This really is the sort of thing I should love, but… I don’t?

Wenders is going for playful and whimsical and unexpectedly profound (as one does), but all I’m getting is awkward and not very interesting.

Perhaps it’s all these American people? I mean, it’s got Sam Fuller in one role, and that’s fun, but the rest of them are just… kinda… there…

Oh, and Roger Corman is one of these people?

It’s like Wenders is going for a Jarmusch movie…

Oh! Em! Gee!

Jarmusch did the music for this thing?

No:

Jim Jarmusch was a then member of The Del-Byzanteens which often leads to the misinformation that Jarmusch co-wrote the music score.

I wonder whether this is a tilt and scan transfer to DVD? Or was it originally filmed in 16:9? It would be unusual for the time period.

Hm:

Aspect Ratio: 1.66 : 1

No, that’s wider than 16:9, so this is pan and scan, I guess? Or… perhaps… it’s just squashed slightly.

Der Stand der Dinge. Wim Wenders. 1982. ⚂

So — this is based on hundreds of hours of audio recordings that Brando did, and he talks about his life, his career, and his mother. “I like remembering about her.”

It’s pretty neat. The edits are way too aggressive for me, though — Brando is very chill, very laconic — but the director drops in a new image second, like. He’s constantly panning over the images or moving the camera, and it’s annoying.

Brando had his head laser scanned, and I like these renderings:

There was enough information on those files, right down to the pores on Brando’s skin with this scanning technology, which they used for “Terminator 2,” apparently. They used the same scanning machine when they were trying to construct that liquid metal character. So these were very detailed scans, but to do it with flesh tones and bring Marlon’s life in that way, it just didn’t feel right for me. I wasn’t seeking to make it look photo-real or to bring him to life in that way.

I don’t know why I have this DVD — I don’t watch documentaries, and especially not documentaries about actors — but this is pretty good.

It’s so polemical, though — it scores this bit (where he refused the Oscar and his talk about Native American rights) as if this is his tragic breakdown or something.

Or if that’s not what the director’s going for, that’s kinda … badly edited.

The movie tries so hard! It tries way too hard. And the first hour is basically fine, but the movie tries so hard to make you cry the last 30 minutes that it gets really annoying. It tries to make a life into a story, with a storytelling arc, and it almost ruins the entire thing.

Listen To Me Marlon. Stevan Riley. 2015. ⚃

This was originally a two hour movie, but the only surviving cut is half that long.

Hm:

For Chicago Board of Censors cut: “in Reel 1, the captain shooting man and his falling, two scenes of men with captain being shot and falling, striking man on head, Reel 3, scene of boy being frightened by lion and jumping up showing his sex, woman standing over kettle showing breasts, Reel 5, first two scenes of maid on man’s lap in closet, three choking scenes, Reel 7, two closeups of Negro leering at woman and four scenes where he carries her off.”

Sounds very risque.

I’m not sure what the story behind this DVD transfer is, but the weirdest thing is that the soundtrack is all wobbly. Which you’d think they could surely have fixed up. I mean, that bit isn’t from 1918. It’s so bad that it’s kinda painful to listen to here and there.

It’s pretty good. But it’s awfully abrupt in this version (missing half the footage).

Tarzan of the Apes. Scott Sidney. 1918. ⚃