Author | cuckoo
Ten-point character history original
At the corner of Lexington Avenue and 52nd Street, the wind from the New York subway passes through the vents at the ground, blowing the white skirt of the peerless beauty, and the full red lips bloom on the smooth apple face.
This is director Billy Wilder's promotional poster for the movie "The Seven-Year Itch", inadvertently constructing a picture that will remain in history. It is also this photo that lifted Marilyn Monroe to the peak of sexiness in one fell swoop, becoming a symbol of American culture and synonymous with all kinds of styles.
Network diagram, invasion and deletion
Sexy is always a weapon for harvesting eyes. Since then, people have begun to endlessly amplify Monroe's temptation, whistling at her maliciously, and she has become the most well-known and useful "meat bomb" on the Hollywood screen.
But what followed was the extreme objectification of "Monroe" as a woman, and the endless "consumption" by filmmakers at that time.
In October this year, the film "Blonde Monroe" directed by director Dominic was released, which was hyped by Netflix as Monroe's "pseudo-biopic", and received a bad review on the 60th anniversary of Monroe's death.
The film is extremely personal subjective judgment, the uncomfortable sex scenes in the plot, and the controversial description of abortion, which is director Dominic's lust for Monroe from a male perspective.
Indeed, in Monroe's films, she often appears as a highly sexually attractive image that men cannot resist, exposing large areas of skin, sometimes seducing, sometimes lustful. But this is not the reason why the director completely portrayed Monroe as a star in the new film under the banner of "documentary".
What few people know is that before becoming Marilyn Monroe, she also had a name full of the rustic nature of a small-town girl: Norma Jane. Completely different from the screen image, the real-life Norma Jane is a rebel, she dares to clash with Hollywood and other big factories, provokes the inherent system of the entertainment industry, and is privately an independent woman who reads poetry and is enthusiastic about public welfare.
Harsh sensuality can attract attention and hinder people's search for the truth.
Only talking about Monroe's beautiful body, looking at her broken past in her life, is the biggest offense to her.
Blonde silly Marilyn
In American culture, Marilyn Monroe has always been a tragic beauty, a victim of a thoroughly patriarchal society. Ironically, this is the definition that people only came up with after her death, looking at her entire life.
The beginning and end of Monroe's entry into Hollywood is the story of an iconic small-town girl breaking into the city: born in a small town, with an extremely tragic childhood, she was selected by the entertainment industry with her beautiful appearance, and went to the peak of public aesthetics.
Ordinary people look back at this story and feel that Monroe has natural capital, and the unforgettable beauty is the charm of her survival. But in fact, the entertainment industry is a place that eats people, and once the fat lamb enters the trap, it is difficult to escape the fate of being slaughtered.
Monroe's early road in Hollywood was not smooth, after all, Hollywood has never lacked beautiful women, and in two years, she only appeared a few times in a few films, and the response was mediocre, and sharp film critics at the time commented on her: "A useless vase." ”
In order to please Hollywood, Monroe dyed her brown hair white and gold. And in the 50s of the last century, the public's perception of the image of women was solidified, and the label blonde was almost silly naïve.
It was also this blonde hair that laid the foundation for her classic image on the screen: a plump, innocent, but unfortunate girl. It has both childlike innocence and ultimate temptation.
Successively starred in movies such as "Gentleman Loves Beauty", "Wrong Mandarin Duck Score", "Dragon and Phoenix" have played her naïve and seductive qualities between "virginity" and "prostitute", and have become an irreplaceable female image in film history.
From the movie "Gentleman Loves Beauty"
For why these roles played by Monroe are so popular, scholar Angela Carter gave a superb answer: Monroe is sexy and unaware. She has both deadly sexual charm and at the same time ignorance of the power and exchange value that this sexual charm gives her. So her generosity was abused, her heart was kind and fragile, and sexiness did not become her weapon, but made her more likely to hurt.
The similarity of the characters allows the audience to attach the discussion of the character's personality to Monroe itself. In the public's mind, she is a willful and naïve gold-worshipping woman, a tool person played by power and men, and uses her beautiful flesh to undertake all male fantasies.
The indirect result is that the big names in Hollywood hold the mentality of snooping on the "Huawei" and constantly chase and block her.
Network diagram, invasion and deletion
In 1953, Monroe published the article "The Hungry Wolf I Know" in the newspaper, telling about all kinds of "hungry wolves" in Hollywood. Over the years, she has met filmmakers who want to exchange monetary gifts for a night affair; There are directors who fooled her into the "casting sofa"; There are married executives who force her to play on a yacht or tear up the film contract.
And what hurt her the most, the scrutiny of all men on her "sex thing".
