Marilyn graces the cover of Le Figaro‘s latest weekend supplement, with an image captured by George Barris on Santa Monica Beach during her final summer of 1962. The same image made the cover of Los Angeles Magazine in 2016, shortly after the death of photographer George Barris – who had lived in Paris for many years before returning to California.
Inside Le Figaro, there’s an ten-page article by Éric Neuhoff of the Cinémathèque Française, where the exhibition and retrospective, Marilyn Monroe: 100 Years, is open until July 26. A selection of photos by Joseph Jasgur, Alfred Eisenstaedt, John Florea, Sam Shaw, Eve Arnold, Cecil Beaton, Philippe Halsman, Inge Morath, and Bert Stern bolsters the piece, which you can view in full on the Divine Marilyn Monroe blog.
“On screen, she’s astonishing. The camera is her ally. She’s tamed it. It required Sioux-like cunning—whims, tears, hesitations, the whole arsenal of the star system. She tried to tame the industry, deploying all her charm and intelligence to succeed. Hollywood is a place where someone offers you 1,000 dollars for a kiss and 50 cents for your soul. With her baby face and her beauty mark, she can be tempting or innocent, full of mischief and tenderness, a vixen or a brave lost soul. She opens her eyes wide, whispers sweet nothings. Her slight, meticulously calculated hip sway was her own invention, thanks to the advice of her dance teacher, Lotte Goslar. This swaying gait was inimitable. Street hustler, girl next door, cabaret singer, tormented wife—her roles compose a kind of self-portrait. Distress is her preferred territory; anyone who sees her feels compelled to protect her. Her gaiety can be brutal … An aura of scorned innocence hovered around her. She was as elusive as a drop of mercury.”
The Marilyn Report 