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- “When liberty is taken away by force it can be restored by force. When it is relinquished voluntarily by default it can never be recovered.” — Dorothy Thompson
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- “I’m one of those people who thinks you can have a happy life and still be an artist.” — Shelley Duvall
- “There’s a difference between writing about something and living through it. I did both.” — poet/novelist Margaret Walker
- “I take rejection as someone blowing a bugle in my ear to wake me up and get going, rather than retreat.” — Sylvester Stallone
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- June 2025 Viewing Diary
- “My voice isn’t an instrument I can just hang up on a hook.” — Audra McDonald
- June 2025 Snapshots
- “You can’t be on top all the time. It isn’t natural.” — Olivia de Havilland
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Tag Archives: Marlon Brando
“The only thing an actor owes his public is not to bore them.” — Marlon Brando
“Sending Marlon Brando to acting class was like sending a tiger to jungle school.” – Stella Adler It’s his birthday today. Let’s start off with this, a piece I had long wanted to write: Revelations about Marlon Brando in about … Continue reading
Posted in Actors, Movies, On This Day
Tagged Elia Kazan, Marlon Brando, On the Waterfront
38 Comments
“Make voyages! — Attempt them! — there’s nothing else …” — Tennessee Williams
Tennessee Williams (Thomas Lanier Williams) was born on this day in Columbus, Mississippi in 1911. Will you do a total stranger the kindness of reading his verse? Thank you! Thomas Lanier Williams — Tennessee Williams, letter to editor Harriet Monroe, … Continue reading
Posted in Books, On This Day, Theatre, writers
Tagged A Streetcar Named Desire, Elia Kazan, Glass Menagerie, Laurette Taylor, Marlon Brando, Tennessee Williams
23 Comments
Review: Being Maria (2025)
This angry mournful movie tells the story of teenage Maria Schneider, plucked out of obscurity to play opposite Marlon Brando in Bernardo Bertolucci’s Last Tango in Paris. It’s mostly about the trauma she endured during filming – which she tried … Continue reading
“Really good fiction could have as dark a worldview as it wished, but it’d find a way both to depict this world and to illuminate the possibilities for being alive and human in it.” — David Foster Wallace
It’s his birthday today. David Foster Wallace is hard to talk about. It’s painful. I say this as someone who did not know him, or have him in my life even in a peripheral way. I know a couple people … Continue reading
January 2025 Viewing Diary
Glengarry Glen Ross (1992; d. James Foley) I saw this one in the theatre back in the day. There’s a revival coming up on Broadway and Bill Burr is going to be in it. It’s kind of perfect! He’ll be … Continue reading
Posted in Monthly Viewing Diary, Movies, Television
Tagged A Streetcar Named Desire, Al Pacino, art, Bill Pullman, David Lynch, David Mamet, documentary, drama, dystopia, Elia Kazan, Gary Cooper, heist movies, Jack Lemmon, Karl Malden, Kristen Stewart, Kristen Wiig, Marlene Dietrich, Marlon Brando, Mulholland Drive, Patricia Arquette, short films, Tennessee Williams, Twin Peaks, Vivien Leigh
14 Comments
“Acting is like letting your pants down; you’re exposed.” — Paul Newman
It’s his birthday today. I am so glad I grew up in a time when Paul Newman was still a leading man (and he was a leading man up until the end). So I got to experience the pleasure of … Continue reading
Posted in Actors, Movies, On This Day
Tagged Elvis Presley, James Dean, Joanne Woodward, Marlon Brando, Paul Newman, Sidney Lumet
22 Comments
My new column at Liberties magazine: First up: acting and film criticism and how the twain meet
I have some exciting (to me) news. I’ll be writing a regular column for Liberties – the website for the quarterly magazine – host to a daunting lineup of writers! I launched my column with a piece about being a … Continue reading
Posted in Movies, Personal, Theatre
Tagged Actors Studio, Hamlet, James Dean, Liberties, Marilyn Monroe, Marlon Brando, Martha Graham
9 Comments
Talking 1953 movies with Jason Bailey and Mike Hull: A Very Good Year podcast
My pal Jason Bailey and his pal Mike Hull host a fascinating podcast called A Very Good Year, which they describe as: “Each week we invite a guest (filmmakers and actors, critics and historians, comedians and musicians) who loves movies, … Continue reading
Posted in Movies
Tagged Billy Wilder, coming of age, drama, France, Harriet Andersson, Ingmar Bergman, Japan, Marlon Brando, podcast, romantic drama, Stalag 17, Sweden, war movies, William Holden
12 Comments
June 2023 Viewing Diary
Succession (2018-2023) I finally watched, having somehow resisted the DEAFENING buzz over the last couple of years. I like Jeremy Strong, liked his small moment in Zero Dark Thirty, he totally stood out in The Big Short (directed by one … Continue reading
Posted in Monthly Viewing Diary, Movies, Television
Tagged Billy Wilder, Cristian Mungiu, documentary, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., drama, Elia Kazan, Eva Marie Saint, France, Harriet Andersson, Ingmar Bergman, Karl Malden, Katharine Hepburn, Lee J. Cobb, Marlon Brando, On the Waterfront, Otto Preminger, reviews, Rod Steiger, Romania, romantic drama, Stalag 17, Stanley Kramer, Sweden, true crime, war movies, William Holden, women directors
23 Comments
Bikers back-ting
Well, one is back-ting and one is just living. Marlon Brando as Johnny in “The Wild One” (1953) Croatian biker on the boat in the Adriatic, taken by yours truly