Making Montgomery Clift

Montgomery Clift was one of the most influential actors in film history. A four-time Oscar nominee for his roles in the films, The Search, From Here to Eternity, A Place under the Sun, and Judgment at Nuremberg, his career overlapped with the likes of Marlon Brando and James Dean. The biographies written about Clift all stuck him with the reductive label of the self-destructive actor; a tragic, tortured figure. In this documentary, nephew Robert Clift and Hillary Demmon meticulously scrutinize the stories that made up the actor’s life. Based on interviews with family, close friends, and male and female lovers, an altogether new portrait of a truly extraordinary personality emerges. For the first time, a rich collection of family archive material will see the light of day, including previously unreleased Clift recordings. All these pieces come together to shed a new light on the actor’s passions, his commitment and devotion to animals and to working and doing things his own way – which made him into a Hollywood legend, in life.