LIMITED SERIES FOREVER A CONTENDER:
A CENTENNIAL TRIBUTE
TO MARLON BRANDO APR 11–MAY 13, 2024
One-Eyed Jacks Thu, Apr 11 | 7:30pm | DGT
Considered one of the great American screen actors of the 20th century, Marlon Brando (1924–2004) cut his teeth on the Stanislavski system, which he learned from beloved New York–based acting teacher Stella Adler. An admirer of the virtuosic Fredric March and tough guy James Cagney but with a natural approach to character atypical of the stylized screen acting of the period, Brando quickly distinguished himself from his peers. His breakthrough performance as Stanley Kowalski in A Streetcar Named Desire (1951), a role he originated on Broadway, led to the first of his eight Academy Award nominations throughout his six-decade career, taking home Oscars for On the Waterfront (1954) and The Godfather (1972). Brando would venture into directing only once, take calculated risks in international films by lauded auteurs, return to Tennessee Williams, and branch out into musicals, surprising audiences with his unexpected choices. Remembered today as much for his off-screen activism as for the physicality of his on-screen presence, the many faces and phases of Brando’s astonishing career are represented here and in our Oscar ® Sundays series (page 24) this spring in what would have been his centennial year. Programmed by K.J. Relth-Miller. Notes by K.J. Relth-Miller and Robert Reneau. Special thanks to The Brando Estate.
The Wild One Sun, Apr 14 | 2pm | TMT
One-Eyed Jacks in 4K Thu, Apr 11 | 7:30pm | DGT
Receiving billing above the film’s title, Marlon Brando was met with soaring praise for his performance in his fifth feature as the vicious Johnny Straibler, whose leather- and denim-clad outfits became wildly en vogue for rebellious youth eager to self-identify with 1950s counterculture. The original script, deemed by the Production Code Administration to be “a story of violence and lawlessness to such a degree [that it is]… anti-social,” was initially rejected even though its contents were based on a true story of rival biker gangs originally published in Harper’s . Brando confessed in his autobiography Brando: Songs My Mother Taught Me that more than most characters, he deeply identified with Johnny, and that pathos shines through the snarl. DIRECTED BY: Laszlo Benedek. WRITTEN BY: John Paxton. WITH: Marlon Brando, Mary Murphy, Robert Keith, Lee Marvin. 1953. 79 min. USA. B&W. English. DCP.
Marlon Brando took on his only feature directing project—following the last-minute departure of original director Stanley Kubrick—with this character-oriented Western about a bank robber who tracks down the friend (frequent Brando co-star Karl Malden) who betrayed him. The Academy Award–nominated VistaVision color cinematography by Charles Lang Jr. ( How the West Was Won ) makes strong use of the film’s scenic locations in Mexico and California, with vivid imagery of Brando riding his horse against the backdrop of the Monterey coastline. DIRECTED BY: Marlon Brando. WRITTEN BY: Guy Trosper, Calder Willingham. WITH: Marlon Brando, Karl Malden, Katy Jurado, Pina Pellicer. 1961. 141 min. USA. Color. English, Spanish. 4K DCP.
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