Marlon Brando once named the three best directors he worked with: “Nearly killed each other”
Hollywood has always seen an influx of stars who have electrified audiences with their on-screen presence, but very few have had an impact on the craft like Marlon Brando did. Widely regarded as one of the most iconic leading men to have ever worked in the industry, it wasn’t just star appeal that defined Brando’s genius, but pure and raw talent that he polished into art.
Having studied under Stella Adler, who convinced him of the brilliance of Konstantin Stanislavski’s theories of acting, Brando approached his profession as a true pioneer, wanting to change how other artists thought about their work. That’s exactly what he ended up doing, since his contemporaries were blown away by the radical edge to his performances, and the generations that followed almost readily accepted that as gospel.
Over the course of his trailblazing career, Brando rose to the top of the industry and naturally had the opportunity to work with the best filmmakers. Ranging from his collaborations with Francis Ford Coppola on movies like The Godfather and Apocalypse Now to his widely acclaimed work with Elia Kazan on A Streetcar Named Desire and On the Waterfront, the American actor’s resumé is incredible by any standards.
Interestingly, in his autobiography Songs My Mother Taught Me, which was co-written with Robert Lindsey, Brando expressed a preference for three particular directors and singled out one as his all-time favourite. The latter was none other than Gillo Pontecorvo, a major voice of 20th century cinema whose profound understanding of political filmmaking is studied to this day.
Expanding on the film he did with Pontecorvo called Burn!, Brando said: “Aside from Elia Kazan and Bernardo Bertolucci, the best director I worked with was Gillo Pontecorvo, even though we nearly killed each other. He directed me in a 1968 film that practically no one saw. Originally called Queimada!, it was released as Burn!. I played an English spy, Sir William Walker, who symbolised all the evils perpetrated by the European powers on their colonies during the nineteenth century.”
Adding, “There were a lot of parallels to Vietnam, and the movie portrayed the universal theme of the strong exploiting the weak. I think I did the best acting I’ve ever done in that picture, but few people came to see it. Gillo had made a film I liked, The Battle of Algiers, and was one of the few great filmmakers I knew. He is an extraordinarily talented, gifted man, but during most of our time together, we were at each other’s throats.”
Burn! is definitely an interesting addition to both Brando and Pontecorvo’s bodies of work, but it’s The Battle of Algiers that defines the latter’s contributions to cinema history. Shot on location with non-professional actors, it documents the resistance put up by Algerian fighters against the French colonising forces during the Algerian War. Considered by many to be the greatest film ever made about decolonisation and its effects, it’s an incendiary introduction to Pontecorvo’s art for those who aren’t familiar with his work.
