Hooking Marlon
Stefan Kanfer’s new biography Somebody: The Reckless Life and Remarkable Career of Marlon Brando
is a portrait of a man who could easily be considered the Godfather of the modern celebrity. Like so many current movie stars, Brando seamlessly oscillates between forward-thinking contrarian and petulant self-absorbed asshole. In fact, the reader gets the impression that Brando’s social conscience is, at best in the right place, but lacking real depth, at worst, just another tool to flatter his vanity. While Kanfer argues that “Brando’s internal anguish was what drove him on to the heights of his vocation,” it is very hard to get a feel for Brando’s inner personality.
Indeed, every anecdote related in this book about Brando’s off-screen persona feels like the recounting of a performance, leaving us with little more than the provocative bad-boy image that Brando worked so hard to maintain. When speaking to reporters about James Dean’s performance in East of Eden, Brando comments, “Mr. Dean appears to be wearing my last year’s wardrobe and using my last year’s talent.” Somebody is filled with comments like this one, which sound increasingly desperate rather than witty as Brando ages throughout the book. All of this makes the actor a surprisingly unsympathetic subject.
While it’s tempting to give up on the book after the first 200 pages, one must read on for the real gold the author uncovers, as Kanfer’s biography transforms into a tragedy as he tackles Brando’s later years. The actor is portrayed as a Hollywood Willy Loman, doing a job that he never really liked or respected — despite his inexorable influence on the craft of acting — all in an effort to support his deeply troubled family. In his familial tribulations — some of which are of his own making — one is finally able to see Brando’s humanity. This latter section becomes a riveting and heartbreaking read, as we see the hypnotically handsome and confident man pictured on the dust jacket slowly slip into depression and old age.
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Carrie Fisher’s charming and often hilarious memoir, Wishful Drinking
Fisher presents her Hollywood memories as something fresh and new even to her, relating that she has lost a great deal of her visual memory to electroconvulsive therapy. To relay her stories, she must first establish the world in which those stories live: the inner-circles of Hollywood royalty. In a particularly funny passage, Fisher and daughter Billie are trying to find out if Billie is related to Elizabeth Taylor’s grandson, Rhys. After drawing up an elaborate chart, Fisher concludes to her daughter: “You’re related by scandal.”
Not surprisingly, one of the most vibrant characters in the book is Reynolds. Long passages are devoted to Fisher’s childhood memories of watching her mother spend hours putting on makeup and getting into the clothes that transformed her mom, a spunky, occasionally twangy Texas girl, into an elegant movie and stage star. The admiration Fisher has for Reynolds practically glows off the page.
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Other books of note: Samuel French has a collection of short plays from their 33rd annual Off Off Broadway Original Short Play Festival
