Listen To Me Marlon review [LFF 2015]: “Unique & utterly brilliant”

Listen To Me Marlon review: A must for everyone who has an interest in Hollywood history…

Listen To Me Marlon is an outstanding, and truly unique documentary. Marlon Brando‘s previously unheard audio diaries provide a commentary that, when accompanied with clips from his back-catalogue, and previously unseen behind the scenes footage, it almost serves as a pre-written narration. It paints a very detailed portrait of a man who was truly one of the greatest actors of his generation, if not, of all time.

This documentary employs a very unique approach, consisting of CGI trickery to present a Max Headroom introduction with Marlon on-screen talking right at us, through to unseen home video/ Super-8 footage from the family archive, and some truly iconic images from films like Mutiny On The Bounty, A Streetcar Named Desire and The Wild One, amongst many others. The way in which this has been constructed is like nothing we’ve seen before, which obviously owes a lot to the fact that Brando kept an audio diary of his thoughts throughout his lifetime. Because of the existence of these tapes,  and the way in which director Stevan Riley has used them in the film, it’s a documentary style that we’ll never see again.

As well as documenting Brando’s glittering career, the Riley also touches on the low-points during the wilderness years of his career, and even some pretty private family moments, including the shooting at his Hollywood mansion in 1990, which bookends the film. It’s pretty balanced in its approach, and indeed really quite raw in places.

Totally captivating from the off, engrossing all of the way through, and at certain points, absolutely heart-breaking, Listen To Me Marlon is perhaps one of the most unusual and best documentaries of the year. The film is absolute must, and for cinephiles and lovers of all things Hollywood, Listen To Me Marlon is totally unmissable.

Listen To Me Marlon review by Paul Heath, October 2015.

Listen To Me Marlon is now playing at the BFI London Film Festival.

Listen To Me Marlon will be released in UK cinemas on October 23, before debuting on the home formats in November.