Some deaths would remain steeped in mystery. Who assassinated President John F. Kennedy? Would we ever know? More recently, did the charming Indian actor, Sushant Singh Rajput, kill himself? Or, was he murdered? The investigation, which lost track and focus midway, has not thrown up anything definitive. Similarly, the sexy Hollywood icon, Marilyn Monroe’s end, which came in 1962, still remains a huge mystery. Did she overdose herself with sleeping pills? Or, was she killed? Some say that she had become inconvenient for her then lovers and they hired the mafia to finish her. She was only 36, and naive in a very endearing sort of way. An upcoming Netflix film, Blonde, is being made with the Cuban-Spanish actress, Ana de Armas, whom we saw recently in Deep Water and earlier in Sergio (with a cameo in the last Bond thriller, No Time To Die), playing the alluring Monroe.
Blonde has been given a rare “adults-only” rating by the Motion Picture Association of America, for its sexual content.
Director Andrew Dominik’s movie is based on Joyce Carol Oates’ novel, and he told Screen Daily: “It’s a demanding film. If the audience doesn’t like it, that’s the … audience’s problem. It’s not running for public office. It’s an NC-17 movie about Marilyn Monroe, it’s kind of what you want, right? I want to go and see the NC-17 version of the Marilyn Monroe story.” He added that Netflix “ “insisted” on hiring editor Jennifer Lame (Tenet) to curb the excesses of the film, which includes a rape scene that was also in Oates’ book.
Joyce’s novel (2000) is a 700-page fictionalised account of Monroe’s life and times, and it was described by the New Yorker as an incisive study of the American actress.
The star’s works included the dramatically popular The Seven-Year Itch, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Some Like It Hot and Let’s Make Love, among a host of others. She won a Golden Globe for Best Actress for her role in Some Like It Hot (1959), a critical and commercial success. Her last completed movie was The Misfits (1961).
Monroe’s troubled private life received a lot of attention. She struggled with addiction and mood disorders. Her marriages to retired baseball star Joe DiMaggio and to playwright Arthur Miller were highly publicised, and both ended in divorce.
Along with de Armas, Blonde will star Adrien Brody (The Pianist), Bobby Cannavale and Julianne Nicholson.
Dominik’s work was to have premiered at Cannes this May, but is apparently not in the running any more. It is quite possible that the clash between the all-powerful French cinema producers’ lobby and Netflix about release dates could have been a reason for Blonde getting out of the Cannes race. The lobby has been insisting that the titles from Netflix or others (like Amazon) must first open theatrically before they can be shown on streaming platforms. Cannes has lost many significant films because of this, and the Festival’s loss has been Venice’s gain.
