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As mentioned in my original post when discussing my showcase of the *six* (correction from 5) Brando films to be shown during #31DaysOfOscar, the JULIUS CAESAR Blog I had written, featured here from a previous CINEMA COFFEE piece, will start things off with updates.
First UPDATE being: I have an extra Blog coming up for #31DaysofOscar w/ MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY (1962). 10:30AM CT 3/3. Missed this on my timeline (my app doesn't always work properly). Ugh! How I miss my monthly NPG in the mail. Was a subscriber *forever*. The email version just isn't my jam.
(For my recent, albeit brief, update or to get my Brando backstory, read DO YOU TAKE SINNERS HERE? and for the introduction piece to my #31DaysOfOscar piece read HELLO. I'M MARLON BRANDO.)
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"Here I was terrified, a Yankee taking on Shakespeare … And he won the British Academy Award." ―Joseph Mankiewicz, on Marlon Brando
My video edit of JULIUS CAESAR in tribute to Marlon Brando
And now ... We begin:
I tried really, really hard not to go "Marlon Brando" on film topic for my new edition of CINEMA COFFEE this go around. Really tried. But as I posted on my Twitter page @DominiqueRevue last Saturday morn, I had set up a "date day" with myself in a SpotlightSaturdayNowPlayingFilmWatchSortofaway of the 1953 Black and White film JULIUS CAESAR. And as some of you who follow me on Twitter noticed (and commented), photos of my Mom and I surround my tele dressed in what we called picture frames done in a "Haute Couture" fashion, I made myself.
It was a "thing" of mine I grew habit of doing for my Mom and I, so I still do it. Thanks for noticing everyone.
Revisiting William Shakespeare's JULIUS CAESAR, directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz this past weekend after going without it for some time (it's a long story), it is the film that keeps playing in my mind (and player) everyday since.
Revisiting William Shakespeare's JULIUS CAESAR, directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz this past weekend after going without it for some time (it's a long story), it is the film that keeps playing in my mind (and player) everyday since.
There is more than just Brando to talk about in JULIUS CAESAR, (though that is reason enough, as he comes off of A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE (1951) and VIVA ZAPATA! (1952) into Mark Antony in JULIUS CAESAR, which is a role he was reluctant to do). The Cast, the garbs, the scale, the cinematography; in choice of Black and White over Technicolor, the direction, the ... simplicity. Well noted, and put perfectly in writing in the original 1953 New York Times Review of the film, states: "...a production that smites the eye with violence and rings with the clang of metal words. Considering the vast amount of talking and the patchiness of action in the play, it is a production that pulls the full potential of point and passion from this classic of the stage." Those words, especially the last, sums up the entire film from start to finish, and yet there's more. Much more.
(To read the New York Times Movie Review in its entirety: JULIUS CAESAR 1953 REVIEW)
(To read the New York Times Movie Review in its entirety: JULIUS CAESAR 1953 REVIEW)
At first watch, you may not seem "impressed" by the film. Anticipating an overload, overhaul expectation of what you have come to know "Epic" films to be on subject of historical background. Not to mention, historical background of a William Shakespeare nature. If you are patient with the film, that explosion does happen. But not in the form you may think. More on that later.
It may take more than one watch to get into the rhythm of JULIUS CAESAR as a whole, as opposed to just a performance from it's "headliner," as it did with me. There are times when your sole reason for watching a film because you like a particular actor so much can benefit your film watching career in the long run. Expands your view point from that particular actor, to the film in its entirety, from the foreground to the background. As does JULIUS CAESAR upon multiple screenings. Something clicks after you've seen it more than once that can't be undone thereafter. You realize, never do you feel the film lacking, left wanting, nor over or under done. It all flows in perfect pitch. From sound, to acting, to choice of Black and White. The way Shakespeare should be. Somehow, I believe had this film been done in Technicolor, it would have taken away from the effect it has on you without it. (UPDATE: Hear the interview with Dir. Joseph L. Mankiewicz on directing JULIUS CAESAR when asked how he felt on colorizing B&W films: https://youtu.be/NvQmguRsQ5I) Something that's not all that easy to do in films in a mass such as this. On a scale, both visually and artistically with all the actors, such as this.
Louis Calhern, James Mason, John Gielgud, Edmond O'Brien, Greer Garson, Deborah Kerr, and countless others you've seen in large and small parts alike on any given Classic Film you've ever watched over the course of time; George Macready (GILDA ... I'm lookin' at you), Ian Wolfe, Tom Powers, Michael Pate, Alan Napier, John Hoyt, to name a few. And believe me, many, many others you see in close ups and wide shots set about the crowds of Rome when "the speech" is given.
