Brando

Section: Documentaries
Directed by: Leslie Greif


USA, 2007

Dir.: Mimi Freedman, Leslie Greif
Scr.: Mimi Freedman
Phot.: Randy Krehbiel
Editor: Bryan Richert
Music: Andrea Morricone
Cast: Jane Fonda, Al Pacino, Dennis Hopper, Johnny Depp, Edward Norton, Sean Penn, Martin Scorsese, John Travolta
Format: HD Digital / BETA SP
Colour
95 mins
Contact: TCM

Legendary actor, activist and eccentric Marlon Brando remains a mystery four years after his death. During the career that took him from A Streetcar Named Desire to The Godfather and Apocalypse Now, “Marlon brought all of that raw, surprising, dynamic humanity to everything that he did,” says Sean Penn. Featuring interviews with actors from Al Pacino to Johnny Depp; directors including Bernardo Bertolucci, Arthur Penn and Martin Scorsese; friends; girlfriends; children; rare interviews with Brando himself; and never-before-seen footage including his screen test for Rebel Without a Cause and a home movie made with Montgomery Clift, this definitive documentary illuminates the enigmatic star who turned down the usual scripts to make ‘message’ movies, and went far beyond typical Hollywood liberal support of the civil rights movement to get involved with both the Black Panthers and Native American activists.

The man who gave ‘The Method’ a carnal edge - and changed Hollywood forever – may remain a mystery, but he wouldn’t want it any other way. “When people struggle to be real, they’re dishwater,” says Penn. “When people struggle to protect themselves from their own reality, they’re Marlon Brando.” (Ann Lewinson)

See also:
	Circus School		Ghosts of Cité Soleil
	Iron Ladies of Liberia		Spielberg on Spielberg