Made from more than 200 hours of Marlon Brando’s personal audiotapes, Listen To Me Marlon is an archive of Brando’s personal thoughts, acting studies, and self-hypnoses that Brando had hoped to use them all in an autobiographical film before his death. Stevan Riley (Blue Blood, Fire In Babylon), with a blessing from the Brando estate and help from John Battsek (Searching For Sugar Man), has put this intimate look at Brando’s life onto film.
One of our most-anticipated of the festival, Listen To Me Marlon will premiere this Saturday at Sundance in the World Cinema Documentary program and today we have the first footage. The title of the film comes from a 1996 self-hypnosis session Brando recorded himself: “Listen to me Marlon. … This is one part of yourself speaking to another part of yourself. Listen to the sound of my voice and trust me. You know I have your interests at heart. … Just relax, relax, relax. I’m going to help you change in a way that will make you feel happier, more useful. … I want you to accept what I say as true. What I tell you here and now is true.”
Watch a clip below from the film which will eventually air on Showtime:
Listen To Me Marlon premiers at the Sundance Film Festival on January 24, 2015.