And it's worth noting, at least in my opinion, though it's always FROM HERE TO ETERNITY that gets the credit for a different side of Deborah Kerr, "Is Brutus sick?" Ms. Kerr has never stood out more with sex appeal as she does in JULIUS CAESAR.
Louis Calhern, James Mason, John Gielgud, Edmond O'Brien, Greer Garson, Deborah Kerr, and countless others you've seen in large and small parts alike on any given Classic Film you've ever watched over the course of time; George Macready (GILDA ... I'm lookin' at you), Ian Wolfe, Tom Powers, Michael Pate, Alan Napier, John Hoyt, to name a few. And believe me, many, many others you see in close ups and wide shots set about the crowds of Rome when "the speech" is given.
And it's worth noting, at least in my opinion, though it's always FROM HERE TO ETERNITY that gets the credit for a different side of Deborah Kerr, "Is Brutus sick?" Ms. Kerr has never stood out more with sex appeal as she does in JULIUS CAESAR.
No, no, I did NOT leave out that headliner of the film I was speaking of earlier, the name who comes first in bold letters as the credits begin and is NOT the title character. Marlon Brando. I have to laugh a bit when I speak to someone about JULIUS CAESAR who has not seen the film and does not know much about it, or those who don't even know the film itself exists, when the next words I say following "JULIUS CAESAR" is, "with Marlon Brando. 1953." Their immediate reaction comes in the form of "Oh, I didn't know he played Caesar?" ... He didn't. He gives the speech. He gives life to Mark Antony.
Though I believe, especially in his early years in filmmaking, and during his beginnings in the Actor's Studio as well as his Stage career in the late 40's, to his last 1953 Summer Stock performance in George Bernard Shaw's ARMS AND THE MAN acting in the role of 'Sergius Saranoff,' Brando took creating the character he was adapting, seriously. He took on the role, to give it life, sound, emotion, and movement, fluently as an actor. But not as he's mentioned in his biography, "by leaving the fight in the gym," but by simmering through the mind and emotion of the character throughout the day, not all at once. For me, Brando takes careful care of what should be done with and in the mind of the character, to project authentically what lies underneath. What you don't see within the person from the outside, he unveils to you in a jaw dropping manner that is not easy to forget. And can never be redone, remade by anyone else to follow. With Brando, after Brando, you're on your own.
Only the forth film into his Motion Picture career, it's almost obvious to anyone who has followed the career of Brando, he took a special interest in authenticating his performance true to sound and pronunciation in JULIUS CAESAR. An interest I don't know if Brando ever perfected more before or since than he did as Mark Antony. And my, how it shows. Any risks that were taken, were well played. Very, well played. Not to undermine or undertone him as Terry Malloy, Stanley Kowalski, Emiliano Zapata, or Johnny Strabler in THE WILD ONE, or, yes, even Sky Masterson in GUYS AND DOLLS, where alas, "Brando Sings!" was the attraction. But Mark Antony took a special skill that the others did not. Shakespeare.
With Brando's Antony, relaying the famous speech "Friends, Romans, Countrymen ..." you experience a new first hand account of the speech. He is talking to you. Not at you. This isn't recital day in English class or running your lines during Theatre practice.
With Brando's Antony, relaying the famous speech "Friends, Romans, Countrymen ..." you experience a new first hand account of the speech. He is talking to you. Not at you. This isn't recital day in English class or running your lines during Theatre practice.
Wanting to earn the responsibility of caring the load of Mark Antony on screen believably, Brando took particular care in preparation for his role, yet feeling, somewhat slightly lacking, saying in his biography, SONGS MY MOTHER TAUGHT ME, "But for me to walk onto a movie set and play Mark Antony without more experience was asinine." Even so, Brando went to fellow Cast member, veteran in the theater and profession, actor John Gielgud who had his own run in stage productions of JULIUS CAESAR as well as playing the role of Mark Anthony himself in 1930 at the Old Vic Theatre in England, to ask for help in the "Dogs of War" speech Antony gives over Caesar's body after his murder. At his request, Gielgud recorded he himself giving that speech on a record so that Brando may study it. And that he did. |
Thus we witness our explosion on screen. Not in form of battle with swords, horse stampedes, or killings. But a battle of words, fury and slaying of emotions written on the face of Mark Antony, heard in his voice that demands reckoning ... "Cry 'HAVOOOOC'!"
