This August 5th coincides with the 60th anniversary of the death of world-famous Hollywood actress Marilyn Monroe. Coincidentally, news related to her is also endless.
First, in May of this year, a portrait of Monroe painted by Pop master Andy Warhol was auctioned for $195 million in New York, setting a new record for the price of a work by a 20th-century artist.

Andy Warhol's portrait of Monroe sold for $195 million.

Then came the charity ball at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York in May. Kardashian wore a dress that Monroe wore back then, but it caused a lot of controversy because of whether the clothes were broken.

Kardashian wore a dress worn by Monroe at the Metropolitan Museum of Art Charity Ball in New York.

Of course, more film and television works related to Monroe came into being. The 36-year-old woman who died unfortunately at the age of 36 has a legendary experience involving Hollywood and American politics; and many mysteries left behind after her death are still unsolved to this day. Her whole life is like an endless library of materials.
In January, "Reframed: Marilyn Monroe," a four-part documentary produced by CNN and narrated by Hollywood actor Jessica Chastain, began airing.

Four-part documentary "Reinvented: Marilyn Monroe"

In April, a documentary titled The Mystery of Marilyn Monroe: The Unheard Tapes premiered on Netflix.

Netflix Documentary "The Mystery of Marilyn Monroe: The First Living Recordings"

And the most eye-catching is undoubtedly the "Blonde" (Blonde), which is about to appear in the main competition unit of the Venice Film Festival.
"A Fairy Tale"
"Blonde Monroe" is directed by New Zealand-born Andrew Dominic, whose previously critically acclaimed "Death of the Sharpshooter" was also shortlisted in the main competition section of the Venice Film Festival. The incarnation of Monroe in the film is Ana de Armas, who was born in Cuba. With such works as "Blade Runner 2045", "Knives Out", "007: No Time to Die" and "The Grey Shadow Man", she has become a popular actress in recent years. One of Hollywood's fastest rising actresses. The film is produced by Netflix and is scheduled to go live on September 28.

Armas version of Monroe (left) compared with the real Monroe

In fact, the premiere date of "Blonde Monroe" could have been brought forward. Thierry Fumau, the head of the French Cannes Film Festival, who has seen the first cut version of the film, has publicly expressed his appreciation for "Blonde Monroe" and extended an olive branch to the director, inviting the film to premiere in Cannes this year. Netflix, who had always been at odds with Fu Mao, refused, and then sent "Blonde Monroe" to the Venice Film Festival to premiere in a fit of anger.
"Blonde Monroe" is based on the novel of the same name by the 84-year-old American writer Joyce Carol Oates. It was translated and distributed by the People's Literature Publishing House in China as early as 2003. For "Living Like a Dream: A Literary Portrait of Marilyn Monroe". Oates' novels, from Monroe's life to his death, are more than 700 pages thick; the Chinese version has 800,000 characters and is 1,000 pages long, so it is specially divided into two volumes. The author himself attaches great importance to this book, and thinks it is comparable to "Them", which won her the National Book Award, making it famous in history. The critics did strongly recommend "Life Like a Dream", which was shortlisted for both the Pulitzer Prize and the American Book Award that year, but was ultimately lost to Michael Chabon's "The Book of Cavalli and Clay" respectively. Fantastic Adventures and Susan Sontag's In America.

"Blonde Monroe" original novel

In order to create this book, Oates read through a large number of historical archives, and also absorbed a lot of rumors. Therefore, she has always insisted that the book should be classified as fiction, not biography. As early as 2001, CBS used the book as a template to remake a four-hour TV movie of the same name, by the then unknown Australian actor Bo Bo, who was later known for his American drama "Memory Detective". Pouilly Montgomery plays Monroe, but this adaptation omits a large part of the original story about Monroe's death.

Monroe played by Poppy Montgomery

Today's new version of the film has been set up as early as 2010, and Andrew Dominic was identified as the only director early in the morning, and the script adaptation work was completely handled by him. He once said that Monroe is the subject he has wanted to photograph for a long time, "She is the greatest female idol of the twentieth century. For men, she is the object of sexual desire, a beauty waiting for a hero to save; For women, she is the embodiment of all the injustices that women suffer, their good sister, Cinderella. I want to make "Blonde Monroe" into a fairy tale, Monroe is like lost in the Hollywood jungle The orphaned girl in the middle, became an idol, but ruined herself."
Grading and starring accents are questioned
There have been many feature films featuring Monroe as the protagonist, and some of them are acceptable, such as "A Week With Monroe" starring Michelle Williams released in 2011. For the level of this latest work, director Andrew Dominic can be said to be quite confident. In an earlier interview, he boldly stated that "Blonde Monroe" can definitely be among the "top ten of the best films of all time", and then told the media with hatred: "This is a high-demand movie, if the audience doesn't like it If you don't, then you viewers have a fucking problem!"

