BLONDE

US, 2022, 167 minutes, Colour.

Ana de Armas, Adrien Brody, Bobby Cannavale, Casper Phillipson, Xavier Samuel, Lily Fisher, Julianne Nicholson, Sarah Paxton.

Directed by Andrew Dominik.

The Blonde of the title is Marilyn Monroe. The film is described as a “fictional biography” based on a book by American writer, Joyce Carol Oates, who emphasises the fiction by referring to her as Norma Jeane. This is a solid film, running for almost 3 hours.

It raises the question as to the place of Marilyn Monroe in 21^st-century consciousness. It is 60 years since she died. She is very much a 20^th-century figure, still seen when any of the film she appeared in a screened (often? not so often?). She is spoken of as a screen icon, as a screen goddess. And there is always that image of her skirt fluttering as she stands over the windy subway grating – which has become an iconic image. So, what is the interest in exploring her life, realistically or imaginatively? Older audiences will have seen her films in the past. Younger audiences may be wondering who she was, why she was so important.

The important aspect of this film is the fictional aspect. Yet, it often plays as a realistic portrait. However, the visual style moves between the real and the surreal, her life and career, yet her uncertainties, fears, determination, and having to deal with her broken family life, the initial exploitation by studio executives and others, her marriage to Joe DiMaggio, the baseball player referred to as former athlete (Bobby Cannavale0, her marriage to playwright Arthur Miller, referred to as the writer (Adrien Brody).

It should be said that the performance by Cuban actress, Ana de Armas (Knives Out, No Time to Die), is most impressive. So many times she looks and sounds like the actual Marilyn, and, we must assume, like the actual Norma. The actress identifies with both Norma and Marilyn, repeats some of the famous sequences from her films, an audition for Don’t Bother to Knock, the re-creation of the trailer for Niagara (“Niagara and Marilyn Monroe, the two most electrifying sites in the world” – from 1952), Diamonds are a Girl’s Best Friend from Gentleman Prefer Blondes, her working with Billy Wilder for The Seven Year EACH (and the iconic scene, filmed in front of the press and huge crowds of onlookers), and some re-creations of Some Like it Hot. Ana de Armas sustains the character of Marilyn Monroe, especially in her deteriorating years, the episode of going to sing for John F. Kennedy’s birthday (this scene not re-created), and her final dose, overdose, at the age of 36.

Which means that the dramatisation of the fiction means that the audience will tend to take what they see as what actually happened. There is the fearful little girl, her mentally unbalanced mother (Julianne Nicholson), the continued yearning for an absent father, one of the main motive drives in her life, a quick sketch of her becoming an adult, photos, the nude calendar, entry into films. Part of the drama is Marilyn’s involvement in a threesome, she very young, sexually adventurous after the initial exploitation by older men, and the introduction of the theme of her longing for a child, stylised visuals of a fetus, and later the experience of her pregnancy with the writer and the loss of the child. Loss of child, loss of father, hard mother (whom she eventually visits after 10 years).

The sexuality themes and her being exploited is dramatised in a scene which some audiences have found too repellent. And, in many ways it is, but it is meant to be revelatory of the sexual behaviour of President Kennedy, a bedroom scene, a fellatio scene, and his being presented as a sexually dominating abuser. And this scene in the context of her mental deterioration and her death.

On the one hand, there is a great deal that is familiar to audiences who know Marilyn Munro’s story (although this reviewer would have liked something on her going to England and working with Laurence Olivier in The Prince and the Showgirl, and, strangely, with Arthur Miller as the writer, there is nothing on The Misfits).

Obviously not a definitive portrait of Marilyn Monroe but a disturbing one, an evocative one, ultimately sad and tragic.

1. Status of Marilyn Monroe, in her time, her career, Hollywood star, sex symbol, icon? Her personal life, her marriages? Connection with JF Kennedy? Her death?
2. Audience interest in Marilyn Monroe? Older generations who lived during her career, immediate aftermath? Later generations, her place in memory, American history? Interest in the 21^st-century? 60 years after her death?
3. The work of Joyce Carol Oates, the long fictional biography, an imaginative interpretation of Marilyn Munro’s life, spelling Norma Jean with an e? The blend of fact and fiction?
4. Andrew Dominik’s choice for this project, his interest in Marilyn Monroe, adapting Joyce Carol Oates? His cast, recreation of the past, stylistic photography, editing, fantasies and hallucinations, realism? The musical score? Marilyn’s songs?
5. The performance by Ana de Armas, resemblance to Marilyn, looks, manner and style, voice and intonations, songs? The supporting cast bringing alive her mother, DiMaggio, Arthur Miller, Billy Wilder?
6. The introduction, Norma at seven, with her mother, her wanting to find her father, her mother’s erratic behaviour? Pressurising the little girl? Being institutionalised? Norma not going to see her for 10 years? The mother in the institution in the 1950s, reactions, treatment of Norma?
7. The collage illustrating Norma’s life, transition to Marilyn Munro, institutions, relatives, photography, dancing, the nude calendar, entry into films? Sufficient background to understand Norma becoming Marilyn, especially the yearning for her father, and the repercussions for and pregnancy?
8. The overview of her film career, the highlights, her being tested, the audition for Don’t Bother to Knock, the trailer for Niagara, her singing in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, the subway scene for The Seven Year Each, singing in Some Like it Hot, scenes with Tony Curtis? The many early films not refer to, films of the 50s including How to Marry a Millionaire, Bus Stop, no reference to Olivier and The Prince and the Showgirl? Nothing of the Misfits?
9. Marilyn, the encounters with the studio heads, sexual assaults, rapes, the effect? The threesome, the two men, relationships with her, chaplain in control, his manner and personality, the imagining of her pregnancy? Chaplan and his friend, the later contacts, interviews? And his writing the letters in the name of her father and the effect on her?
10. The media, premiers, her presence, the crowds, photographers, the paparazzi? The effect on her, her reticence, yet her performance for the media?
11. The encounter with the athlete, her marriage to Joe DiMaggio, the courtship, his age, his attraction taught her, her response, security, Chaplin sending the nude photos and the effect, DiMaggio and his reaction to the subway sequence, his violence towards her, the divorce?
12. The effect on her, at the Actors Studio, reading for Kazan, the playwright present, Arthur Miller and his reputation, listening, leaving, later meeting, the discussions, her analysis of Chekhov, Arthur Miller being impressed? Living together, the engagement, the wedding?
13. Her life with Miller, retired, at home, domestic, the beach, friends? Her pregnancy? And her imagination and dreams? The tray, tripping on the beach, the miscarriage, the effect?
14. The scenes with Billy Wilder, for The Seven Year Pitch, for Some Liked it Hot, her erratic behaviour, tantrums on set, late for filming, the scenes? Yet the finished product and its acclaim, her willing winning a Golden Globe?
15. The interpretation of the story, going downhill in these years, tragic? The separation from Arthur Miller? On her own, the drugs, prescriptions, doctors?
16. The shift to 1962, the invitation to JF Kennedy’s birthday? The scene in his bedroom, audience response to Kennedy lying on his bed, provocative, sexual, the conversations, his reputation? The fellatio close-up and its effect on the audience? The effect on Marilyn? Seeing Kennedy as sexually abusive? Her being hurried away from Washington after the party (and the audience not seeing her singing but audiences knowing it from the footage)?
17. The final collapse, the director’s treatment of this period, the realism, surreal, blur, fantasy? The overdose and her death?
18. The other dramatisations of her life, overall interpretation, other documentaries?