Bernie's Tahitian Waltz

Bernie's Tahitian Waltz

Bruce Von Stiers

In 1969 a Los Angeles based architect, Bernard Judge, was hired to find a spot on a beach in Tahiti to build a resort on. But that all changed after he met Marlon Brando. The meeting initiated a multi-year adventure trying to build the world's first self-sustaining resort.

Bernard wrote a book, a memoir, of this adventure. Published in 2011, the title of the book was Waltzing With Brando: Planning A Paradise In Tahiti.

There is now a film adaptation of the book. Appropriately, the title of the film is Waltzing With Brando. The film stars Billy Zane as Marlon Brando and Jon Heder as Bernard Judge.

The film opens with Bernard meeting with Jack Bellin. It seems that Bellin wants to build a hotel resort on a Tahitian island. He hires Bernard to find a suitable location and then design the resort. Bellin sends Bernard down to Tahiti to meet with a friend of his who will help him. That friend was Marlon Brando.

The film moves along with Bernard finding what he thinks is the perfect location for the hotel. An encounter with the supposed owner, the amorous Madame Leroy, is somewhat comical and a bit strange.

While Bernard is working on the hotel project, he's a guest at Marlon's place. After a while Marlon comes up with the idea of creating a self-sustaining resort on the Tahitian island he owns, Tetiaroa . While Bernard sees this venture as an impossibility, Marlon envisions it as the world's first resort that utilizes only natural resources. Now Bernie, as Marlon calls him, leaves the Bellin project to work on Marlon's.

There are many interesting and somewhat comical moments in the film. Especially when Marlon comes up with ideas for generating power or clean water. An idea for generating power includes using electric eels and a water purification system utilizing his own urine. And a just cleared island air strip sees a jet plane almost trying to land there.

But as the years tick by, the project costs a lot of money and sometimes the result is not what Bernie nor Marlon had anticipated.

The film has a diverse cast. Billy Zane was great in his portrayal of Marlon Brando. He seems to have been able to portray Marlon as laid back and aloof, but with a bit of insecurity. Even though Billy has a passing resemblance to Marlon, the makeup and special effects team on the film did an excellent job making him look like Marlon. This was especially helpful in certain places in the film where Billy, as Marlon, replicates scenes from The Godfather, Last Tango In Paris and Apocalypse Now.

Jon Heder played Bernard Judge. Since starring as Napoleon Dynamite, Jon has had leading roles in films such as Funny Thing About Love and Tapawingo.

Alaina Huffman played Dana, Bernie's wife. She played the Black Canary in Smallville, starred in the series Stargate Universe and starred in the sci-fi thriller Jonah. In the film, Dana was supportive of Bernie and the project. But only up to a point. Bernie's initial short trip to Tahiti stretched into a longer one, and then multiple longer stays away from the family. Which, in turn, tests the tolerance of Dana's support. Especially after she sees a possible romantic encounter between Bernie and a woman associated with Marlon.

Camille Razat played Michelle, the woman Dana sees Bernie with. Among the films she's co-starred in, she was in thirty-three episodes of Emily In Paris. Michelle is friends with Marlon and hangs out a lot with him and the group of people who always seem to be around.

James Jagger played Zeke Knight, a local bank manager who is friends with Marlon, who becomes friends with Bernie as well. He co-starred in the series Vinyl and the films Sound of Violence and Deep House. Zeke is the banker that Bernie goes to for loans to help fund the project. One scene has Zeke telling Bernie he could go to prison if it's learned he's loaned any more money to the project. But he loans it to him anyway. Kind of a great buddy moment, but I'm not sure it actually happened that way.

Richard Dreyfuss played Seymour Kraft, Marlon's financial advisor. Having starred in iconic films such as Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Goodbye Girl, Richard has had a ton of leading and supporting roles. He's kind of bullish in a scene with Marlon, where he peers at him over an accounting ledger and tells him he has to go back to work to pay for the project. And then another where he meets with Bernie and tells him there's no more money, ever, for the project.

Tia Carrere played the strange but somewhat comical Madame Leroy. From Kull, The Conqueror to Palm Swings, Tia has well over a hundred screen credits.

Rob Corddry played Jack Bellin. He co-starred in the shows Ballers and Unicorn and films such as Bad Therapy.

Other actors in the film included Sofia Masson, Ego Mitikas, Abel Lysenko, Woody Fu, Sophia Bui, Dina Freberg and Alex Beh.