Everyone is familiar with the colorful picture in the movie "The Seven-Year Itch", but few people know that this photo was taken by Monroe under the watch of nearly 2,000 men.
At 1 a.m. on September 15, 1954, director Billy Wilder was going to shoot a shot of his film that would go down in history. He summoned 100 male photographers to shoot in advance and invited another 1,000 male spectators to watch, but things gradually began to get out of control, more and more people heard the news, and the New York police had to intervene to control.
Thousands of men gathered on the streets of New York in the early hours of the morning just to spy on the skirts of peerless celebrities.
Countless pairs of eyes, staring at the white skirt after being blown up by the wind, were pressed by the hand of the girl who was at a loss, a full 14 times.
A well-known white dress photo
Monroe first talked about the shoot in an interview in 1962, and her only concern was the other photos in the hands of other photographers present besides the famous one. She hopes that these images will not be used as slideshows at private parties, as a "windfall" to show off.
Hollywood's objectification of Monroe is a microcosm of the low status of women in the patriarchal society of the fifties and sixties of the last century. As scholar Suzanne Hamscha said, Monroe is like a cultural function that can be repeatedly rewritten, deformed, and deduced according to the evolution of the times.
She can be a pathetic symbol that exposes Hollywood's inherent class, or she can be a representative of women who are deeply exploited by male power.
But the price of being a symbol is simplification. Marilyn Monroe's bravery and independence as a woman were blown away by the wind that passed through the bottom of her skirt.
Brave and shrewd Norma Jane
A classic image is too deeply rooted in people's hearts, and people will ignore her unique power. In other words, people have a fear of inferiority in her independence and bravery, and are unwilling to believe that she can compete with the system.
And when people remove Marilyn Monroe's coat and walk into the heart of Norma Jane, a small-town girl, they will be surprised to find that she is a rebel who is ahead of the times. Marilyn Monroe is more like a character she has played all her life.
From the movie "Dragon and Phoenix"
Monroe created too many firsts and directly provoked the Hollywood system that was entrenched at the time.
In the years of working in Hollywood, Monroe's salary has been low, and when she cooperated with Jane Russell in "Gentleman Loves Beauty", the salary was 10 times lower than the other party. Until her last film, "On the Verge of Collapse," she was paid just $100,000, compared with $1 million for actress Elizabeth Taylor at the same time.
In order to break the injustice, Monroe dared to be a pioneer. She was one of the first actresses in film history to create an independent studio, violated her contract at the peak of her career, left Hollywood under the threat of prosecution, and took her voice completely into her own hands.
Monroe also showed her trauma happily, she was the first woman in history to dare to publicly talk about her childhood sexual assault, which was a taboo in the closed era and was violently broken by her.
In an era when civil rights were unpopular, Monroe was a staunch supporter of civil rights. In her few notes mentioning the Kennedys, she wrote how Monroe asked them questions about civil rights and how impressed they were with the seriousness of the issue.
Monroe is also a founding and active member of the Hollywood chapter of the Committee on Rational Nuclear Policy, which advocates against nuclear testing and supports nuclear disarmament. She once told a reporter: "My nightmare is a hydrogen bomb." What about yours? ”
And Monroe was full of poetry, would discuss "Lincoln" with her third husband, Arthur Miller, and read the works of Dostoevsky and Chekhov.
It's just that under the skirt of sexiness and fame and fortune, the talent of an ordinary girl is completely ignored.
For Hollywood, Monroe is more like a tool, a tool that can arouse male desire and profit. She is a doll who does not need to have a mind, and can be placed in the window to charge the public to watch her.
From the movie "Passion Like Fire"
In 1962, Monroe's secretary's husband talked about Monroe in an interview, he did not think that Monroe was a victim of a patriarchal society, on the contrary, she was financially independent, had great ambitions, and knew too well how to use sexy advantages to achieve her goals.
She loves and respects acting so much that in order to refine her performance to get rid of the vase title, she struggled to overcome her stuttering and asked the acting teacher to sit on the set to guide her performance. She is very aware that she has emotional problems and works very hard to overcome them with the help of professionals.
She is also well aware of the solidification of class, and understands that if she wants to break through and successfully gain the right to speak, she can only become an irreplaceable existence in the eyes of everyone first, and the most effective means she can use is her body that makes countless people covet.
Therefore, Monroe did not shy away from showing sexiness, which was bold in the fifties and sixties of the last century, not accepted by mainstream society, and even spurned.
Monroe paid the price for this, rumors about her affair never stopped, men in decent clothes kept screaming at her maliciously, and everything about her, even the pets around her, began to be consumed by the masses.
