[Limelight] Somewhere Between Marilyn Monroe and Norma Jeane

New Netflix Controversial Release... Marilyn Monroe Fiction Film 'Blonde'
Stardom as a Blonde Sexy Symbol with Innocent Charm, Attempts to Survive by Stirring Male Fantasies
Faces Frustration Realizing It's Hard to Escape Fixed Image
Blocked from Becoming a True Actress but Yearns for a Creative Life

The Netflix film Blonde is a creative work based on the real life of Marilyn Monroe (1926?1962). The original novel of the same name by Joyce Carol Oates employs allegory and presents symbolic events. In fact, Monroe’s actual words appear only twice in the final chapter: "Help me, help me!"

A plea worthy of being the film’s title. Director Andrew Dominik places the ‘President’ at both the beginning and end of Monroe’s (Ana de Armas) acting career. The former is the head of a Hollywood studio, the latter the President of the United States. Both unilaterally demand sexual relations. Monroe’s pupils immediately dilate. She is exhausted by a life oppressed in a male-dominated society.

Monroe is invariably mentioned in discussions of the star system and sex symbols of the 1940s and 1950s. Hollywood was in crisis at the time. The popularization of television and the boom in private cars led to a decline in theater audiences. Patriarchal studios sought survival by stimulating male fantasies. While producing romantic comedies, they emphasized actresses’ breasts and buttocks. The roles were all prepared to accept men’s desires and intentions. They were archetypes of pseudo-female images created by male factory owners, with Monroe at the center.

The tragic prejudice was engraved beyond Monroe’s physical signifier. Even living as Norma Jeane Mortenson, her real name, she was exploited by hedonism and consumerism. Monroe faced the harsh reality that it was difficult to escape her fixed image and became frustrated. In the film, the prison of signs does not allow escape. The more she struggles, the more ruthlessly she is persecuted. Even her cold death was mythologized as a commercial tactic, so it cannot be dismissed as mere fiction.

The sex symbol undoubtedly played a decisive role in Monroe’s global popularity. On the other hand, it blocked her chance to become a true actress. Of course, it is not easy to play roles fixed to a single type. One must breathe life into the few differences and break the clich?d formula. Monroe carefully approached even typecast roles each time, drawing public admiration.

Director Dominik illuminates this series of processes quite deeply. The final audition scene in Don’t Bother to Knock (1952) is a representative example. Monroe excellently portrays Nell, a babysitter suffering from emotional instability, and then folds her hands in plea.

"Can I try again? I can really be Nell. I am Nell herself. Nell has sleepwalking. She doesn’t see Jed but sees her deceased fianc?. She is trapped in delusions. But where does the dream end and madness begin? After all, all love starts from delusion, doesn’t it?"

The production staff, who had been watching indifferently, reveal their true feelings one by one after Monroe leaves. "She really seemed crazy. It wasn’t acting or skill." "There’s a reason such people act. The person playing the role knows themselves well."

They did not know the value of her hidden efforts. Even after becoming a star, Monroe steadily developed her artistic talents at the Actors Studio. She longed for political freedom, followed progressive ideology, and pursued a creative life. She resisted McCarthyism, which branded anti-communism as patriotic fanaticism, and idealized populism. At the same time, she strategically projected her physical charm onto male fantasies to survive within the Hollywood system. Yu Ji-na, a film critic, wrote the following in her recommendation for Karl Rollison’s The Woman Who Seduced the World, Marilyn Monroe: "She faced herself purely enough to drive herself to death amid extreme cognitive dissonance between narcissism and self-loathing."

A work that thoroughly explores Monroe’s ego and artistic world is Audrey Flack’s painting Marilyn (1977). On a 2.4-meter canvas, various tools necessary for transformation such as a mirror, perfume, and lipstick are depicted. Additionally, the placed candle, clock, hourglass, and calendar hint at a life that ended shortly after a fierce search for identity.

The Monroe painted on the right is her face from 1950, just before she gained attention. She smiles brightly but slightly furrows her brow. This is not visible in the reflection in the vanity mirror on the left. Only the strong desire to be recognized by others radiates intensely.

Director Dominik also emphasized this ambivalent character with a similar symmetry in the final scene. He shallowly overlapped the image of her dying under the influence of drugs with one of her holding a pillow and smiling seductively. Monroe probably endured a life oppressed by male fantasies by recalling the latter. Because, even if distorted and manipulated, it was a potential motivation that stimulated her creative ability and inspired her will. Perhaps because of that desire, we can see ourselves in a wider world. Thus, Monroe is not far away. She is an enlarged mirror of ourselves.