The Netflix movie about Marilyn Monroe is an ongoing nightmare, repulsive and infuriating
The life of Marilyn Monroe is the basis for "Blonde", the talked about and scandalous movie that is coming to Netflix.
He has no empathy or appreciation for his heroine.
Instead, he exploits her, humiliates her and humiliates her, and presents us with a porn of suffering that lasts for 166 unbearable minutes.
you have been warned
Avner Shavit
30/09/2022
Friday, September 30, 2022, 12:42 AM
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Trailer for the movie "Blonde" (Netflix)
Star rating for movies - 1 star (photo: image processing, .)
Three American icons died prematurely between the 1950s and 1970s and became legends: Elvis Presley, Marilyn Monroe and James Dean.
It is interesting to note that two of them were awarded cinematic biographies in the last year.
It started with "Elvis", which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival and was released here in the summer, and now continues with "Blonde", which is available from today (Wednesday) on Netflix.
The film presents the life of Marilyn Monroe, who was born as Norma Jean and became one of the biggest stars in Hollywood history.
She is played by the Cuban Ana de Armas, who thanks to "well-written murder", "no time to die" and others became one of the great discoveries of recent years.
It is also interesting to note that the two films about American mythologies were actually directed by Australians - Baz Luhrmann directed "Elvis", and Andrew Dominic, who was born in New Zealand but moved to Australia at the age of two, directed "Blonde" ("Blonde" in the original).
Dominik broke out in 2007 with the pretentious western The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, which was as long as its name - 160 minutes.
"Blonde" is even longer - 166 minutes!
And even more pretentious.
This is how the director himself defined the film in an interview with the British magazine "Sight and Sound": "More than a narrative work, it is a musical work, with its own rules."
We'll talk about his rules soon, but let me first add a rule of my own: when a filmmaker talks about his film like that, the audience is in a lot of trouble.
First Elvis, now Marilyn.
From "Blonde" (Photo: Netflix)
The rules of the film were first of all inspired by its source of inspiration - Joyce Carol Oates' celebrated book of the same name.
The novel was careful to define itself as a work of fiction rather than a biography.
The film adaptation preserves this spirit.
So, for example, Monroe's partners are not identified by their full names.
The Jewish playwright Arthur Miller, played by Adrien Brody, is known as "The Playwright".
Legendary baseball star Joe DiMaggio is "the ex-athlete" and John F. Kennedy is simply "the president."
On the other hand, the classics in which the star participated are mentioned here by their full and real names - "Men Prefer Blondes", "Hot and Tasty" and the like.
The film tries to understand why Monroe suffered so much in her short life, which ended with her mysterious death at the age of only 36.
To answer the question, he packages the story in a psychoanalytic framework, and the conclusions of the analysis are as follows: the answers are found in the busy childhood of the star, and in her unstable relationship with her dysfunctional parents.
In this, more than the previously mentioned "Elvis", the film is reminiscent of "Citizen Kane", which had similar pretensions and answers.
Like him, he also eventually returns to an object from the heroine's childhood - not a sled in this case, but something else, whose identity we will not discover of course.
Either way, the solution he offers seems forced, unconvincing and of course also unoriginal.
We have seen similar diagnoses in so many similar films about other icons.
Similar to "Citizen Kane", "Blonde" also boasts a strong expressive, expressive, stylish and extroverted cinematic style, and sometimes grotesque.
On top of that, a lot of it is in black and white.
But what was groundbreaking in 1941, before Monroe herself broke through, seems contrived today - more a statement of the director's intentions than a move that really serves the story.
In addition to this, the film apparently wants to criticize the toxic Hollywood, and the way it mirrored Monroe's life.
But the use of black and white gives it a nostalgic dimension, and the pompous and bombastic photography presents the industry as a larger than life place, not as a shabby and corrupt place.
All this takes the sting out of the review.
A great actress, but what can she do against such a script and direction?
Ana de Armas in "Blonde" (Photo: Netflix)
As usual these days, it is impossible to talk about the film without referring to the "scandal" that accompanied it.
