Irish Film Institute -JULIUS CAESAR

JULIUS CAESAR

Director: JOSEPH L. MANKIEWICZ

U.S.A.| 1953. BLACK AND WHITE. 121 MIN.


JULIUS CAESAR WAS THE FIRST TEST THAT BRANDO COULD DO SOMETHING OTHER THAN THE STANLEY KOWALSKI TYPE.

MGM bosses were unhappy with the idea of casting him as Mark Antony in a prestige production of Shakespeare’s tragedy about Ancient Rome’s most famous assassination plot. They believed that Brando was incapable of speaking clearly, seeing the Method and mumbling as synonymous. Further, the Method was founded on bringing out the inner self of the actor, not submitting this self to the demands of the character. In the event, the film was fortunate in having Joseph L. Mankiewicz as director. The most literary of Hollywood film-makers, Mankiewicz’s brilliant stroke here was to make a virtue of combining several different acting traditions to interpret a classic text. Brando, effecting a rapprochement between Kowalski/the Method and traditional concepts of the hero, is set against not only the classical delivery of John Gielgud (Cassius), but also the star acting of James Mason (Brutus) and the character portrayal of Louis Calhern (Caesar). The results made for a brilliant adaptation and a personal triumph for Brando.

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