One-Eyed Jacks

The only film in the Serra programme that can be called an old-fashioned classic was directed by Marlon Brando. The idiosyncratic, atypical western doesn’t develop along predictable lines: the bandit (Brando) wants revenge on his former best friend, but falls in love with the latter’s daughter.

Albert Serra on One-Eyed Jacks

"One-Eyed Jacks is so interesting psychologically because it makes us think about what acting actually is. The actor in the film, Marlon Brando, also directs himself, which creates confusion around those two roles: as an actor and as a director in control of everything. These two points of view - the Stanislavski method and Stella Adler - reside in the same brain, something not often seen, especially with a director.

"Also interesting is the objective point of view, the outside point of view. For example, there is the novelist who writes the novel, but at the same time is the character in the novel. You cannot capture these two perspectives in the same body, in the same consciousness." (The Seventh Art: Conversations on Cinema.)