In this woman, men see the soul seducing, women see peerless grace, guardians see fornication and depravity, and the melon-eating masses see the secrets of the palace...
The only thing that everyone can't see is herself.
Written by| Ling
Editor| Little
Proofreader| Xu Jing
Produced | Figure documentary
Marilyn Monroe has all the elements of a Hollywood super IP:
World-famous – one of the most famous figures in American film history and even the world;
Distinctive symbols - even if you haven't seen any of her works, you will be impressed by the "white dress floating above the subway vents" and "golden red lips and soul moles";
The bizarre ending - the mysterious death of a peerless beauty constitutes infinite interpretability.
Therefore, it is not surprising that in 2022, 60 years after Marilyn Monroe's death, the United States has released a number of documentaries and films commemorating her life.
Among them, Netflix's movie "Blonde" is the most eye-catching: adapted from the biographical novel of the famous writer Joyce Carol Oates; was shortlisted for the main competition unit of the Venice Film Festival; "Bond Girl" Ana de Armas almost 100% replicates Monroe's classic look.
Poster for the movie "Blonde Monroe"
But "Blonde Monroe" has become the least controversial bad film among many works - IMDB 5.5, Douban 5.6, Rotten Tomatoes 42%, the global aesthetic is consistent.
The most violent criticism of this film is because it "exploits Monroe with male condensation again", amplifying the collapsed and erotic side of Monroe. Under the kaleidoscopic dazzling lenses, she is forever in a trance, shuttling through the dark night of Hollywood cannibalism, and finally engulfed.
The naïve and easily murdered blonde is the most unwanted image in Monroe's short but brilliant life, "I never fully understood the symbol 'sexy'... I just hate being something like that."
A number of documentaries released this year show different aspects of Monroe: her underrated emotional intelligence and IQ, her willfulness and loss of control, and how she struggled and healed herself.
But putting these keywords together, is it really equal to her?
The birth of an IP
"When I (Monroe) was a child, every Saturday afternoon, I sat in the front row of the movie theater and thought how good it would be if I could be an actor... I want to be a good actor."
In April, in Netflix's documentary "The Marilyn Monroe Mystery: A Recording of First Appearance", biographer Anthony Summers said of Monroe: "She wants to be taken seriously".
Poster for the documentary "The Mystery of Marilyn Monroe: A Recording of the First Appearance"
Much of the material for "Recordings of the First Appearance" comes from as many as 650 never-before-published audio tapes from Summers' interviews with Monroe.
The interviewees included Monroe's close friends, psychiatrists, staff, as well as FBI agents and private investigators involved in Monroe's death. Their recordings are accompanied by performances of live-action actors, coupled with interviews with Marilyn Monroe herself, and the film uses this fusion of history and fiction to try to reconstruct Monroe's life, especially her most important, final years - although the final quality of the film did not support the ambitions of the producers, but it was better than the content was detailed enough.
As we all know, Monroe had a turbulent childhood. The baby girl, whose real name is Norma Jane Baker, was born on June 1, 1926 in Los Angeles, USA, to a film editor mother and an unnamed father. Because of her mother's mental disorder, Monroe changed 10 different foster families in her childhood and lived in an orphanage for two years. "I wouldn't say I'm an orphan, I've been a street child since I was a child."
Whether the insecurities that haunted her life came from a tumultuous childhood is difficult to verify, but it is not denied that this period of time provided Monroe with the original motivation to strive for the future.
In 1945, Norma, an airplane factory worker, became the cover girl of many magazines with an innocent smile, a slim and curvy figure, and the following year, she was offered a six-month contract with 20th Century Fox for $75 a week and a new name, Marilyn Monroe. Since then, she has begun her film and television career of repeatedly playing "stupid blondes".
That year, one of her imaginary enemies, Elizabeth Taylor, was only 14 years old, but she had become the heroine of Hollywood movies.
Fortunately, Monroe has a talent and determination to continue to operate and develop her own "IP". She accepted the studio's plastic surgery request, dyed her brown hair white-gold, retained the gilled beauty mole given to the character in the film, and developed an air voice that made herself sound delicate and innocent.
"She (Monroe) did have trauma, which affected her relationships in the world, but she didn't see herself as a victim. She worked very hard..." Emma Cooper, director of "The First Recording", said in an interview: "In that era, few women were as brave as Marilyn to explore themselves freely."
