Marlon Brando documentary to screen at 8/1 Cinematheque gala

[Press release from the Cleveland Cinematheque.]

LISTEN TO ME MARLON, an acclaimed new documentary about Marlon Brando derived from hours of private audio tapes recorded by the actor during his lifetime, will be the movie shown at the grand opening of the Cleveland Institute of Art Cinematheque’s new auditorium, the Peter B. Lewis Theater, on Saturday, August 1, at 7:00 pm. The film will be the centerpiece of an opening night gala, entitled “Lumière,” that also includes food, drink, and desserts, and will offer moviegoers their first look at the state-of-the-art, 300-seat auditorium boasting both digital and film projection and 7.1 digital sound. Tickets to the gala cost $100 ($500 at the patron level) and can be purchased at lumiere.bpt.me. The Peter B. Lewis Theater, named for the Cleveland philanthropist, is located inside the Cleveland Institute of Art’s brand-new George Gund Building at 11610 Euclid Avenue in the growing Uptown district. This will be the movie’s Midwest premiere.

LISTEN TO ME MARLON, directed by Stevan Riley, premiered at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, where it was hailed as a “masterpiece” by The Village Voice. Culled entirely from 200 hours of self-reflective private recordings that Brando made at home, in business meetings, under hypnosis, in therapy, and elsewhere, the film offers an unprecedented and intimate look at one of the screen’s most talented and enigmatic actors. The filmmakers had the full cooperation of the Brando estate, so they augment the actor’s voice with a wealth of film and TV clips, rare photos and home movies, and newsreel footage.

“This will be one of the most talked and written about movies of 2015,” said Cinematheque Director John Ewing, ”so I’m proud to be presenting it at our gala. That it pertains to the movies makes it an even more appropriate choice.”

“Lumière”—the French word for “light” (the name also evokes the pioneering filmmaking brothers Auguste and Louis Lumière, who shot and publicly exhibited history’s first motion picture in 1895)—is the first of four Spectrum CIA 2015 events to celebrate the transformation of CIA and its unified campus. All four celebrations are described at cia.edu/spectrum.

By the way, LISTEN TO ME MARLON is not the movie that Cinematheque patrons voted for as the "first film that the Cinematheque should show in its new auditorium." The winner of that contest, which was held from November 2014 through April 2015, has not yet been announced. But the film will be shown on Friday, August 7.