All you Brando fans out there, and even if you may not be, don't miss seeing "Listen To Me Marlon"!

[Dargo]

Our local art house cinema here in Sedona AZ has been showing this film the last few nights, and so my wife and I went to see it this past Friday.

 

We found it a fascinating and inventive biographic documentary that's done by use of the hundred of hours of personal audio tapes that Brando made during his later years, and in addition with the visuals used by director Stevan Riley while listening to the complex, gifted, troubled and acclaimed actor tell his own story being another well done aspect to this film.

 

[HoldenIsHere]

Thanks, Dargo, for posting this.

 

I checked and LISTEN TO ME MARLON is "Coming Soon" to Landmark's Century Centre Cinema (at Clark and Diversey) in Chicago. 

 

[darkblue]

http://forums.tcm.com/index.php?/topic/53172-movie-autobiographies/?hl=brando

 

7th post in the thread, June 16th.

[GordonCole]

Highly recommended.

[Dargo]

http://forums.tcm.com/index.php?/topic/53172-movie-autobiographies/?hl=brando

 

7th post in the thread, June 16th.

 

Ah, I see you mentioned this film in another thread a couple months back, eh dark? Sorry, I hadn't seen your post and in which you mentioned some reviewer had called it a masterpiece.

 

Have you seen it yet? If not, I don't know if I'd call it such, but I would recommend you see it, because as I stated in my original post here, I found it a very inventive manner in which to tell Brando's unique life story.

[DownGoesFrazier]

Our local art house cinema here in Sedona AZ has been showing this film the last few nights, and so my wife and I went to see it this past Friday.

 

We found it a fascinating and inventive biographic documentary that's done by use of the hundred of hours of personal audio tapes that Brando made during his later years, and in addition with the visuals used by director Stevan Riley while listening to the complex, gifted, troubled and acclaimed actor tell his own story being another well done aspect to this film.

 

I know a guy whose name is Marlon. But it's surprising that so few newborn males were ever named after Brando. I guess parents didn't want their sons to grow up to be outlaw bikers.

[darkblue]

I know a guy whose name is Marlon. But it's surprising that so few newborn males were ever named after Brando. I guess parents didn't want their sons to grow up to be outlaw bikers.

 

They were afraid other kids would call them "Marian".

[DownGoesFrazier]

They were afraid other kids would call them "Marian".

..and mistake him for a librarian.

[AndyM108]

I know a guy whose name is Marlon. But it's surprising that so few newborn males were ever named after Brando. I guess parents didn't want their sons to grow up to be outlaw bikers.

 

I know a local Filipino pool player named Marlon who's always being mistaken for a guy named Francis.   Neither of them slur their speech or carry around butter sticks just waiting for opportunity to strike, and neither of them ride a motorcycle.

[Dargo]

I know a local Filipino pool player named Marlon who's always being mistaken for a guy named Francis.   Neither of them slur their speech or carry around butter sticks just waiting for opportunity to strike, and neither of them ride a motorcycle.  

 

Life withOUT a motorcycle you say, Andy?!!!

 

Well, I for one would find such a life to be far less fun than it could be, anyway....

 

 

(...and yes, this machine of mine is the same brand that Brando rode in THE WILD ONE...just in case you're wondering here)

 

[HoldenIsHere]

I know a local Filipino pool player named Marlon who's always being mistaken for a guy named Francis.   Neither of them slur their speech or carry around butter sticks just waiting for opportunity to strike, and neither of them ride a motorcycle.

 

IN A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE Marlon Brando gives the impression of mumbling without actually mumbling

His dialogue is clearly understood but a great many viewers of the movie come away from it thinking that he slurred his speech.

Just another testament to the brilliance of Marlon Brando.

 

I had a professor in college who saw him in STREETCAR on Broadway. She'd heard people comment about Brando's "mumbling," but she said seeing his performance as Stanley Kowalski was like watching a great Shakespearean actor in command of his craft and also seeing something viscerally real.