Ava Zane, Billy Zane's daughter, played Bernie's daughter Sabrina. David Gueriera played Francis Ford Coppola.

Tanna Frederick had a minor role in the film. I recently reviewed a short comedy film she directed, Death Pays Flora A Visit, which starred Mimi Kennedy and Eric Roberts. Tanna has some great memories of the filming. Her scenes were filmed in Los Angeles during COVID. It was one of the few productions that were allowed to film at that time, and a lot of extra precautions had to be taken.

Regarding Billy's portrayal of Marlon, Tanna wrote, “It was quite eerie and absolutely tantalizing to see Billy's transformation as Brando. His talent and range as an actor shown through so spectacularly that it was difficult to not stare at him all the time – he so embodied Brando that it was perfectly mesmerizing…the fluidity in which Billy went from being his personable self behind the scenes to his Brando character was seamless. It was an absolutely fantastic set with Bill directing and Billy helming the title role.”

Tanna also commented on Richard Dreyfuss. “Richard Dreyfuss was an absolute joy to work with and watch work with the effortlessness of his acting and delicious Hollywood tales in between takes.”

Tanna considered the filming to be “an amazing experience” and that it was “absolutely breathtakingly a slice of the grandeur of a golden age gone by.”

Bill Fishman directed the film. He also wrote the screenplay based on Bernard Judge's book. Fishman directed the documentary Hollywood Signs, the remake of Car 54 Where Are You? and has directed over forty music videos for artists such as Nickelback, John Fogerty and Jessica Simpson.

In a statement for the film, Bill Fishman provided a bit of insight on Marlon trying to find a clean water solution for Tetiaroa. “Marlon was dedicated to finding solutions for clean and drinkable water on Tetiaroa. Desalination and distillation are some of the methods they experimented with. He even called NASA scientists and discussed their wastewater recycling solutions they were using for the astronauts. “

I had the opportunity recently to interview Bill Fishman. I asked him about his inspiration for getting involved with the project. He said that it started first with reading Bernard Judge's book, seeing the pictures in the book and the beauty of the island of Tetiaroa. And then reading about “the journey that Bernard Judge and Marlon Brando took, which was, really, you know, a once in a lifetime kind of situation.”

Fishman also spoke on Brando's vision of building an ecological sanctuary. And that he felt that the story could be a comedy, heartwarming and entertaining “as well as giving viewers a chance to spend some time with, you know, one of the most famous men in the world.”

And he spoke about how expensive the project became, with things like having to build an airfield to even access the island. And that the project ran so far out of money that Marlon sold back his profit participation for a hundred thousand dollars, which now would be worth about fifty or sixty million dollars.

The filming was done in the actual environment portrayed in the film. And that the area hasn't really changed since that time of the project. They thought that it was “important to not only do a love letter to Marlon Brando, a love letter to our environment, a love letter to the message, but also a love letter to Tahiti, because that is our third character in the movie.”

With a smile, Fishman said he hopes that when people watch the film that it “inspires them to pack their bags and take a trip down there.”

At the close of my interview with him, I asked Fishman what his ultimate goal was for audiences to come away with after watching the film. He said that he wanted to revisit enjoyable cinema. Cinema that's not filled with trauma, and necessarily car chases, sex or other the kinds of tropes that most out have. And that viewers might walk out of the theater knowing a little bit more and that we all live on the planet and could do a little bit more for the environment.

Garrett O'Brien was the cinematographer. He has been the cinematographer for films such as Love's Last Resort and This Time. He has also been the cinematographer for a bunch of music videos, including three from one of my favorite rock bands, Dorothy.

Michael Yanovich was the editor. He was the editor on films such as Another Girl and Dating to Kill.

Waltzing With Brando was a very entertaining film. The acting was well done, and the lush landscapes were wonderful to look at. Not only did the film encompass the project Bernie and Marlon started, but there were also scenes with Marlon's civil rights activism. There is an element of the film that might annoy a few people in that Bernie talks to the audience occasionally.

The one thing that I thought could have been better was the portrayal of the relationship between Bernie and Marlon. Were they best buds or was this more of a laid back, casual friendship? As I mentioned earlier, Marlon was known to be both aloof and eccentric, so maybe the portrayal was fairly accurate. Or maybe Marlon was just trying to get everything he could out of Bernie and then move him aside? It did seem like that at one point late in the film.

Waltzing With Brando is opening nationwide on September 19th. A date for VOD and streaming is yet to be determined.

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