![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkatSaw the flick My Week with Marilyn last night. This was the film based on the memoir by Colin Carter, about the week the film documentary writer and director spent working on the film The Prince and the Showgirl with Marilyn Monroe and Laurence Olivier. Kenneth Brannagh and Michelle Williams were nominated for Oscars for their portrayals of Oliver and Marilyn. They deserved them, particularly Williams who so perfectly portrayed the title character, that I almost thought I was watching Marilyn Monroe on the screen. Her performance went beyond mere mimicry to depict the desperate and hungry soul that lay beneath the movie star sheen. It is by far the best thing about the movie and possibly the only reason to see it. That and Brannagh's take on Olivier...who is humbled, humiliated and maddened by his encounter with Marilyn. Brannagh is almost perfect for the role of Olivier since he in some respects shares many of Olivier's character traits...the notorious ego.
The problem with the film is it is less about the notorious struggle between Olivier and Monroe to make The Prince and The Showgirl, which drove Olivier back to the stage, and more about why men fell in love with Monroe and got their hearts broken. Which is a shame, because we already know that. All you have to do is watch Monroe's movies, which are much better. The best parts of the film focus on Olivier, or on the making of Prince and Showgirl, the worst on Colin and Marilyn. 60% is on Colin and Marilyn - and there's not much to it. Sort of silly boy crush - and done better in other films. Also Colin is a character that it is difficult to care much about. A privileged lad who is resourceful and self-absorbed, not to mention a bit of a user. When the prop girl, whom he was dating and had slept with, Lucy, portrayed by Emma Watson (yes, the one who played Hermoine), tells him that she's glad that Marilyn broke his heart, because he's the sort who needed to have it broken, I wholeheartedly agreed.
Rent it for the performances...not the story. The dialogue is not bad. Bit slow in places, but considering the story - that's to be expected.
After watching it, it occurred to me why characters such as the one's Marilyn Monroe portrayed and in the end became herself...always grated on my nerves. Harmony in Buffy and Angel is basically a similar trope as is Darla. The pretty ditzy girl who exudes sex, that men fall over themselves to help or assist, with her curves and her blond locks, and her
seemingly mindless little girl banter. She uses the heterosexual male gaze against him, she uses the heterosexual male desire to dominate against him as well...she's like a siren, luring him with her song, before she can sink in her teeth. As Arthur Miller tells Sir Laurence Olivier... she's destroying me. I can't write. I can't create. I can't work. I can't think. She's devouring me.
Yet, when we are in the women's perspective...that's not the intent. Marilyn states at one point to Colin, who fails miserably to understand, "They all fall in love with Marilyn, but when they discover I'm not Marilyn...they leave." Marilyn is a tragic story of how giving in to the male gaze, becoming that obscure object of desire can literally destroy you. She took pills to wake up, pills to sleep, pills to be happy, pills to come down. She had to always be on, always be the sex symbol, always that obscure object of desire with the smokey kitten voice. She could never just be plain old Norma Jean.
The problem with the film is it is less about the notorious struggle between Olivier and Monroe to make The Prince and The Showgirl, which drove Olivier back to the stage, and more about why men fell in love with Monroe and got their hearts broken. Which is a shame, because we already know that. All you have to do is watch Monroe's movies, which are much better. The best parts of the film focus on Olivier, or on the making of Prince and Showgirl, the worst on Colin and Marilyn. 60% is on Colin and Marilyn - and there's not much to it. Sort of silly boy crush - and done better in other films. Also Colin is a character that it is difficult to care much about. A privileged lad who is resourceful and self-absorbed, not to mention a bit of a user. When the prop girl, whom he was dating and had slept with, Lucy, portrayed by Emma Watson (yes, the one who played Hermoine), tells him that she's glad that Marilyn broke his heart, because he's the sort who needed to have it broken, I wholeheartedly agreed.
Rent it for the performances...not the story. The dialogue is not bad. Bit slow in places, but considering the story - that's to be expected.
After watching it, it occurred to me why characters such as the one's Marilyn Monroe portrayed and in the end became herself...always grated on my nerves. Harmony in Buffy and Angel is basically a similar trope as is Darla. The pretty ditzy girl who exudes sex, that men fall over themselves to help or assist, with her curves and her blond locks, and her
seemingly mindless little girl banter. She uses the heterosexual male gaze against him, she uses the heterosexual male desire to dominate against him as well...she's like a siren, luring him with her song, before she can sink in her teeth. As Arthur Miller tells Sir Laurence Olivier... she's destroying me. I can't write. I can't create. I can't work. I can't think. She's devouring me.
Yet, when we are in the women's perspective...that's not the intent. Marilyn states at one point to Colin, who fails miserably to understand, "They all fall in love with Marilyn, but when they discover I'm not Marilyn...they leave." Marilyn is a tragic story of how giving in to the male gaze, becoming that obscure object of desire can literally destroy you. She took pills to wake up, pills to sleep, pills to be happy, pills to come down. She had to always be on, always be the sex symbol, always that obscure object of desire with the smokey kitten voice. She could never just be plain old Norma Jean.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2012-07-01 03:24 pm (UTC)XOXO,
Zu
no subject
Date: 2012-07-01 03:37 pm (UTC)it is a pretty lame plot focused on a totally unimportant forgettable film (The Prince and the Showgirl really is never going to be memorable) BUT
we were thrilled to see Michael Kitchen and Derek Jacobi showing up in tiny roles...
the casting is amazing (Judy Dench is always amazing) and the performances were wonderful. It is a pleasure getting to see these brilliant actors even when the material isn't that brilliant.
It reminds me a bit of 'The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel' (no spoilers) because that too is not a great script, but I could watch those actors all day long!
no subject
Date: 2012-07-17 11:18 am (UTC)It's hard to upstage Betty Grable and the UNBELIEVABLY classy and gorgeous Lauren Bacall, but M.M. did it!!
MM-"You know who I'd like to marry?!?"
Her friends- "Who,Honey?"
MM-"Rockefeller!! "
Friends-"Which One?!"
MM-"I don't care......"
CLASSIC!!!
Zu