These efforts have made Monroe's "Hollywood's number one sexy stunner" character increasingly clear.
In 1953, she jumped to the front line by starring in "Falling Tide", "Gentleman Loves Beauty" and "Willing to Marry the Golden Turtle Son-in-law". Under the fame, the peach scandal will naturally not let her go - although the actors who have worked with her have mentioned that Monroe still insists on taking acting classes to improve herself after hard shooting, "tired and just wants to lie down", but more attention is still on those hinted at by the old-school Hollywood agent Rosen in "The First Recording": how Monroe relies on sleeping with Hollywood power figures (including agents and producers) in exchange for tickets to enter this vanity fair.
In the presentation of "Blonde Monroe", director Dominic believes that Monroe's "giving" has not been exchanged for any social support system of family affection and friendship, "I don't think she is a woman with many female friends, and later I think she is a woman without many friends."
But in fact, Monroe is good at managing her social relationships, including making friends with women. However, one of her best friends, actor Jane Russell, left a meaningful sentence in "The Recording of the First Appearance": "I think we are friends... [But] she always switches from circle to circle and never comes back to the old people."
In the movie "Blonde Monroe", starring Ana de Armas (left) almost 1:1 reproduces Monroe's classic look
She's not perfect, but she's real
Different from stereotypes: Monroe is not only the dream lover of thousands of men, but also the projection of the most perfect image in the hearts of countless women.
"I'm willing to sacrifice everything to become you." Susan, the daughter of her acting teacher Lee Strassberg, couldn't help but blurt out this when she saw Monroe's perfect nudity bathed in morning light. But Monroe is not proud of this: "I am willing to sacrifice everything to become you, everyone respects you so much."
Although she has won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Musical and Comedy Film ("Passion Like Fire") and nominated for 2 BAFTA Awards for Best Foreign Actress ("The Dragon and the Phoenix", "The Seven-Year Itch"), Monroe's acting skills have long been underestimated, and "being seen" and "respected" is almost her lifelong career goal.
In "The First Recorded Recording," Monroe is portrayed as a victim of unspoken rules, and in the documentary "Reinvention: Marilyn Monroe," also released this year, the all-female class team portrays the most famous sexy icon of the 20th century as a self-conscious feminist fighter: an independent, strong professional woman Norma Jane.
Poster for the documentary "Reinvention: Marilyn Monroe"
The documentary chose the extremely important nude photo events in Monroe's life to reflect her public relations ability: several nude photos taken in the early years were exposed, and the studio hoped that Monroe would completely deny it, but this woman chose to embrace the crisis. She acknowledged that the photo was true, but explained to the public that she was a poor girl trying to survive in order to pay rent and fill her stomach.
The public's sympathy helped Monroe get through the crisis. "I'm not ashamed." Monroe's audio interview is quoted twice in the documentary: "I didn't do anything wrong."
In a Hollywood world completely dominated by men, Monroe successfully used "helplessness" as a weapon to turn defeat into victory. But if you keep playing the helpless card, it's not Monroe. After becoming a superstar, she wrote an article "The Wolf I Know", reminding girls who want to be stars to be careful of those Hollywood "hungry wolves" and protect themselves. Starbuck, executive producer of "Reinvention", said: "Monroe was a trailblazer who bravely challenged the misogyny of the United States in the 50s of the 20th century, and it is still very modern today."
Even in the final years of Monroe's mental breakdown, she was not a fragile blonde stunner at the mercy of others.
In 1961, Monroe fell into a career trough when filming "On the verge of collapse": just ended her third marriage, fell into a physical and emotional trough, and had a bad relationship with the filmmaker. At the same time, Fox poured almost all of his resources into Elizabeth Taylor's epic drama Cleopatra, which earned millions of dollars.
Monroe cleverly used a set of nude photos again to turn defeat into victory. The pool scene in "On the verge of collapse" was originally wearing tights, and after filming one or two, Monroe swam directly naked, proving that his beauty and figure are still at the peak. She thinks this set of Hibiscus photos can squeeze Taylor off all covers—and she's right.
What makes Monroe seem more real is that she is not so correct, not so kind and harmless, and even a little difficult and cautious in the documentary "Marilyn Monroe: The Last Days".
