A major retrospective opens at the Danish Film Institute in Copenhagen this week.
“With a film career spanning just 15 years, Marilyn Monroe managed to leave a much bigger mark than one might expect, and her final role in The Misfits (1961) provides a heartbreaking glimpse of all that the world missed when she died at the age of just 36. Her entire career offers impressive performances, but in that particular film it is clear that she could have continued as a shining film star also in the New Hollywood of the 1960s and 1970s.
Marilyn Monroe was born Norma Jeane Mortenson in 1926, and like so many others, she saw Hollywood as an opportunity to become a new version of herself: a product of fantasy named Marilyn Monroe. She started out as a pinup model and appeared nude in the first issue of Playboy, but she was more than the incarnation of the blonde bombshell. Her ambitions were high, and she took the dramatic craft seriously – taking acting lessons from the legendary Lee Strasberg, founding her own production company, and taking control of her Hollywood persona in a way that seems forward-thinking and modern today.
The series shows the breadth of her career and sheds light on the actress behind the icon’s overwhelming shadow. From her raw and unsentimental performances in dramas like The Asphalt Jungle, Clash By Night, and the rarely seen Don’t Bother to Knock, to her near-perfect comedic timing and irresistible sweetness and musicality in the comedies Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and Some Like It Hot. As director Billy Wilder said: ‘The greatest thing about Monroe is not her chest… It is her ear. She is a master of delivery. She can read comedy better than anyone else in the world.’
Marilyn Monroe has left a lasting mark on both Hollywood and popular culture. Andy Warhol immortalised her in his portraits, and Madonna paid tribute to her in the music video for ‘Material Girl’, which is one long pastiche of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. And David Lynch’s icy blonde female roles in Twin Peaks and Mulholland Drive must also be interpreted as a nod to the star, the sensation, the actress Marilyn Monroe.”
– Sophie Engberg Sonne
The series begins with a pre-birthday party for Marilyn on Thursday, May 28 at 4pm. The first 100 guests get a free glass of champagne from the bar – and following a jazz recital from the Sylvester Villumsen Trio, radio host Chris Pedersen will introduce a 5pm outdoor screening of Some Like It Hot.
Billy Wilder’s comedy classic is also showing at 8pm on June 1 – Marilyn’s 100th birthday – at Café Biografen in Odense, Denmark. The film’s Danish title – which translates as ‘Nobody’s Perfect’ – is inspired by Joe E. Brown’s immortal last line.
Marilyn will also be remembered in Estonia, with Some Like It Hot showing at Kino Soprus in Tallinn on Sunday, May 31, at 7pm. (The film’s Estonian title translates as ‘Only (or All) Girls in Jazz’ …)
“Billy Wilder’s fast-paced and exceptionally funny 1959 film that brought pop culture and immortalised two legendary birthmarks (even if one of them isn’t real) in the form of Marilyn Monroe and Tony Curtis … Billy Wilder was able to almost perfectly utilise Monroe’s talent as a talented comedienne in this film and managed to bring the sexy free-spiritedness of the Berlin cabarets of the Weimar Republic in the 1920s to the strict post-war United States led by President Eisenhower, where men in skirts were not appreciated at all.”
A four-film retrospective, Marilyn Monroe 100, opens at the Electric Theatre in Tartu next week.
“Despite her struggles with studios and personal problems, Monroe remained at the top of the charts during the final decades of Hollywood’s Golden Age. Although her career was short-lived, Monroe’s legacy as a film star and pop culture icon is truly unique. Despite her sometimes negative reputation, Monroe did a commendable job, constantly fighting for her rights with the giants of Hollywood studios. Monroe’s roles are among the most recognisable and appreciated in world film history, and she herself has inspired countless artists, musicians, and filmmakers in the decades after her death.”
- NIAGARA – June 5: “Monroe’s role as the femme fatale Rose Loomis was polarising at the time. The film captivated audiences, and in a New York Times review, film critic Abraham Weiler wrote: ’20th Century-Fox has clearly ignored the fact that there are already seven wonders of the world and has discovered two new ones and made them even better in Technicolor in Niagara. The filmmakers have taken the last of the falls and the grandeur of the surrounding nature, and they have done the same with Marilyn Monroe.’ Rose’s character, however, was so erotic that conservatives found the film and Monroe’s performance quite scandalous – not to mention that the film’s marketing relied almost entirely on promoting Monroe’s sex appeal.”
- GENTLEMEN PREFER BLONDES – June 12: “Revue performers Lorelei Lee (Marilyn Monroe) and Dorothy Shaw (Jane Russell) are best friends with completely opposite tastes in men. Lorelei is interested in wealthy men whose wallets can withstand Lorelei’s passion for jewellery … Although Jane Russell was an even bigger star than Monroe when the film was made, Monroe’s performance, especially her pink dress and performance of the film’s most famous song, ‘Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend’, became an iconic part of pop culture.”
- SOME LIKE IT HOT – June 19: “The filming was notoriously difficult. Monroe had a reputation for being problematic and difficult at times, and she often crossed horns with director Billy Wilder (who had the same reputation). However, it was Wilder who praised Monroe’s performance the most: ‘Anyone can memorise lines, but the real artist is the one who comes on set without knowing the lines and gives a performance like hers!'”
- THE SEVEN YEAR ITCH – June 28: “The title refers to the belief that marital happiness deteriorates after the seventh year. Director Billy Wilder, screenwriter George Axelrod, and many critics and viewers found that the restrictions of the Hays Code left much of the film’s ideal, more candid tone lacking … Monroe shines in the film, and her screen charisma makes up for its shortcomings.”
And finally, two of Marilyn’s most popular films are coming to the Bio Roy cinema in Gothenburg, Sweden in honour of her 100th birthday.
- GENTLEMEN PREFER BLONDES – June 1 at 5:45 pm: “Howard Hawks’ film is a clear example of the Hollywood musical in its golden age of studios, and is based on Anita Loo’s stories about the ‘dumb blonde’ who is in fact often the smartest in the room. Beneath the surface of colorful numbers and light-hearted comedy, Marilyn Monroe and Jane Russell play with the audience’s expectations rather than simply confirm them.”
- SOME LIKE IT HOT – June 8 at 5:45 pm: “Powered by brilliant performances from Marilyn Monroe, Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis, this is perhaps master director Billy Wilder’s funniest comedy. Because the script involved cross-dressing and homosexuality, the film was produced without the approval of the Production Code, the film industry’s then-code for self-censorship. Shortly thereafter, this code died out, thanks to an increased social tolerance for previously taboo subjects in film – not least fueled by Some Like It Hot‘s success.” (The film’s Swedish title translates as ‘In the Hottest Team.’)
The Marilyn Report 