Portrait for the 100th birthday of the film icon – on April 1st at 10:20 p.m. on ORF 2
Vienna (OTS) – The cigarette casually in the corner of his mouth, the T-shirt stretched tightly around his muscular chest, anger and rebellion in his eyes – this is how Marlon Brando is burned into the collective memory: the sex symbol, the “savage”, the non-conformist. But the film star, whose birthday will be 100 years old on April 3, 2024, was much more than a poster boy and a symbolic figure of the teenage generation suffocating in the stuffiness of the strict 1950s: an acting genius, a driven person and an eternal rebel. In the following decade, the “Bad Boy” symbol from “Endstation Sehnsucht” supported the civil rights movements of African Americans and Native Americans. With film excerpts from the milestones of his career such as “Endstation Sehnsucht”, “The Fist in the Neck” and “The Godfather” as well as interviews with companions, director Philippe Kohly draws the film portrait of the charismatic artist who disregarded all boundaries and countered them throughout his life the current swam: “Marlon Brando – Hollywood’s eternal rebel” – can be seen as “kulturMontag Spezial” on Easter Monday, April 1st, at 10:20 p.m. on ORF 2.
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The much-used cliché of the artistically gifted person who first has to go through a valley of personal suffering in order to achieve great things from themselves – hasn’t it long been and often refuted? In the case of Marlon Brando it seems to have a kernel of truth. As a child, he had to witness his parents’ marital wars. The father was an alcoholic, almost always on the road for work, and a notorious adulterer. But once he was home, he was the tyrant of the house. The mother was also constantly absent, at least mentally. She was also an alcoholic. To wake her up and get her attention, Marlon played all sorts of animals for her – clowning acts that could perhaps be described as his first acting performance. His later drive may be due to his unrequited love for his mother. As a young man he moved to New York City and worked as an elevator boy. And his career also went up: He watched as young women streamed into the building opposite, followed them and found himself in an acting school. More specifically: In Stella Adler’s class, who taught method acting based on emotional truth. Not much later, Marlon Brando conquered Broadway. His portrayal of Stanley Kowalski in Tennessee Williams’ play “Endstation Sehnsucht” became a theater sensation. He played the same role in the Hollywood film adaptation, establishing his status as a film icon. From now on, Brando went from triumph to triumph; he even shone alongside the most famous Shakespeare actors of his time in the film adaptation of “Julius Caesar”. With his role in “The Wilde” he became a role model for an entire generation. Marlon Brando stands for rebellion against conventions and US prudery. Elvis and James Dean borrow from his rebellious attitude.
But the strong-character actor seemed unable to keep up with his own fame and increasingly felt uncomfortable in his role as a sex symbol. Did he just stumble into his career like he once did into acting school? He would take on any other job for the same pay, he later said in an interview. The more popular Marlon Brando became, the more he refused the star system. He developed a reputation for being difficult and even wore out three directors during the filming of “Mutiny on the Bounty”. With his choice of roles, he ultimately threatened to slide more and more into insignificance. You might think he didn’t want it any other way. In his documentary, director Philippe Kohly traces how Brando managed to get back to the top in his later career. With his performance in Francis Ford Coppola’s “The Godfather,” he has secured a place on the acting Olympus forever.
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