Agree with most of the folks here on the forum. Depressing to say the least. But Ana kept me glued to the TV and I couldn't turn it off. Also agree about why all the changing of the aspect ratio. No point at all.
the film is a work of art ... Americans need to chill out. It is seldom (these days) that any film really moves me at all. The book and film Blonde is capable of doing that ... and now to add this, that I hope people aren't so stuck on what "should be" in art when Terry Malick releases his film on St. Peter and Christ, which is for sure another work of art.
If I had to make a quibble ... I guess I'd have two things. I think that the beginning should have even more clearly defined Norma Jeanne's transformation into MM. JCO does this magnificently by going into her first marriage to a lunkhead, how she was duped into posing nude which blows up in her face by Playboy's publishing of her photos etc. Another part of the book that was omitted in the film was MM's encounter with Marlon Brando. Brando is presented as the one person who has no sexual interest in MM, but treats her as a person. An acting equal. This would have given levity to the unceasing parade of nightmarish scenarios that is her life n the film.
Here is another positive review that mentions Raging Bull as well. Paul Byrnes at the Sidney Morning Herald sees the film the same way Mark Kermode views it. I will try to get to this film by the weekend at the latest. Blonde is no simple Marilyn Monroe biopic – it has tricks up every sleeve
I watched this film yesterday. The constantly shifting aspect ratios initially threw me but I soon got used to it. Ana de Armas is very good as Marilyn Monroe and certainly deserves some awards for her performance. However, I didn’t find the film very engaging and I also felt it was about half an hour too long. Despite de Armas’ excellent portrayal, I doubt I’ll be watching this again.
All I know is that Ana better win every award ever invented for a movie actress. We knew she was good, but this performance is on a whole other level.
"Normies"?? Lol. That's a little pejorative. Let's cut to the chase. It's a fictionalized interpretation of Marilyn's life. Calling it "arthouse" implies that art is somehow synonymous with (in this case) unrelenting misery. Reminds me of Will Ladislaw's admonishment of Dorothea in George Eliot's great C19th novel Middlemarch. “I suspect that you have some false belief in the virtues of misery…” I didn't expect anything from the film, but take issue with its selective portrayal of Marilyn as a passive victim, which is so at odds with her own sense of her artistry, her business nous and intellect. She was ambitious and understood the rules of the Hollywood game. Later when she attained a more powerful position she pushed back against those rules. I would have liked to see something of that in the film, to avoid the feeling that the end was inevitable. As Mark Kermode summed up, a horror film with a fantastic central performance. Not enough for me to revisit however.
Blonde is much "artier" than something like My Week with Marilyn (a film I also love). It's leisurely-paced and harrowing. Stunning cinematography and art design, including some perfect recreations of iconic Marilyn pics and moments. (my favorite is a moment when she's sitting on the couch reading - it's one of my favorite Marilyn pics, and AdA brings the moment to life perfectly -- and it's just a quick moment in the film)
Gandhi (1982) is exactly the same. A fictionalised biopic. Even won an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay.
... and Monster, though people aren't going to nitpick how Aileen Wournas is portrayed because she isn't adored like Marilyn Monroe.
Saw this tonight (last night, I guess) and was quite impressed. For 3 hours long, I was never bored or tired. Ana was fantastic, and deserves all the praise she's gotten.
Yes Ana was fantastic but overall I didn't much care for the movie. I don't know how much of it was fictionalized and how much was true but it felt extremely negative and depressing to me, and it's hard for me to imagine that her short life was really that bad, though maybe it was. I've been asking myself whether Norma Jean herself would've approved of this account of her life. My gut feeling is no, she wouldn't have. We'll never know but I felt like the film took an awful lot of liberties, and it felt damaging to her legacy. I mean, she seems to have been exploited throughout her life, and now this movie exploits her once again, maybe in a grossly exaggerated way. Poor lady.
This movie is not remotely exploiting Marilyn and is 100% on her side - it’s saying that Marilyn never had a chance and that every person who was supposed to love her or care for her either abused or exploited or abandoned her. Her dream of Hollywood and fame - went from a dream to permanent nightmare. The President / the biggest baseball player / the greatest playwright / her best friends / her mother / her “daddy” - they all tarnished her life for their own selfish ends. It doesn’t matter if it’s true or if certain characters were composites or even exaggerated. The film’s central point is that Marilyn was betrayed by life and abused by life and all its characters. It’s more accurate than Spencer or The Crown or The Untouchables (Elliot Ness and Al Capone never met in real life) but a film’s job is not to be cinema verite - rather to move us and challenge us and make us feel - sometimes feel very uncomfortable. I wonder if the simply loony responses to this film has touched a nerve - Netflix makes lowest common denominator binge television and has contributed to low attention spans and low brow art. I speculate that if this was just playing in art theatres like it deserves then it would be spared all this nonsense. Netflix and its audience are too bland and conservative and too number-chasing to appreciate a film like this. Can you imagine if Netflix put out Schindler’s List today? Hard to believe the 90s were more progressive than now.
I didn't get the sense the movie suggested that about Arthur Miller. But I don't know enough of the real historical details of Marilyn Monroe to know how that marriage ended.
Ana de Armas was extraordinary. I didn't see her in the part when she was first announced, but I sure was wrong! It may be a fictional account, but it still touched on the truths of her life. Depressing but brilliant.
I thought he was very kind to her, from what we see. He even listened to her ideas about his play -- after his initial concern that she was parroting someone else's attacks. He didn't take her seriously at first when she gave her notes about the character, but then he did. No one else ever did in the film. Though she does later discover that he's been writing down her real-life dialogue, presumably as notes for scenes, and that's a betrayal. IIRC from My Week with Marilyn, they were still together when she made The Prince and the Showgirl, but maybe not by the time of Some Like It Hot? Maybe she became too much for him to handle, emotionally?
Miller comes out of it pretty well, rightly so imho. I agree the film’s visibility from being on Netflix not in an art house is driving a lot of the discussion. And that’s a good thing too. It’s an awkward piece of art - as is JCO’s novel - and for that we should be grateful.
