Antonia Quirke on Marlon Brando
Great Lives
BBC
4.2 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 12 May 2015
⏱️ 28 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Marlon Brando - greatest actor of the 20th century?
Film critic Antonia Quirke definitely thinks he is.
But the star of the Godfather, On the Waterfront and A Streetcar Named Desire divides opinion in this lively assessment of his life.
Presented by Matthew Parris.
With contributions from writer Robyn Karney and Joe Queenan in the USA.
Producer: Miles Warde
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in May 2015.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Once you've wrapped up this podcast, how about trying a very British cult? |
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| 0:27.0 | Listen on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:29.0 | Great Lives is a download from Radio 4. |
| 0:32.0 | We hope you enjoy what you're about to hear. Great Lives is a download from Radio 4. |
| 0:32.7 | We hope you enjoy what you're about to hear. |
| 0:35.9 | Today's Great Life starred in some of the 20th century's most famous films, |
| 0:42.0 | On the Waterfront. this films on the waterfront. A streetcar named Desire. The Godfather and Apocalypse Now. |
| 0:59.0 | And Apocalypse Now. now. |
| 1:15.1 | He is Marlon Brando, and he's been chosen by my guest here in the studio, writer and film critic, a presenter on Film 2015 on BBC 1, Antonia Quirk. |
| 1:20.0 | Antonia, I hate to embarrass you like this, but I'm going to read a little interview you gave |
| 1:24.0 | to Village voice about you and Brando years ago. |
| 1:28.0 | The interviewer, Will McKinley, asked why you'd called your book about Brando, choking on Brando, and you replied, |
| 1:36.0 | When I was ten, I came downstairs in the middle of the night. |
| 1:39.5 | My parents were watching a streetcar named Desire and I had a little collapse. |
| 1:45.0 | Brando's performance made you lose control of your body. |
| 1:48.0 | Antonia Quirk, yes, it was just the full-on sex appeal, his charisma. I can remember very clearly being entirely overcome by his physique, his voice, his face. |
| 1:58.0 | I was very young and I wasn't entirely sure what to do with those feelings. I just wigged out. |
| 2:04.3 | And Tonya, has your appreciation of this man matured a little since then? |
... |
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