Through this speech, Brando puts a pounce of fear within you, you relish with every word spoken as it is said. Unprepared for the next that is to follow the previous word that leaves his mouth. Igniting in you a spellbound ether, when he arrives to "All pity choked ..." you have done so. Choked upon "this foul deed shall smell above the earth | With carrion men, groaning for burial."
If JULIUS CAESAR (1953) is a film you have sitting on your film shelf unseen in a while, not yet viewed, or under appreciated, your next movie night, give it another opportunity to fill your screen with the aroma of fresh eyes. Bring to the table an Espresso, Cappuccino, Americano, or Coffee and cream, and await the flavor of "Blood and destruction" Mark Antony delivers so well ... #ForMyMom.
If JULIUS CAESAR (1953) is a film you have sitting on your film shelf unseen in a while, not yet viewed, or under appreciated, your next movie night, give it another opportunity to fill your screen with the aroma of fresh eyes. Bring to the table an Espresso, Cappuccino, Americano, or Coffee and cream, and await the flavor of "Blood and destruction" Mark Antony delivers so well ... #ForMyMom.
For my other CINEMA COFFEE blog pieces:
#ForMyMom Cinema Coffee ... | COFFEE CINEMA: Talking Streetcar | CINEMA COFFEE: "Et tu, Brute?" | CINEMA COFFEE: "La Chocolaterie" | CINEMA COFFEE: "Milk? I loathe milk!" | CINEMA COFFEE: "Elderberry Wine ..." | CINEMA COFFEE: "The choice I never had ..." | CINEMA COFFEE: "The smell of Mimosa" | CINEMA COFFEE: "Mighty like a Rose" | CINEMA COFFEE: "Don't cry on the rolls" | CINEMA COFFEE: "You're the first Kansas I ever met" | CINEMA COFFEE: "Everybody calls me Gracie" | CINEMA COFFEE: "What the devil are Belinskis?!" | CINEMA COFFEE: "Hello friends and enemies." | CINEMA COFFEE: "Stop remindin' me of heaven." | CINEMA COFFEE: "Even Gatsby could happen" | CINEMA COFFEE: "I made a wish" | CINEMA COFFEE: Audie Murphy | CINEMA COFFEE: Put The Blame on Mame | CINEMA COFFEE: "Just Singleton." | CINEMA COFFEE: "Where I Come From, Nobody Knows" | Film Therapy: Coping through Cinema | CINEMA COFFEE: Socks fall down | CINEMA COFFEE: "The moon's reaching for me" | CINEMA COFFEE: The Horne: Luso World Cinema Blogathon | CINEMA COFFEE: Aunt Bettye Lightsy | CINEMA COFFEE: I never lose | CINEMA COFFEE: "I have a mother!" | CINEMA COFFEE: THE SIGN OF GEMINI | CINEMA COFFEE: Venus Rising | CINEMA COFFEE: Stan vs Geek | CINEMA COFFEE: "Positively the same dame"
#ForMyMom Cinema Coffee ... | COFFEE CINEMA: Talking Streetcar | CINEMA COFFEE: "Et tu, Brute?" | CINEMA COFFEE: "La Chocolaterie" | CINEMA COFFEE: "Milk? I loathe milk!" | CINEMA COFFEE: "Elderberry Wine ..." | CINEMA COFFEE: "The choice I never had ..." | CINEMA COFFEE: "The smell of Mimosa" | CINEMA COFFEE: "Mighty like a Rose" | CINEMA COFFEE: "Don't cry on the rolls" | CINEMA COFFEE: "You're the first Kansas I ever met" | CINEMA COFFEE: "Everybody calls me Gracie" | CINEMA COFFEE: "What the devil are Belinskis?!" | CINEMA COFFEE: "Hello friends and enemies." | CINEMA COFFEE: "Stop remindin' me of heaven." | CINEMA COFFEE: "Even Gatsby could happen" | CINEMA COFFEE: "I made a wish" | CINEMA COFFEE: Audie Murphy | CINEMA COFFEE: Put The Blame on Mame | CINEMA COFFEE: "Just Singleton." | CINEMA COFFEE: "Where I Come From, Nobody Knows" | Film Therapy: Coping through Cinema | CINEMA COFFEE: Socks fall down | CINEMA COFFEE: "The moon's reaching for me" | CINEMA COFFEE: The Horne: Luso World Cinema Blogathon | CINEMA COFFEE: Aunt Bettye Lightsy | CINEMA COFFEE: I never lose | CINEMA COFFEE: "I have a mother!" | CINEMA COFFEE: THE SIGN OF GEMINI | CINEMA COFFEE: Venus Rising | CINEMA COFFEE: Stan vs Geek | CINEMA COFFEE: "Positively the same dame"