FILMOGRAPHY

Bertolucci builds a structure that supports improvisation. Everything is prepared, but everything is subject to change, and the whole films is alive with a sense of discovery… And Brando knows how to improvise: it isn’t just Brando improvising, it’s Brando improvising as Paul… His performance is intuitive, rapt, princely… At a more complex level, he helps Bertolucci discover the movie in the process of shooting it, and that’s what makes moviemaking an art… Acting involves the joy of self-discovery, and to improvise, as actors mean it, is the most instinctive, creative part of acting–to bring out and give form to what you didn’t know you had in you… A director has to be supportive for an actor to feel both secure enough and free enough to reach into himself…