VISIONS OF TENNESSEE

With John Lahr’s new biography, Tennessee Williams: Mad Pilgrimage of the Flesh, hitting bookshelves in September, Film Forum has taken the opportunity to program a series centered on film adaptations of the groundbreaking playwright’s work. Selections range from the canonical (Elia Kazan’s 1951 A Streetcar Named Desire, with Marlon Brando cementing his screen stardom in a snug T-shirt) to the obscure (Joseph Losey’s 1968 curio Boom!, a favorite of the iconoclastic filmmaker John Waters). Tonight’s 35mm selection, The Fugitive Kind, falls somewhere in the middle: Directed by an early-career Sidney Lumet (a few years removed from 12 Angry Men), the film was a flop when it was released in 1960, but it features a distinctive central pairing of Brando (wearing a snakeskin jacket, no less) and Rome, Open City’s Anna Magnani.

Sat., Sept. 27, 3 p.m.; Wed., Oct. 1, 1, 3:30 & 9:30 p.m., 2014