Brando the Analog, Digitized
I just watched a very unusual documentary.
One that touched me quite deeply.
It was on Marlon Brando.
Taken from a personal archive of tapes he made. Video and audio.
It starts and ends with a computer-generated, digital rendering of him that was captured toward the end of his life.
And in fact this device is a perfect audio-visual metaphor for the feeling of the whole piece.
The legendary analog, digitized from scans made at the end of his life
Heavy, fascinating, somewhat disembodied, with a sense of almost swimming in darkness. While searching constantly for light.
This movie was about life itself.
It’s ironic, or maybe not at all, that a person who has been alleged to be the greatest actor of all time, which is perhaps another way of saying the greatest analog of everyone else’s interior condition, would be the subject, years after his death, of a biography that so honestly and powerfully does precisely what his best acting did.
Brando in Apocalypse Now (1979)
Which is to say that his personal life, which was by all accounts an extremely private one, as depicted by this film successfully inspires massive feeling.
Feeling of identification,
of familiarity,
disappointment,
uncertainty,
searching,
suffering,
meaning.
The feeling of what it is to be myself, in my life.
Highly recommended.
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just from the trailer, this is a “MUST SEE” for me! thanks for the recommendation and bringing this documentary to my attention!
as always David, you’re one or more steps ahead of me when it comes to these magical,interesting finds!
thanks as always…
Sweet, Steven! You’re gonna love this one, it’s right up your alley..
When stars are so private with there lives we wait until we can get a glimpse into what they stood for, how they acted when the cameras were off. Very intriguing.
I gotta see this!
Aren’t we all trying to find ourselves and do we ever really figure it all out? Great recommendation!
But we’ll never truely know…
I’m intrigued and interested in seeing this. Its storytelling techniques are effective (based on the teaser/trailer).
Also David, this entire website/project is art. Music heavy. Sharing and blogging random content of interest, exposure to something new and enlightening.
The way in which you write is poetic, a format which adds to the content itself. I was struck by the sentence, “[i]t’s ironic, or maybe not at all, that a person who has been alleged to be the greatest actor of all time, which is perhaps another way of saying the greatest analog of everyone else’s interior condition, would be the subject,” which reminds me that the value we extract from films is often correlated with the amount we relate to the experience of the actors. I haven’t yet seen this movie, but I trust that I would learn a lot about Marlon Brando, and a little about myself as well.
Will definitely check out he doc.
There’s something so cathartic about movies like this. Especially ones about such beautiful humans. Can’t wait to see it!
Hey David,
Interesting! I will definitely have to check out the documentary myself. Really exciting project.