His parents were Midwestern Gothic: The father a bitter drunk who settled things with violence, the mother a poetic type who couldn’t lay off the booze.
Yet in the way of strange, sad American stories, these two souls created a combination of DNA and childhood trauma that birthed one of the definitive actors — why not say artists? — of the mid-20th-century. The son got his father’s name, Marlon Brando, an ideal moniker for an icon of bigger-than-life coolness and rebellious disdain.
If you’re already up on Brando lore, and especially if you’ve read his oddball autobiography, the new documentary “Listen to Me Marlon” won’t uncover much that’s new. But it’s a pleasure to watch, serving up Brando as a model for other artists who aspire to sincerity and honesty in their work.
Director Stevan Riley keeps the film in Brando’s speaking voice, sometimes drawn from interviews, but mostly taken from his own self-recorded thoughts. It’s illustrated with photographs and film clips (not many of the latter—some great Brando performances are entirely left out).
The movie’s not about the career, and it offers no outside analysis of why Brando changed movie acting; it’s about the interior life of an actor. And Brando had plenty of interior life.
He was nothing if not thoughtful, even if it quickly becomes clear that Brando’s ideas rarely went past the level of a bright young man fumbling through the meaning of it all. What impresses you, though, is how Brando never lost his curiosity. All those dud performances in blah movies toward the end of his life — they were paychecks so he could continue thinking about things and lending his support to causes he believed in.
You hear about his sex life, and his island in Tahiti, and his children’s troubles. You also see him replicated as a computer program; before he died, he was digitized, and we watch his ghostly head reciting Shakespeare.
One of the most intriguing threads here is how much Brando intended to change acting. He had very specific complaints about the kind of movie acting that dominated Hollywood before he came along, the canned delivery that made everything easy to predict. Brando couldn’t do it — he already knew the price of “acting,” of participating in the charade of a happy family that was anything but.
So he blew it up, and not just in the movies. (Clips from TV appearances show how he could disconcert his interviewers, with honesty or unbridled lust.)
He was an open wound, a child, a hungry observer of people. He was one of the movies’ great holy fools, and we could use more like him.
“Listen To Me Marlon” (3½ stars)
The incomparable (in every sense) Marlon Brando speaks in his own words, a monologue drawn from interviews and his own habit of taping his thoughts. This might not be new to Brando fans, but it’s an absorbing look at a very thoughtful, if childlike, actor, an interesting guy who meant to change movie acting and successfully did so.
Rating: Not rated; probably PG for subject matter
Showing: SIFF Uptown
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