LOVE, MARILYN
US, 2012, 107 minutes, Colour.
Lauren Bacall, F.Murray Abraham, Elizabeth Banks, Adrien Brody, Glenn Close, Ellen Burstyn, Hope Davis, Viola Davis, Jennifer Ehle, Ben Foster, Jack Huston, Stephen Lang, Lindsay Lohan, Janet Mc Teer, Jeremy Piven, Oliver Platt, David Strathairn, Lili Taylor, Uma thurman, Evan Rachel Wood, Donald Spoto, Molly Haskel, Paul Giamatti.
Directed by Liz Garbus.
Love, Marilyn is quite an extensive documentary about the screen goddess of the 1950s. It has to be said that it is a warts and all portrait as well as highlighting the star’s talent, her glamour, her films as well as her private life.
The particular device of the film is to have well-known Hollywood stars actually speak Marilyn Monroe’s lines, which gives force, dramatic impact, but it is sometimes hard not to respond to the particular stars speaking the lines and their screen presence and audience memories. However, there is a wide range with some making more impact than others.
The film has a great deal of archival footage of people in Marilyn Monroe’s life, from agents and mentors, to husbands Joe DiMaggio? and Arthur Miller, to the Strasbergs, and the many performers she acted with. There is quite a lot of interview footage which fills in the historical background of her childhood, of her early emergence as an actress, the notorious photography, the small parts, the build-up to her stardom and glamour, the important years of the mid 50s, the difficulties with Laurence Olivier, as well as her personal life, the marriages, her attempts at something intellectual, her dependence on pills…
This is an opportunity to learn something about Marilyn Monroe as well is to see many clips from her films and appreciate her talent and impact.
1. Audience interest in Marilyn Monroe? After 50 years? As an icon, sex symbol? Death at 36?
2. The screenplay based on personal documents, newly discovered, Marilyn Monroe’s poems, notes? And the material in the public domain?
3. The insertion of clips of films? The revelation of Monroe as a screen presence, as an actress, comedienne? Her ambitions to be a serious actress? The studies, reading, training, the Actors Studio?
4. The use of actual footage about Marilyn Monroe, interviews, career, with Joe Di Maggio, with Arthur Miller? With Paula Strasberg?
5. The device of having actual actors appear on screen, speaking Marilyn’s lines, speaking the lines of characters she interacted with? How much of a distraction because of the screen presence of the actors? Their skill in embodying Marilyn’s spirit? Performance, interpretation? The range of the cast? Indications throughout the film?
6. The interviews with friends of Marilyn, their first-hand knowledge of her, friendship with her, criticisms of her? Other characters as themselves?
7. Marilyn Monroe, her origins, her mother, fostered, the family, the effect?
8. California, hopes, her contacts? Ambitions?
9. Her being somewhat plain, growing up and her gradual beauty, the photography, her notoriety?
10. Agents, relating to them, their work for her?
11. Issues of sexuality, relationships, the background of the casting couch?
12. Her new name, transformed, becoming Marilyn Monroe instead of Norma Jean Baker?
13. Her early films, the bit parts, the glimpses, e.g. Love Happy with Groucho Marx?
14. The successful breaks, her appearing in Niagara? The clip? The promotion at the time? The development of her career? Gentlemen Prefer Blondes?
15. The relationship with Joe Di Maggio, the clips about their meeting, the marriage, her motivation, his reasons for marrying, the effect, her admiration for
him, the filming of the key scene of The Seven Year Itch and his puritanical attitudes?
16. Arthur Miller, his character, reputation, his interest in Marilyn, highbrow, her hopes, the marriage, the relationship, her improving her mind, love, difficulties?
17. Her appearance in Bus Stop, a step towards serious acting? The episode of the Sleeping Prince, the Prince and the Showgirl? The interactions with Laurence Olivier and the difficulties? With Billy Wilder and working for Some Like it Hot?
18. Her decline, the difficulties with Arthur Miller, is writing, The Misfits, her performance, Somethings Gotta Give, her being fired, the shock?
19. The background of Actors studio, Paula Strasberg, Susan strakes Strasberg as a friend?
20. The issues of medication throughout her life, motivations, dependency? Her death? The verdict? In the aftermath of singing for President Kennedy?
21. A recapitulation of the career of a significant 20th-century icon, the tragedies of her life and death?
