Will there ever be another American actor with the volcanic force, the feral grace and unforgettable intelligence of Marlon Brando? It’s for good reason that his A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE and ON THE WATERFRONT director Elia Kazan said, "Brando was as close to genius as I’ve ever met among actors" It’s been less than a year since he passed away and already we feel his absence.

Brando, unlike many of his contemporaries from the Method school of acting, had the astounding emotional range to always seem modern, no matter how audience tastes changed. Revolutionary in his acting and his behavior, Brando was influential not only on the film scene, but also in helping numerous campaigns for social justice. Even in his later years, when he became less accessible to the media and the general public, Brando always encouraged and inspired young talent. From his initial, earth-shaking roles in A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE and ON THE WATERFRONT to more obscure gems like ONE EYED JACKS, BURN! and NIGHT OF THE FOLLOWING DAY, to such later masterworks as THE GODFATHER and APOCALYPSE NOW, Brando’s career arguably parallels – and most certainly influenced -- the history of American screen acting over the past five decades. Rather than say more, let's instead take time to look again at the best known characters that Brando brought to life on the big screen. The Cinematheque is proud to pay tribute to this eminent performer and motion picture legend.

Friday, May, 27 – 7:30 PM

APOCALYPSE NOW REDUX, 1979, Miramax, 202 min. Reluctant assassin Martin Sheen leads a boat-load of surfer-boys and sauciers upriver to find renegade colonel Marlon Brando, in director Francis Ford Coppola’s magnificent, crazed, wildly surreal Vietnam epic. Brando was famously paid $1 million to play Col. Kurtz, and apparently caused no little consternation when he showed up on set heavily overweight – but his brooding, seductive, amazingly lucid performance as the psychopath Kurtz provides the perfect black hole at the center of Coppola’s nightmarish vision ("You must make a friend of horror. Horror and moral terror are your friends. If they are not then they are enemies to be feared."). Adapted by Coppola and co-writer John Milius from Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, and co-starring Robert Duvall, Frederic Forrest, Sam Bottoms and Dennis Hopper.

>> Also playing at the Egyptian on June 11.

Saturday, May 28 – 7:30 PM

THE GODFATHER, 1972, Paramount, 175 min. Director Francis Ford Coppola transformed author Mario Puzo’s sprawling Mafia saga into the Great American Movie of the 1970’s, a towering, cinematically-stunning portrait of darkness and violence overwhelming every level of American society like a monstrous tidal wave. Al Pacino, James Caan, Diane Keaton, Talia Shire and Robert Duvall head one of the best casts assembled since CITIZEN KANE – but the lion’s share of attention went to Marlon Brando for his unforgettable, career-reviving performance as Don Vito Corleone.

>> Also playing at the Egyptian on June 12.

Thursday, June 2 – 7:30 PM

ON THE WATERFRONT, 1954, Columbia, 108 min. "I could’a been somebody … I could’a been a contender …" Director Elia Kazan adapts Budd Schulberg’s grueling account of Hoboken dock-worker life, starring Marlon Brando in his most iconic performance as a washed-up prize fighter who falls in love with the sister (Eva Marie Saint) of the "stool pigeon" he set up for corrupt union organizer Lee J. Cobb (in one of the screen’s most convincing portraits of human, everyday evil.) Rod Steiger delivers a wrenching performance as the older brother who helped betray Brando’s chances as a boxer, with Karl Malden as the tough working-class priest who serves as Brando’s conscience. Winner of 8 Academy Awards including Best Picture, Actor (Brando) and Director.

>> Also playing at the Egyptian on June 10.

Friday, June 3 – 7:30 PM

A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE, 1951, Warner Bros., 122 min. Director Elia Kazan’s overpowering adaptation of Tennessee Williams’ classic play made Marlon Brando a household word practically overnight for his incendiary portrayal of working-class Stanley Kowalski, who collides headlong with fragile Southern belle Blanche Debois (Vivien Leigh) when she moves in with her sister, Stanley’s wife Stella (Kim Hunter). Brilliantly acted and mounted on every level, with Academy Awards going to Leigh for Best Actress, Hunter for Best Supporting Actress and Karl Malden for Best Supporting Actor. Brando ironically lost out to Humphrey Bogart, who won Best Actor for THE AFRICAN QUEEN – but over five decades on, there’s no doubt who the film belongs to: Brando claims every square inch of it, body and soul, in one of the most electrifying performances in American screen history.