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Tag Archives: Marlon Brando
On This Day: December 3, 1947: A Streetcar Named Desire opened on Broadway
Blanche Dubois, scene 1, in Streetcar Named Desire: “They told me to take a street-car named Desire, and then transfer to one called Cemeteries and ride six blocks and get off at – Elysian Fields!” Tennessee Williams lived in New … Continue reading
Posted in On This Day, Theatre
Tagged Elia Kazan, Marlon Brando, Streetcar Named Desire, Tennessee Williams
24 Comments
Dynamic Duo #35
Tennessee Williams and Marlon Brando, 1948
Posted in Actors, Theatre, writers
Tagged Marlon Brando, Streetcar Named Desire, Tennessee Williams
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Sidney Lumet: Excerpts from Making Movies
It’s Sidney Lumet’s birthday. Here are many excerpts from his classic and invaluable film-making handbook Making Movies: In Murder on the Orient Express, I wanted Ingrid Bergman to play the Russian Princess Dragomiroff. She wanted to play the retarded Swedish … Continue reading
Posted in Actors, Books, Directors, Movies, On This Day
Tagged Al Pacino, Dean Stockwell, Dog Day Afternoon, Faye Dunaway, Ingrid Bergman, Jane Fonda, Katharine Hepburn, Long Day's Journey Into Night, Marlon Brando, Network, Paul Newman, River Phoenix, Robert De Niro, Running on Empty, Sidney Lumet, William Holden
15 Comments
Music Monday: Fugitive Kinds: Scott Walker, Marlon Brando, Tennessee Williams, by Brendan O’Malley
My talented brother Brendan O’Malley is an amazing writer and actor. He’s wonderful in the recent You & Me, directed by Alexander Baack. (I interviewed Baack about the film here.) His most recent gig was story editor/writer on the hit … Continue reading
Posted in Movies, Music
Tagged Marlon Brando, Music Monday, Orpheus Descending, Scott Walker, Tennessee Williams
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Angles and Archetypes: From Burt to Brando to Rourke to Jensen Ackles to Martha Graham to Hieroglyphs to Paul Le Mat
“Cock your hat – angles are attitudes.” — Frank Sinatra When Burt Reynolds died I wrote this whole thing about how he “worked his angles.” Like Tyra Banks tells you to do. Like all the great personae of yore knew … Continue reading
Posted in Actors, Movies, Television
Tagged Bette Davis, Burt Reynolds, James Dean, Jensen Ackles, John Wayne, Marlon Brando, Martha Graham, Mickey Rourke, Supernatural
6 Comments
Recommended Books: Memoirs
More recommendations: Recommended Fiction Recommended Non-Fiction MEMOIRS The Fervent Years: The Group Theatre And The Thirties, by Harold Clurman Probably the most famous of all the Group Theatre-related books. Harold Clurman writes his memories of that time and what those … Continue reading
Posted in Actors, Books, Directors, Music, writers
Tagged African Queen, Anjelica Huston, Austria, Baby Doll, Benjamin Franklin, Born Standing Up, Bruce Springsteen, Carroll Baker, Charles Grodin, Czechoslovakia, Diane Keaton, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Elia Kazan, Ellen Terry, Elvis Presley, Frank McCourt, Ginger Rogers, Goldie Hawn, Group Theatre, Harold Clurman, Ireland, James Salter, Jeanette Winterson, John Strasberg, Katharine Hepburn, Kathleen Turner, Lana Turner, Lauren Bacall, Lee Strasberg, Marlon Brando, Maud Gonne, Memoirs, Patricia Bosworth, Primo Levi, Robert Evans, Rosalind Russell, Russia, Shane Leslie, Shelley Winters, Shirley MacLaine, Stefan Zweig, Steve Martin, The Kid Stays In the Picture, Victor Serge, WWII
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Recommended: Biographies
For starters: My recommended Fiction books My recommended Non-Fiction books BIOGRAPHIES: American Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson, by Joseph Ellis I’ve written a lot about Joseph Ellis’ work here. While I love David McCullough’s work so much, Ellis is … Continue reading
Posted in Actors, Books, Directors, Founding Fathers, James Joyce, Theatre, writers
Tagged A. Scott Berg, Abigail Adams, Alexander Hamilton, American Sphinx, Benjamin Franklin, Biography, Bruce Springsteen, Charles Lindbergh, Charlotte Bronte, David McCullough, Dean Martin, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Ellen Terry, Elvis Presley, Emily Bronte, George Washington, Henry Irving, His Excellency, Howard Hawks, Howard Hughes, James Dean, Jerry Lee Lewis, John Adams, John Wayne, Joseph Cornell, Joseph Ellis, Marlon Brando, Mitford sisters, Montgomery Clift, Nick Tosches, Nureyev, Orson Welles, Oscar Wilde, Patricia Bosworth, Patricia Highsmith, Richard Ellmann, Ron Chernow, Sam Cooke, Simon Callow, Tennessee Williams, Thomas Jefferson, Truman Capote, W.B. Yeats, Zelda Fitzgerald
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Year in Review: Shooting My Mouth Off in 2019
Thanks, everyone, who hangs out here, who likes what I do, whether you’re an Elvis fan, a Supernatural fan, a general cinephile, a book-lover, or just someone who’s been checking in periodically for 17 years – WHAT? – I appreciate … Continue reading
Posted in Actors, James Joyce, Movies, Television
Tagged Agnes Varda, animation, Anna Karina, backting, Badlands, Belfast, Bibi Andersson, Bob Dylan, Bong Joon-Ho, Canada, Charlotte Rampling, comedy, Dennis Hopper, documentary, Doris Day, drama, Dubliners, Elvis Presley, Emily Dickinson, Frank O'Hara, friends, Gaspar Noe, George Stevens, Gold Diggers of 1933, horror, Ireland, Jean Arthur, Joanna Hogg, Joe Berlinger, Joel McCrea, John Ford, Kristen Stewart, Leonardo DiCaprio, Linda Manz, Marlon Brando, Martin Scorsese, Mary Oliver, Matthias Schoenaerts, Myrna Loy, Nick Nolte, Nick Tosches, Nicolas Roeg, Out of the Blue, Paraguay, Paul Thomas Anderson, poetry, Poland, Present Tense, Robert Evans, Sandrine Bonnaire, sci-fi, Sophia Takal, Sucker Punch, Supernatural, Sylvia Plath, Terrence Malick, What Happened Was, William Powell, Willie Nelson, women directors, year in writing, Zac Efron
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Present Tense: Death Scenes
William Holden, “Sunset Boulevard” For my next “Present Tense” column at Film Comment, I wrote about a long-time obsession – which I have covered from time to time here on my site: Actors performing death scenes. And a tribute to … Continue reading
Posted in Actors, Movies
Tagged Alfred Hitchcock, Billy Wilder, Bonnie and Clyde, Faye Dunaway, Francis Ford Coppola, James Cagney, Janet Leigh, Jensen Ackles, Marlon Brando, Meryl Streep, Present Tense, Raoul Walsh, Roaring Twenties, Shirley MacLaine, Sunset Boulevard, Supernatural, Vincente Minnelli, Warren Beatty, William Holden
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For Film Comment: On Marlon Brando’s Body
For my new “Present Tense” column at Film Comment, I wrote about Marlon Brando and David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest. Because one led me to think in a new way about the other. This was a fun one. Present Tense: … Continue reading