Blonde, Netflix’s latest bet, aroused considerable controversy since its premiere. Not only because of her harsh vision of the figure of Marilyn Monroe. Also, for exaggerating or, in the best of cases, rewriting fundamental facts of her life from fiction. A perception that confronted the most popular image of the interpreter with the dark legend that surrounds her.
Nevertheless, Blonde revived the debate about the plausibility of film biographies that attempt to recount the circumstance of Marilyn Monroe as a legend in the world of cinema. Both in her private life and in public, every fact that surrounds the actress is a source of speculation and collective curiosity. Even after her death, her figure is still the center of adoration, debate and contradiction.
Andrew Dominik’s film increased the pressure around the issue and took it to a new dimension. Based on the book by Joyce Carol Oates, the script uses the device of an unreliable narrator to recount the horrors of fame. All, using Marilyn Monroe as the center of a longstanding discussion about how the Hollywood machine destroys the identity of its stars. It is a resource that aroused discomfort in critics and viewers, but that, at the same time, made exploring previous material on the point.
What are the films that tell the most profound and eloquent story of Marilyn Monroe’s life? At the same time, which ones have more accurate, truthful and credible data at their disposal? The most respectful to her memory? We leave you three recommendations if Blonde piqued your curiosity about the life of the iconic actress.
The Marilyn Monroe Mystery: The Unreleased Emma Cooper Tapes
Emma Cooper’s documentary, available on Netflix, analyzes the figure of Marilyn Monroe from realism. At the same time, through her status as a powerful symbol of beauty, eroticism and, also, of an era of artificial brilliance. More interested in raising the idea of the actress in the midst of an almost poetic loneliness than in delving into issues about the industry the documentary is a curious melancholy piece.
At the same time, it is a meticulous reconstruction of the myth that surrounds the interpreter. One, created — of course — by a Hollywood eager to elevate one of its cultural symbols to the realm of legend. On this occasion, Marilyn Monroe is much more than an actress. It is a paradigm about stars built to measure for mass consumption.
But Cooper also wants to dialogue with the idea of Marilyn Monroe as a product of devastating pain and hardship. For that, uses recordings, unpublished radio material and photographs from the albums of relatives and friends of the iconic figure. The result is an emotional journey through the rise and fall of Monroe, told from a curious and intimate perspective. Sometimes, the feature film loses its pulse in favor of speculations that cause narrative softness. Overall, though, it’s a smart piece that stands carefully on a deep adoration for the figure of Marilyn Monroe.
My Week with Marilyn Monroe by Simon Curtis
When Marilyn Monroe (played by an unrecognizable Michelle Williams) arrives in England to begin a major shoot, her life is about to be turned upside down. Two years ago, the actress founded her own production company and was still struggling to get recognition for her talent.
So starring alongside Sir Laurence Olivier (Kenneth Branagh) in the film The prince and the showgirl It was her litmus test. But, beyond that, it was also a tour of Marilyn Monroe herself, of her life as she had been until then. What led her to take risks and, especially, to begin to review the traumatic events that she experienced from the sensitive.
Curtis’s movie tries to capture the introspective period in a careful vision of the actress and her circumstances. From the point of view of Colin Clark (Eddie Redmayne), a circumstantial witness to history, the film gives the actress a rare strength. At times emotional, at others a delicate ode to a lonely and frustrated woman, Marilyn Monroe elaborates a background of unknown depth to its central character. But, much more, she speculates about the time, the transcendence and the fame of a talented figure in search of her place in the world. A dimension about Monroe that she seldom explores.
Love, Marilyn, de Liz Garbus
Also through the documentary, director Liz Garbus tries to tell the life of Marilyn Monroe. She is perhaps one of the most complete and eloquent attempts to show the transition of the actress from a young unknown to a world celebrity. Also, how that journey left all kinds of wounds and pains that the interpreter never got over and that marked her life indelibly.
Love, Marilyn It is a complex and well-constructed piece. But, in particular, it uses the resource of unpublished documents and recordings of the actress’s voice with propriety. Not only does she allow Marilyn Monroe to be more than just an object of adoration, she presents her as a woman full of joy that she constructs in eloquent detail.
Garbus’s documentary examines Marilyn Monroe from a deeply human perspective, extolling her kindness, sense of humor and initiative. At the same time, her loneliness and her existential anguish. Between both things, the production is a celebration of the personality and, especially, the legacy of the actress.