00:00There was a before and after this film for Elia Kazan, yes, for Marlon Brando, of course, but especially for Hollywood cinema.
00:07With this interpretation, Brando redistributes the codes, overturns the industry and swaps the very pronounced acting of his colleagues for something more subtle, more natural.
00:16The world discovers this man and is immediately won over.
00:20His character is as frightening as he is seductive.
00:22His completely organic acting offered a breath of fresh air and Brando instantly became a movie star, but also a sex symbol.
00:29He will dig deep into his own inner discomfort to offer us a nuanced performance that screams truth.
00:45Brando and Kowalski are confused.
00:47Both are men whose virility, sometimes misplaced, but also children, cruelly seeking affection, frustrated at not having been loved enough.
00:55However, he will become one after the success of the film and, like Marilyn Monroe, he will above all become a real object of fantasy, excessively sexualized.
01:04He is also the first actor to appear shirtless in a Hollywood film.
01:07With A Streetcar Named Desire, he received the first of his eight Oscar nominations, four of which were consecutive, and followed that up the following year with Viva Zapata, where he took an unexpected turn that earned him the Best Actor award at Cannes.
01:31However, this dazzling success brings detractors, particularly in the professional world.
01:36Some people make fun of his unusual phrasing, his muffled voice, and his tendency to mince his words.
01:41Brando is a people's actor, and no one sees him going beyond his somewhat clumsy roles.
01:46However, he completely went against his detractors and accepted the role of Marc-Antoine in Julius Caesar in 1953, a film adapted from the play by William Shakespeare.
01:56He plays alongside big names in English theatre, such as James Mason and John Gilgood, and he completely takes over the camera with overflowing charisma,
02:03but above all thanks to his long Shakespearean tirades, including the famous sequence where he addresses the people through an absolutely formidable speech,
02:10where the character gradually wins over the crowd, and where the actor silences his detractors for good,
02:15proving that he is capable not only of articulating correctly, but above all of taking charge of a monologue and bringing it to life as only he can.
02:33After that, we can say that Marlon Brando is the most desired actor in Hollywood, and he will confirm this status with two films,
02:51The Wild One and On the Waterfront. Two films that would forever change American cinema and the country's culture.
02:57Johnny Strebler in The Wild One is a mold that will serve to sculpt the American youth of this era.
03:18With this character, Marlon Brando became rock 'n' roll before the term even existed.
03:23A crooked cap, leather jackets, a pair of jeans and a motorbike - all of this will be enough to make him a model of rebellion and emancipation.
03:31Sales of all his accessories will skyrocket. Brando is the ultimate cool guy.
03:36Even James Dean and Elvis Presley would draw inspiration from this character to shape their careers.
03:40Brando, for his part, would later admit that Johnny was undoubtedly one of the characters with whom he identified the most.
03:45A rebel with a big heart, a man who can't stand being held accountable.
03:48And if in The Wild One, his character eclipses his acting, in On the Quays, it's quite the opposite.
03:54Brando is masterful in it, without doubt his most beautiful composition, full of emotion and subtlety.
03:59Terry Malloy is a boy ready to explode in all his rage, unhappy at having become a failure.
04:04But little by little, courage will take over him, the desire to change things, to make a difference.
04:09It was unprecedented at the time to see a character evolve in this way.
04:25And it is through this that the film will make history.
04:27Because from there, other productions will adopt a similar approach in the way of telling a story.
04:32Elia Kazan, the film's director, would later say of Brando's performance that it was arguably the finest performance in American cinema.
04:39Scorsese would call it poetry in motion.
04:42The film itself was a huge success.
04:44Won 8 Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Actor for Marlon Brando.
04:571953 was undoubtedly the peak of his career.
05:00Only 3 years after his screen debut.
05:02Obviously, he still has some nice surprises in store for us.
05:04But at that moment, he is at the top.
05:06And he will never reach such a level of excellence again.
05:09Worse, he will start to sabotage himself.
05:11Through questionable behavior on film sets.
05:14Sometimes questionable film choices.
05:16And a general lack of desire that will be felt more and more.
05:19But then, why act like this?
05:21Well, the answer lies on his mother's side.
05:23When he decided to pursue acting, it was under the influence of two actresses in the family.
05:28His older sister Jocelyne and his mother.
05:30Marlon Brando always sought his mother's affection and approval.
05:34He wanted more than anything for her to be proud of him.
05:35He will therefore endeavor to impress her, by offering remarkable and noted performances, going so far as to win an Oscar.
05:42But in 1954, she died.
05:44And from there, Brando, who had chosen this profession for financial reasons and above all to preserve this maternal love,
05:50will only worry about money, which he will associate with a kind of freedom.
05:53I am in a transition between my job and...
05:58I haven't yet found exactly what job I would like to do.
06:02But I think when I finish my films, I'll find something else to do.
06:13If his mother is no longer around to witness his success, what's the point?
06:19He will therefore enter into a kind of nonchalance which will become more pronounced over the years.
06:23We begin to notice this in his career choices at the end of the 1950s,
06:27where he tries different things, certainly, but sometimes not in the best taste.
06:31He headed to the musical alongside Frank Sinatra, although the two hated each other.
06:38Comedy in general also with The Little Tea House, he plays Napoleon and does so reluctantly in 1954 in Désirer,
06:44and he also played a German general in Le Bal des Maudits in 1958, which was a huge commercial success for him.
06:50He also played for Sidney Lumet in The Man in the Snake Skin in 1960,
06:54and he made his first and only film in 1961, a western, Two-Faced Vengeance.
07:00A film that was originally supposed to be directed by Stanley Kubrick,
07:03but the latter left the project to concentrate on his other film, Lolita.
07:07Under the carefree Brando, the production was going to be chaotic.
07:11The filming period is getting longer every day because the actor-director wants to take his time for each shot,
07:16to waiting hours to have a perfect wave in the background.
07:19The budget was doubled and Brando was apparently fired during post-production.
07:23The latter did not have a good memory of this experience,
07:26claiming that being a director was far too exhausting for him.
07:29The film is still quite good, and stands out from the Manichean westerns of the time.
07:32and Brando's character takes a beating,
07:35as if the actor wanted to punish himself for something.
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