Marilyn Monroe: Self-Made Star, a two-month retrospective, opens at BFI Southbank in London on June 5th.
‘I want to be an artist, an actress with integrity.’
– Marilyn Monroe
“The cultural phenomenon of Marilyn Monroe has endured for generations, though she is often reduced to a sex symbol frozen in time, or a tragic figure with a focus on the scandals, marriages and troubles that punctuated her personal life. But Monroe’s achievements, legacy and contribution to cinema stretch so far beyond this reductive view. She was a dynamic and intuitive performer who knew how to use her intelligence and physicality, as well as her style and carefully crafted image, as expressive instruments. She was also a determined and ambitious creative who revolutionised the promotion machine, challenged the studio system … In the century since the birth of Norma Jeane, we invite you to look more deeply into the cinema of Marilyn Monroe to appreciate her craft, charisma and ebullience. This month features dazzling musicals, comedic turns, thrilling drama and a British-made film produced by Monroe, highlighting the depth of the talent behind the big-screen legend.”
– Kimberley Sheehan, season curator
This season includes a number of special events…
- The Marilyn Monroe Century: June 6 – Book launch with authors Joshua John Miller and Mark A. Fortin, plus screening of Niagara
- An Introduction to Marilyn Monroe: June 17 – for ages 25 and under, includes a screening of Niagara
- Philosophical Screens: June 25 – a screening and discussion of themes raised in How to Marry a Millionaire; with film historian Lucy Bolton, author of Encounters With Marilyn Monroe
- Marilyn Monroe Study Day: July 4 – full itinerary TBA
- Marilynspirations Double Bill: July 11 – featuring Jean Harlow in Hold Your Man; and Claudette Colbert as Cleopatra
- What Could Have Been: July 12 – film critic Pamela Hutchinson revisits Marilyn’s unfinished last movie, Something’s Got to Give
- Marilyn in Her Own Words: July 12 – featuring the documentaries Marilyn on Marilyn (2001); and Norma Jean alias Marilyn Monroe (1987), presented by Catherine Deneuve
- Eve and Marilyn (1987): July 26 – documentary plus Q&A with Michael Arnold, grandson of photographer Eve Arnold
Marilyn is also the subject of a month-long Collection Focus at the BFI Reuben Library.
“June marks the centenary of Marilyn Monroe’s birth. To celebrate this iconic figure, we have curated a selection of rare and unusual material about the star. It is available throughout June and includes books about the star’s films and life, original film magazines from the 1950s and works written by Marilyn herself. Why not visit the library and discover more about this legendary actor?”
Marilyn graces the covers of the BFI’s June guide and calendar, which you can download here; and the latest issue of the BFI magazine, Sight & Sound.
This is Marilyn’s fourth Sight & Sound cover, and her first since 1960.
Inside, Farran Smith Nehme considers ‘The Marilyn Moment’…
“The cultural prominence of ‘old’ movies may be shrinking, but Marilyn’s face is still one of the world’s most famous. People barely out of their teens, who have never seen a movie made before the Harry Potter series, can identify her. That has, paradoxically, hurt the way her talent is assessed, not helped. There’s so much baggage with Monroe. Not just the misfortunes, or the mistakes that Marilyn herself made over time – she was, like all of us, doing her best – but the weight of rumours, stereotypes, conspiracy theories, all of it magnified by the sad fact of her early death. Such crazy and ever-changing fame can put people off. They roll their eyes and claim they’d rather leave her to gossip shows, obsessives, influencers and rich people angling for the red carpet at the Met Gala. But avoiding the Marilyn industry is one thing; avoiding her films is needless self-denial. The world doesn’t offer us much pleasure right now, and there are few things more joyous in cinema than discovering just how good Marilyn could be.”
Elsewhere, Hannah McGill looks at Marilyn’s most stylish screen moments, and the films she almost made; and interviews Josh Miller, grandson of photographer Bruno Bernard. And finally, Kim Morgan examines Marilyn’s performance in The Misfits, due for re-release in selected cinemas across the UK this summer.
The Marilyn Report 