The director here, Henry King, is unknown to me, but he’s a real veteran:

Like, a dozen movies per year starting in 1916. But of course, slowing down in the 30s, with only a couple movies per year.

The plot is a classic — an up and coming band playing in various clubs to ever-growing success. It’s such a classic because it’s the easiest way to allow a director to string together a huge number of new hits (all by Irving Berlin here). You just need some conflict between the musicians, and you’re there.

This time around, the plot between the songs is kinda creepy: The band leader is this posh creep I mean upstanding guy, and he’s gonna Eliza up the fabulous singer I mean slovenly slattern singer.

Tyrone Power is supposed to be all sympathetic and stuff, but he comes off as a creep, and Alice Faye is perfect to begin with, but he’s coercively moulding her.

“We Are Not Too Proud To Fight”? That’s an odd slogan?

Alexander’s Ragtime Band. Henry King. 1938. ⚃

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. ⚃