brackets at the end of a method name

[ast]

Hi

Once a file is opened with:

f=open("foo.txt", "r")

we have some methods associated with file f

f.read()
f.readline()
..
f.close()
f.name
f.mode

I dont understand why sometimes there are brackets () at the end
of the method name (ie close())and sometimes no (ie name)

I thought that maybe methods with () could have a parameter passed to,
for example f.close(parameter) but it is not the case.

This is documentation about close(), there is no parameter.
  close()
  Close the current file and forget everything we know about it (including 
  the filename and the current line number).
thx