{"id":12620,"date":"2022-09-25T22:43:04","date_gmt":"2022-09-26T02:43:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=12620"},"modified":"2022-09-25T22:43:04","modified_gmt":"2022-09-26T02:43:04","slug":"netflixs-blonde-spurs-mixed-feelings-as-it-attempts-to-eviscerate-trauma","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=12620","title":{"rendered":"Netflix\u2019s Blonde Spurs Mixed Feelings As It Attempts To Eviscerate Trauma"},"content":{"rendered":"

Endless works of art were inspired by the legendary platinum blonde bombshell. Marilyn Monroe, also known as Norma Jeane Baker, was homaged by artists like Andy Warhol and an incommensurable number of filmmakers who tried to tell her story through their craft. Netflix, just a few months ago released Emma Cooper\u2019s documentary The Mystery of Marilyn Monroe: The Unheard Tapes<\/i><\/b><\/a>, that retraced the book Goddess<\/i> by Anthony Summers about Monroe\u2019s obscure death.<\/p>\n

Recently, another bestselling novel about the Hollywood diva \u2014 written by Joyce Carol Oates \u2014 has inspired a new Netflix film that was recently presented at the 79th<\/sup> Venice International Film Festival: Blonde<\/i><\/b>.<\/i> The film adaptation, directed by Andrew Dominik, is not a biopic since \u2014 like its inspirer \u2014 it takes artistic liberty in reconstructing certain circumstances of Marilyn\u2019s life and it openly takes us on a journey inside her trauma.<\/p>\n

The film produced by Brad Pitt, Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, Tracey Landon and Scott Robertson\u00a0boldly reimagines the life of one of cinema\u2019s everlasting icons \u2014 from her troubled infancy, through her rise to stardom and romantic entanglements. After a brief childhood prelude, with Monroe\u2019s mentally unstable mother Gladys (Julianne Nicholson), Blonde<\/i><\/b> skips Norma Jeane\u2019s first marriage to James Dougherty and favours a fictional love triangle inspired by the rumours of the alleged affair between Marilyn (Ana de Armas) Charlie Chaplin Jr. (Xavier Samuels) and Edward G. Robinson Jr. (Evan Williams), that will hold a surprise when audiences least expect it. This imaginative detour sets the ground to show how the jaded offspring of cinema\u2019s cream of the crop represents the other side of the coin of Norma\u2019s daddy issues. Whilst Cass and Eddie feel crushed by the overbearing presence of their important father figures, Marilyn seeks in every man the paternal figure she always lacked, to the point of calling her husbands \u201cdaddy.\u201d We witness this with the jealously abusive baseball star Joe DiMaggio (Bobby Cannavale) and with Pulitizer-Prize winning playwright Arthur Miller (Adrien Brody). Blonde <\/i><\/b>also provides a quick glimpse of her affair with John Fitzgerald Kennedy (Caspar Phillipson), but doesn\u2019t expand on her involvement with his brother Robert. Of all the men who cross Marilyn\u2019s path, the only one who doesn\u2019t want to shape her to his personal advantage is Allan \u201cWhitey\u201d Snyder (Toby Huss), her personal makeup artist. In turn, he helps her with her disguise, by creating the mask of the diva that the world wants to see.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Blonde.\u00a0Ana de Armas as Marilyn Monroe. Cr. Netflix \u00a9 2022<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In her day, Monroe was a construct that the media circus fed on. This perfectly resembles the contemporary situation concerning public figures whose private lives are thrown to the wolves. Director Andrew Dominik very effectively stages this, also through one of the lines of dialogue that says: \u201cwhen you\u2019re famous, you\u2019re always running into people\u2019s unconscious.<\/i>\u201d Marilyn was a forerunner of what it means for celebrities to acquire a new identity that is forged by public perception. Dominik tries to break the fantasy of what icons carry within themselves, to explore their multifaceted vulnerability.<\/p>\n

The film shows how childhood trauma can affect an adult life, and it does so by splitting the public self and the private self. Blonde<\/i><\/b> shows the anatomical and spiritual grief of a woman who wanted nothing more than to become a mother and create a family, and was instead devoured by the showbiz meat-grinder. The director portrays how the American actress\u2019 body was pawned throughout her entire existence. She was treated like flesh, abused, raped, forced into an abortion, and suffered a miscarriage. The critique of Marilyn\u2019s objectification, sexualisation and exploitation is praiseworthy, but when the film attempts to give voice to the unborn life inside her womb it derails. The irony of it all, is that it is a male director who voices out what is going on inside the female anatomy, claiming the intentions are feminist.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

By doing this, instead of sticking to the psychoanalytical stream-of-consciousness of the individual versus the multitude, Blonde<\/i><\/b> make the unpardonable mistake of oversimplifying a complex subject matter. The way this is carried out seems to endorse America\u2019s anti-abortion statement in post-Roe v. Wade and Hungary\u2019s decision to force pregnant women to hear foetal heartbeat before abortion.<\/p>\n

Setting the disturbing sense of voyeurism that emerges every time that Marilyn Monroe\u2019s uterus is exposed, the film has other strengths worthy of notice, starting with its female lead. If filling the shoes of one of the greatest female screen legends from the Golden Age of Hollywood seemed like an impossible task, Cuban actress Ana de Armas is sublime, not only in the way she replicates the voice and gestures of the divine Marilyn, but in the sensitivity with which she unleashes her frailty. She is capable of demonstrating that Marilyn is much more than a pretty face and voluptuous silhouette. Norma Jeane craves for Chekov plays and a domestic environment, but finds herself caged in a system where she can only be a sex symbol. Besides the impeccable performance, Ana de Armas\u2019 resemblance to Monroe is the outcome of a meticulous work carried out by acclaimed makeup artist Tina Roesler Kerwin and hair department head Jaime Leigh McIntosh. Just like the rest of the cast, de Armas further shines thanks to the excellent selection of outfits curated by costume designer Jennifer Johnson.<\/p>\n

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Blonde.\u00a0L to R: Adrien Brody as The Playwright & Ana de Armas as Marilyn Monroe. Cr. Netflix \u00a9 2022<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Further sense of authenticity is instilled by the impeccable replica of the spaces created by production designer Florencia Martin. Within this setting, it\u2019s entertaining to observe how Blonde<\/i><\/b>\u2019s recreations of Marilyn\u2019s most famous motion pictures playfully fuse Ana de Armas\u2019 reenactment with the performance of the original actors like Tony Curtis, through the magic of Adam Robinson\u2019s editing.<\/p>\n

Technically the film is majestic, as is switches from a retro black and white to vivid colour palettes, and moments of hallucinogenic fuzz. Director of Photography Chayse Irvin uses the camera and light to alternate scenes of raw authenticity with instants where reality is distorted. Also the music embellishes the storytelling, through the score by Warren Ellis and Nick Cave \u2014 the bond between the latter and the director was consolidated while filming the documentary One More Time with Feeling<\/i><\/b>.<\/p>\n

All in all, Blonde<\/i><\/b> accomplishes Andrew Dominik\u2019s intentions of taking \u201csomething like the American goddess of love on the subway grating <\/i>[reference to iconic scene in the The Seven Year Itch<\/i><\/b>] and turn it into a scene of human sacrifice<\/i>.\u201d He truly shows the annihilation of a person for an idea, to the extent that he clumsily subjects a bioethical debate to the sensationalism of a high-grossing movie.<\/p>\n

Final Grade: B-<\/p>\n

Check out more of Chiara\u2019s articles<\/a>.<\/p>\n