But at the same time, she also won the initiative as she wished, from a doll at the mercy of others to a goddess to be looked up to, standing at the top of the public aesthetic. It seems that she is controlled by the rules, but in fact she has mastered the rules.
The fate of being devoured alive
Back to this newly released movie "Blonde Monroe", the reason why it makes people angry is that it ignores Monroe's resistance to fate and provocation of the system, and still portrays her as a brainless woman who relies on sexual superiority and can only shout "daddy".
Monroe in the film is constantly thrown on the producer's floor, the sofa of the owner of an entertainment company, the bed of a well-known politician, and even her few plots of reconciliation with herself are an unaesthetic threesome depiction.
From the movie "Blonde Monroe"
But in fact, Monroe once wrote in her autobiography "I Go My Own Way": "No one can use me, let alone my body; If there's only one thing I'm proud of in my life, it's that I've never been a mistress to be adopted by someone else. ”
But the director chose to ignore it and cleverly used his own wisdom to attract the audience with a large-scale plot. The industry, which had skinned her and cramped, tried to swallow her alive again.
Looking back to May 1962, three months before Monroe's death, several iconic events unfolded together.
She filmed the last movie in her life, "Double Phoenix"; wearing a diamond dress to sing "Happy Birthday" at President Kennedy's birthday party; Being eroded by bipolar disorder, you need to constantly hypnotize yourself with alcohol and sleeping pills.
Perhaps Monroe's end was predestined from the time she flew to Washington for that birthday dinner despite the producer's warning. When an actor begins to associate with politics, even without factual evidence, she will not end well.
From the movie "The Seven-Year Itch"
One day in August 1962, the housekeeper looked at the woman's locked door and tried to call her out for dinner, but when he pushed the door in, he found that her body was already cold. At this point, film superstar Marilyn Monroe died in her bedroom, and the cause of death given by the police was suicide.
As soon as the news came out, various conspiracy theories in the market followed. Suspicions include love killings, victims of regime struggle, and trophies of gang confrontation, but there is no definitive evidence that he killed him. Monroe's death has always been one of the most complex mysteries of the 20th century.
Later in life, Monroe was alone. Bipolar disorder almost completely destroyed her spirit, and she even needed a lot of courage to get out of the dressing room on the set. This also led to her often being late for filming, absenteeism, and the directors she worked with were miserable. At the height of her illness, the staff around her need to carry her house keys with her so that they can contact her at any time, and more importantly, rescue her in time if she is unwell due to an overdose.
Ironically, since Monroe's death, society's malice towards her has gradually faded. People began to repeatedly study every article and work she left behind, and were surprised that this woman was so thoughtful and insightful, and she was really underestimated.
Monroe, who is only 36 years old, presented a bright and tragic life to the public. She has many regrets in her life, such as the absence of her father in childhood, which led her to look for her father's shadow in love all her life. I like children very much, but I miscarried because of endometriosis, and in the end I didn't have children of my own.
But it does not prevent this mysterious, sad, and lifelong woman who has fought against fate from appearance to soul.
From the movie "Double Phoenix" audition video
There is a very moving dialogue in the documentary "Marilyn Monroe: The Last Days". When Monroe was emotionally unstable, her friend Susan decided to take her on a trip with her family, and Susan slept in a room with Monroe at night. The next morning, Susan saw Monroe standing naked on the balcony waiting for the sunrise, the Monroe in front of her was so charming, dazzling, and sad, Susan said to her: "You know what? I'm willing to sacrifice everything to be you. ”
Monroe was very frightened and replied to Susan: "Honey, don't think so, I'm willing to give up everything to be you, because everyone respects you." ”
Perhaps that working-class girl Norma Jane strayed into Hollywood to become the much-anticipated star Marilyn Monroe, in fact, her initial appeal was only to support herself through hard work and gain the respect of others.
The respect that was not received during life is still not honorably possessed after death. Marilyn Monroe may not have expected that 60 years after her death, "Blonde Monroe" once again used the label of "art", fabricated her life, consumed her pain, and stretched the camera under her skirt.
Click [Watch], sexiness is not the original sin
Resources:
1, that NG "Marilyn Monroe, forced to become "Hollywood's Sora"
2, the documentary "Marilyn Monroe: The Last Days"
3, the documentary "The Mystery of Marilyn Monroe: The Recording of the First Appearance"
4, podcast, random fluctuations "Back to the Street, Back to Hollywood: History, Movies and Gender"
5, Marilyn Monroe "The Hungry Wolf I Know"
6, Marilyn Monroe "My Story"
7, the most TOP movie "From female worker to superstar! An episode of the show to learn about Marilyn Monroe