as Scarlett O'Hara was as opposed to Brando's Stanley which came across as far more organic. Nonetheless, Leigh succeeds in getting strong reactions so it is successful.

She is destructive, firstly of herself but also of everything around her. Stan is not be forgiven for brutalizing her but she insulted and antagonized him and disrupted his life to the point that something was bound to give eventually. She is the fuse to everyone's powder keg.

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