Michelle Williams plays Monroe in "My Week With Monroe."

Equally sensational, there is also the NC-17 movie rating of "Blonde Monroe". The current set of American film rating system, started in 1968, is responsible for rating films by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPA), a long-established non-governmental industry organization. , and in actual operation, because of its poor reputation and often linked to pornography by the outside world, it has attracted considerable disgust in the theater industry. In other words, a movie rated NC-17 is basically difficult to enter the mainstream theaters in the United States. Looking back at the past two decades, the five or six mainstream works that were able to get public screening opportunities in American public theaters at the NC-17 level were basically from the hands of great directors, including Bertolucci's "Dream of Paris", A Modova's Bad Education, Ang Lee's Lust | Caution, 2011's Shame and 2013's Adele's Life.

The poster for "Blonde Monroe" states the NC-17 rating.

However, for "Blonde Monroe", such an NC-17 rating is really inexplicable. After all, this type of rating is designed for traditional theater screenings, and according to Netflix's habit, "Blonde Monroe" should not enter the theater at all. So what exactly does this NC-17 rating mean for Netflix users watching TV or computers at home? Could it be that in the face of viewers under the age of 17, Netflix will shut down in the air, so that they can't watch this ultra-restricted movie?
After the release of the trailer for "Blonde Monroe" a few days ago, new questions have been raised. "Blonde Monroe" is invested and produced by Brad Pitt's Plan B Films. Pitt previously collaborated with director Dominic on the two films "Death of the Sharpshooter" and "Tender Killing", and the two are also friends in private. The film cost $220 million to make, and Netflix bought the global distribution rights in 2016. The most important element of the film, the casting of the actress, is quite difficult. First it went to British-born Australian Naomi Watts, then to American Jessica Chastain, and finally to Cuban-born Ana de Armas.

"Blonde Monroe" stills

According to reports, the crew specially found a language expert for Armas and trained him for nine months so that he could master Monroe's iconic English pronunciation. But as soon as the trailer for "Blonde Monroe" was launched, what was most criticized by netizens was precisely the obvious traces of Anna's Spanish pronunciation. Many people criticized this approach as being very unprofessional. No matter how realistic and credible the service of the film is, the heroine, who is the soul of the whole film, shows timidity. But there are also many netizens who believe that the Armas version of Monroe is very appropriate in appearance, and there is no need to demand that she is 100% identical to Monroe. Since everyone can believe in all kinds of magical superhero fantasy stories, why do you Can't believe Armas in "Blonde Monroe" is Marilyn Monroe?
In fact, it doesn't make sense to judge the performance of the actors or even the entire film based on a two-minute trailer. However, for Netflix, which has always been a topic of conversation, good news and bad news can be regarded as free publicity. As long as it can attract more people to know about "Blonde Monroe" and pay attention to "Blonde Monroe", it will be rated as NC-17. The same, it's a gimmick that can't be better.

"Blonde Monroe" stills

real and fictional
In addition to these topics, "Blonde Monroe" also faces a question: can it be considered a biopic?
On July 29, the British "Guardian" published an article by 79-year-old Irish writer Anthony Summers. He has written "Goddess: The Secret Lives of Marilyn Monroe" and is a recognized expert on Monroe research. In his opinion, since we want to shoot Monroe, we should first respect the facts. The original author of "Blonde Monroe" has repeatedly insisted that the story is not a biography, but a fictional creation. But now that it is made into a movie, from the publicity planning to the initial understanding of the general audience, it is undoubtedly regarded as a 100% Monroe biopic.
So, what is said in the book, is it fabricated? Anthony Sams cites an example: The book says that Monroe was raped by "Mr. Z" — the Hollywood movie mogul Darryl F. Zanuck — but so far, there is no evidence. In addition, the novel emphasizes that U.S. President John F. Kennedy had sexual relations with Monroe many times, and the murder of Monroe was inseparable from Robert Kennedy. These contents, judging from the current information, are also quite suspicious.
No matter the original novel or the director's self-report, they all describe Monroe as a naive Hollywood victim, but Anthony Sams indirectly quoted Monroe's impression of the great director John Huston himself, and raised different opinions. From the beginning of Monroe's filming, Houston directed her "The Asphalt Jungle" (1950), Monroe's last work "The Misfits" (The Misfits, 1961), the director also happened to be houston. It can be said that he is definitely one of the directors who know Monroe best in Hollywood. "It was always said that Hollywood broke her heart, but I said it was bullshit." Houston once said, "The Marilyn Monroe I know is observant and strong-willed. In a sense, she Actually a very shrewd person.”

John Huston and Monroe during the filming of "Mandarin Ducks"

"When writing a life story, how do you start?" Monroe once asked and answered such a question in an interview shortly before her death, "Real stories are often seldom recited by everyone. The more false they are. Things, the more... So, the first step in writing a life story is to be based on reality."