When filming the most classic shot of Monroe in "The Seven Year Itch", thousands of people watched the scene, including her second husband DiMaggio
During the filming of "On the verge of collapse", Monroe took 17 sick days in 30 days, which overspent the film crew by $1 million, but she did not forget to ambush eyeliner on the set during her illness, and complained to the producer that the second woman "cushioned her chest".
Despite the studio's objections, Monroe appeared at President John F. Kennedy's birthday party to sing — and was habitually late — a major turning point: work problems became a personal feud between her and the company and the director.
Monroe singing for President Kennedy
Fox finally fired Monroe, the film stopped, and the public blamed Monroe for the unemployment of more than 100 people in the crew. Monroe did not sit still, but found the media to do long-form interviews and shoot posters - she no longer looks so perfect, but she is both sexy and vulnerable at the same time, which has greatly won the attention of the media and the public, as well as bargaining capital.
Fox eventually had to rehire Monroe and draw up new contracts for one million for both films. Basically up to this point, it can be said that Monroe won: she proved herself to be one of the most important actresses of her time. "She doesn't make movies for money... This girl just wants to be famous and let the whole world know her."
Then, everything came to an abrupt end in the early morning of August 5, 1962: Monroe was found suddenly dead in her home, and the cause of death was judged to be a possible suicide.
It is death and the climax of group joy
Of almost all documentaries about Monroe, the cause of her death is the longest. No way, the mysterious sudden death of peerless beauty, including suspense, love, erotica, thriller and other selling types, Yijiazi's repeated interpretation and interpretation, the audience is still happy to do it.
"The Recording of the First Appearance" once again brings up the well-known speculation: "Robert Kennedy may have something to do with the end of Monroe's life."
Monroe was in the same frame as President Kennedy for the only time
Did the Monroe and Kennedy brothers, the president and attorney general, John F. Kennedy and Robert Kennedy, have ever had a romance? The United States has published thousands of books on this issue. The highlight of "The Recording of the First Appearance" is to show some hard evidence that Monroe and the Kennedy brothers had an intimate relationship, or at least one of them.
The daughter of Ralph Greenson, Monroe's most trusted psychiatrist, said that Monroe once described her date as "a very powerful person, everyone calls him the chief." Actor Dean Martin's wife said that the Kennedy brothers' brother-in-law, actor Peter Lawford, was the pimp, "two brothers share a Marilyn Monroe."
According to " Recording of the First Appearance " , in the eyes of the intelligence services, " Kennedy's mistress , a woman who was close to the American Communists , often needed to see a psychiatrist, and could go off the gun at any time", was certainly not the "right woman" suitable for dealing with the president and the attorney general.
In fact, this statement is still one of the endless conspiracy theories that accompanied Monroe's death in the past 60 years, and the world has heard too much.
But unfortunately, all kinds of documentaries, film and television works are full of sweat, but in the end they only stay at a large number of "I heard" and "a friend of mine said"... No physical evidence was presented at all. Don't ask, ask that "photographs and recordings may also be searched and detained."
60 years have passed, almost all the witnesses of Monroe's death have passed away, and the criticism, praise and conspiracy theories that haunt her have never gone away, but have been attached to this superstar who died early layer by layer, absorbing the dividends of "IP".
On the Met Gala red carpet this year, Kim Kardashian did not hesitate to lose 15 pounds and wore the original dress that Monroe sang for Kennedy, and the dress was suspected of being damaged afterwards
Perhaps, for the remakes and reinterpretations of classics, the ultimate reason is the lack of originality - this era is no longer born such superstars full of contradictions and legends.
As written in a media review article: "People search for them on the Internet, in Monroe's sad seduction, in the soul swing of 'Elvis', people can still understand why they can lead that era." Even the most daring modern imitators are weak in this regard."
If Monroe was just an IP that could be rewritten, the public would not have so much true feelings and protection. Her smile on the screen, stubbornness, vulnerability and imperfection on the screen, together build a woman who has loved, suffered and lived, the only Marilyn Monroe.
Or, she is the treasure of the wind and moon, in which everyone sees themselves.
References:
《Will anyone ever again be as famous as Marilyn and Elvis?》
《Reframed' revisits Marilyn Monroe's life and legacy, from an all-women point of view》
《The Mystery of Marilyn Monroe: The Unheard Tapes’ Review: The Rare Tabloid Exposé That Sets the Record Straight》
Why did Marilyn Monroe die? 》
"Blonde Monroe": They all say that it is untrue, how untrue is it?
－ END －
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