[darkblue]

IN A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE Marlon Brando gives the impression of mumbling without actually mumbling

His dialogue is clearly understood but a great many viewers of the movie come away from it thinking that he slurred his speech.

Just another testament to the brilliance of Marlon Brando.

 

I had a professor in college who saw him in STREETCAR on Broadway. She'd heard people comment about Brando's "mumbling," but she said seeing his performance as Stanley Kowalski was like watching a great Shakespearean actor in command of his craft and also seeing something viscerally real.

 

I've never had any problem making out the words he speaks - in any movie.

 

I think it was just so unusual that he was natural rather than stagey in his enunciating that people weren't used to it and, not liking it when the unexpected happens, called it "mumbling" to voice their qualms about something new in film-acting.

[HoldenIsHere]

I've never had any problem making out the words he speaks - in any movie.

 

I think it was just so unusual that he was natural rather than stagey in his enunciating that people weren't used to it and, not liking it when the unexpected happens, called it "mumbling" to voice their qualms about something new in film-acting.

 

It's interesting that quite a few actors who emulate Marlon Brando do mumble (I suspect intentionally), but Brando never mumbled.

[DownGoesFrazier]

I've never had any problem making out the words he speaks - in any movie.

 

I think it was just so unusual that he was natural rather than stagey in his enunciating that people weren't used to it and, not liking it when the unexpected happens, called it "mumbling" to voice their qualms about something new in film-acting.

Interesting that Rex Harrison, who is so proud of his ability to enunciate in MY FAIR LADY, was almost impossible to understand in SIDEWALKS OF LONDON. Then again, so were Laughton and Leigh and everybody else.

[Dargo]

Interesting that Rex Harrison, who is so proud of his ability to enunciate in MY FAIR LADY, was almost impossible to understand in SIDEWALKS OF LONDON. Then again, so were Laughton and Leigh and everybody else.

 

You should have met the Cockney mechanic who used to work on my Triumphs in L.A.

 

When Adrian would tell me something such as, ''I'll probably have the valve adjustment and oil change done for you by around 3 o'clock or so", I'd often have to ask him to slow down and repeat what he'd just said so I could understand him.

 

It was like the guy was speaking a foreign language or somethin', I tell ya!

 

(...good motorcycle mechanic, though)

[Bogie56]

You should have met the Cockney mechanic who used to work on my Triumphs in L.A.

 

When Adrian would tell me something such as, ''I'll probably have the valve adjustment and oil change done for you by around 3 o'clock or so", I'd often have to ask him to slow down and repeat what he'd just said so I could understand him.

 

It was like the guy was speaking a foreign language or somethin', I tell ya!

 

(...good motorcycle mechanic, though)

So, he sounded nothing like Dick van Dyke?

[Dargo]

So, he sounded nothing like Dick van Dyke?

 

LOL

 

No, but I COULD always at least understand the lyrics when the Danville Illinois native sang that "Chim Chim Cher-ee" song in that flying nanny flick, anyway!

 

(...so ya gotta AT LEAST give the guy THAT anyway, now doncha?!!!)

[HoldenIsHere]

I've never had any problem making out the words he speaks - in any movie.

 

I think it was just so unusual that he was natural rather than stagey in his enunciating that people weren't used to it and, not liking it when the unexpected happens, called it "mumbling" to voice their qualms about something new in film-acting.

 

It's interesting that it was American stage actors and directors trained in Stanislavski's techniques who were responsible for making movie-acting less "stagey" (using that word in the sense of "artificial").

 

Actors like Marlon Brando, Geraldine Page, Karl Malden, Eli Wallach, Anne Bancroft, Patricia Neal, Montgomery Clift and James Dean were able to create and sustain authentic and unpredictable human behavior rather than relying on the patterned deliveries and reactions used by "movie stars" for a film "take."