It was rated 17-NC, and many theaters in the United States are unwilling to screen such films.
In the world of streaming, it became the first and possibly the last film with this rating to appear on Netflix.
And what is the commotion?
About sex scenes of course.
It's amazing how in puritanical Hollywood, crazy violence doesn't necessarily lead to any restrictions, but sex turns on red lights.
This is already a topic for another discussion.
Among other things, the film includes a threesome sex scene that apparently has no grip on reality.
Her partners are Monroe and two Hollywood princes: Charlie Chaplin's son and Edward G. Robinson's son.
They once said that pornography is a matter of geography.
For Dominic, pornography is a matter of historiography.
Under the guise of poetic art, and a pretense of challenging what we knew about the past, he presents exploitative and discouraging porn here.
These are nauseating scenes, the benefit of which is unclear and non-existent.
They seem to be here for provocation, and only the wrong kind of people would be able to pull them off without flinching.
The film also revels in a situation where a Hollywood executive rapes Monroe, and a moment when the president forces her to perform oral sex on him.
This is the most sensational and exploitative scene in the film.
Dominique photographs her with a masculine gaze, in the worst sense of the phrase.
He does it in a humiliating and humiliating way.
It's hard to forget the passage in question, but this time it wasn't meant as a compliment.
This is one of the most repulsive cinematic moments I've seen in recent years.
More in Walla!
The sad story of Marilyn Monroe
To the full article
Tarantino did it better.
From "Blonde" (Photo: Netflix)
Overall, the film seems to revel in Monroe's agony.
The result is a porno of suffering that is almost three hours long.
In any case, he has no empathy or kindness towards her, and certainly no appreciation.
Not even for one moment during these 166 minutes does he stop to ask what made her such a big star in the first place, why the screen loved her and why she loved him.
"Blonde" creates the impression that the star deserves a biography only because of the scandals in her life, and not because of the timeless films that made her such a big star in the first place.
It is interesting to compare "Blonde" with "Once upon a time in Hollywood".
Tarantino deals there with another blonde star who died prematurely and in a shocking way - Sharon Tate.
He is not interested in her death and refrains from presenting it or exploiting it.
Instead, he focuses on her talent, her love of cinema and the symbiotic relationship between them.
In an atmospheric scene in the film, and this is not a spoiler, she goes to a daily show to watch one of the first and neglected films starring her, relaxes in front of the screen - and savors every moment.
It's exciting to see how much she enjoys the experience.
How much she loves to play and experience herself playing.
Tragically, she didn't get many chances to do it again, but Tarantino gives her renewed life, grace and redemption.
The result is one of the most beautiful scenes in the history of cinema.
In "Blonde", Monroe sits at the premiere of one of her greatest classics - and suffers every moment.
The film creates the impression that the actress hated cinema and the cinema hated her.
It didn't surprise me to learn that Dominique admitted he wasn't familiar with the star's filmography before this project, and it didn't surprise me to hear him state that she "became an icon even though no one watches her movies."
His contempt and disdain is certainly evident here.
It's almost impossible to play Monroe.
Many actresses have already failed in the task.
Ana de Armas does an excellent job, but what can she do with a script and direction like this?
She is a victim of the film, just like Monroe.
In the same interview for Sight and Sound, Dominique asked reporter Christina Newland a haughty question with his characteristic smugness - "Does anyone even watch Marilyn Monroe movies?".
Well, the truth is that I have watched many of them in the last few years, and they are classics that have never been sung.
I would especially recommend, for example, the "asphalt jungle" and "hot and tasty".
They are much better than "Blonde", and most of the movies on Netflix.
And now let me reverse the creator and for a change, to be the one towering above the director due to Netflix's measurement system, his "Blonde" may climb to the top of the ratings, but I doubt how many viewers will actually make it through half or even a third of this ongoing nightmare.
Marilyn Monroe deserves better movies - and so do we.
culture
Theater
film review
Tags
Marilyn Monroe
Netflix
Elvis
Adrien Brody
John Kennedy
Arthur Miller
Joe DiMaggio