Marilyn Monroe’s bad luck is that she was born in the wrong time. I know, it’snot news that she was used or abused from the age of eight until her death.Even after her death, if you google the year of her death (1962) you will seethe post mortem photos that the coroner took of her. But man, man, man, whenyou see it all in sequence in the documentary From Norma Jeane to MarilynMonroe (NTR) you are shocked by how the world was then.
That one world-famous film scene, in which her dress blows up over the grateof the New York subway, is preceded by a dialogue that perfectly summarizesthis documentary about her. She comes walking out of the cinema and tells hermovie lover that at the end of the movie she felt so sorry for the “creature ”. And that’s exactly what it is. With her too you feel sorry forthe ‘creation’ she became. The metamorphosis she underwent to become someoneother than she was. A character.
Hair gaze
I heard the voice over say the male gaze determined what she should looklike and who she could be. Blonde, beautiful, voluptuous, sexy, and as dumb aspossible. Her first roles as an actress are almost all the same. Not toobright secretary, or oil stupid wife of, or sex bomb without text as in thecomedy LoveHappy from 1949 with the Marx brothers. She herself said: “Thebrothers looked at me as if I were a tasty cookie.” No, she didn’t have to sayanything from them, just let her “body speak”. The interesting thing aboutthis documentary is that you can now also hear what she thought of it. Hair_gaze_ , say. You hear her voice, and what she says is composed of interviewswith her and excerpts from her diary and her autobiography.
At 12 – her name was still Norma Jeane – she looked 17. Her mother couldn’ttake care of her, her father didn’t recognize her, she was alone with her bodyas her only legacy. That body “happened” to her, she says. She herself was notvery concerned with it, but when she realized what it caused to others, shestarted perfecting it. She took dancing and fencing lessons. Acting andsinging lessons. She bought an anatomy book to get to know and control hermuscles in front of the camera. She practiced speaking without raising herupper lip too much, otherwise the gums would show too much.
She got a different name, different hair, a different voice (a bit hoarse,like Marlene Dietrich) and a different facial expression (upper eyelidsclosed, mouth always slightly open). I’d like to say that was it, but she alsounderwent a dental correction and surgery for a higher hairline (à la RitaHayworth). She said ‘no’ to a marriage proposal from her manager, but ‘yes’ tohis offer to pay for a nose job and tightening of the lower part of her face.And then she was well and truly ‘finished’, she still didn’t get the roles sheaspired to. Eventually, of course, but at what cost? And also think about theafter-effect of her created appearance. Her face is, with that of the MonaLisa, the most famous in the world. Sixty years after her death, she is stillthe personification of beauty, the ideal, the “ruler by which all women aremeasured.” And thanks.
Marilyn Monroe still says quite resignedly that “it” was just part of it ifyou wanted to become a model or actress. “The wolves wanted to try the goodsthey were selling first.” The film is now playing in the cinema She said ,based on the testimonials of actresses who accidentally bumped into Americanfilm boss Harvey Weinstein at some point in their career. Norma Jeane mighthave been better born a little later.