Gentlemen Prefer Blondes is showing at Lab111 in Amsterdam from tomorrow, September 12, beginning a two-week run as part of the Girls of Plenty season, which also includes Marlene Dietrich (The Scarlet Empress), Dorothy Dandridge (Carmen Jones), and Joan Crawford (Johnny Guitar) within its roster.
“We all love a larger-than-life character, but when she happens to be a woman, she tends to be either monstrous or pathetic. Where are the ladies who are both excessive and exciting, grotesque but compelling, who exaggerate the traits that society view as stereotypical female?
This September, Girls Of Plenty will explore all the outrageous women who make us laugh and think, who entertain us, and show us how we all, in some way or another, perform our gender.
Second-billed Marilyn Monroe is the blonde in question in this second film version of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes: Miss Lorelei Lee, whose philosophy is ‘diamonds are a girl’s best friend.’ Together with her best human friend Dorothy (top-billed Jane Russell), showgirl Lorelei embarks upon a boat trip to Paris, where she intends to marry millionaire Gus Esmond (Tommy Noonan). En route, the girls are bedeviled by private detective Malone (Elliot Reid), hired by Esmond’s father (Taylor Holmes) to make certain that Lorelei isn’t just another gold-digger. When Dorothy falls in love with the poverty-stricken Malone, Lorelei decides to find her pal a wealthier potential husband, and that’s how she gets mixed up with flirtatious diamond merchant Sir Francis Beekman (Charles Coburn) and precocious youngster Henry Spofford III (George ‘Foghorn’ Winslow). Most of the Leo Robin-Jule Styne songs from the Broadway show remain intact, including Marilyn Monroe’s rendition of ‘Diamonds are a Girl’s Best Friend,’ a production number later imitated by pop icon Madonna.”
Tomorrow’s debut screening at 6:45 pm is introduced by author Basje Boer, whose latest book, Reclining Nude: An Essay on Dressing Up, features a partly hidden image of Marilyn on the cover – although those platinum curls give her away. (The original photo was taken in 1952, shortly before Blondes went into production.)
“A woman is not born, she is made. But if that is so, what can be said about how she is put together? In Reclining Nude, an essay in five parts, Basje Boer examines our assumptions about femininity using clothing and symbols that we believe belong to women. This investigation, which sometimes grates and clashes, leads from fashion history via Cinderella to Taylor Swift and Mae West. It meanders, asks questions, but ultimately also draws conclusions about the time and culture in which we live, and the role gender plays in it.
Girls Of Plenty coincides with the release of Basje Boer’s essay about the way women conform to and break free from gender stereotypes. She will also present a literary evening to accompany Girls of Plenty (in Dutch), as well as some in-depth introductions.”
The Marilyn Report 