The CNN docuseries, Reframed: Marilyn Monroe, is coming to BBC2 this Friday, July 28th, with the first two episodes airing from 9 pm – and available for streaming on BBC iPlayer shortly after broadcast. The four-part series, which revisits Marilyn’s life and career with a female focus, had its US premiere in early 2022 – and you can read more about the show, including fans’ responses, here.
And then on Saturday, July 29th, Monroe fans are in for an afternoon treat: with Talking Pictures: Sex Symbols, a 2016 episode from the ‘Hollywood Legends’ series, on BBC2 at 12:45 pm; followed by Gentlemen Prefer Blondes at 1:25 pm. The final Reframed episodes will air next Friday, August 4th (on the eve of the 61st anniversary of Marilyn’s death.)
Alison Rowat has reviewed the opening episode for Scotland’s Herald …
“Looking beyond accepted notions is the business of another documentary series beginning this week. Reframed: Marilyn Monroe, narrated by Jessica Chastain, is a retelling of the star’s story, one that does not present her as an eternal victim, as most have done. You know the script: poor Marilyn, helpless and exploited all her life by men, buffeted by fate and her demons. In the words of the song, a candle in the wind.
Reframed invites a host of biographers, critics, actors, and at least one psychoanalyst – all women in the episode I saw – to give their takes on the star.
Monroe’s life story was fictionalised from the start. As a young actress newly signed to a studio, the publicists spun the story that she was ‘discovered’ while babysitting the children of a talent agent. Just the girl next door.In reality, her early years were spent in and out of children’s homes as her mother struggled with mental illness, her father nowhere to be seen. One way and another Norma Jeane Baker worked hard on creating a version of herself to present to the world.
She did it well enough to land a one year contract with Fox. Among her first tasks was to choose a new name, one more suited to a glamorous life. That she chose her mother’s maiden name, Monroe, is seen by some observers as a feminist act. It shows, says one author, that she wanted control over her image from the beginning.
She stood up for herself in other ways, most notably turning down the advances of one studio boss, much to his fury.
Reframed is a ‘CNN original series’ and its news pedigree shows in the pacy delivery, the quality of the talking heads and slick editing. The archive material, photographs, footage, and interview tapes, is superb. While some of it will be familiar, a surprising amount is newly unearthed or has rarely been seen.
By the end of the first of four episodes the case for Monroe the unheralded feminist, the strong woman taking on the studio patriarchy, begins to appear.
Yet it’s like watching a photo develop. There is something there, but it’s not quite clear what. The real test lies ahead, as the film explores the years of stardom and decline. The Marilyn who sang ‘Happy Birthday Mr President’ looked a long way from a woman happy in herself.”
The Marilyn Report 