Re: Blonde 2022
 

I haven't seen the film and can't vouch for the idea, but I am pretty interested, these days, in how our expectations color our opinion of things. It's easy to imagine a divisive film like this could land as being very good or very bad depending on whether or not you're "trying" to watch it as a biopic, or a horror film, or a deliberately overdramatized meta commentary on celebrity, or whatever.

Indeed. I really do believe that Dominik has deliberately made this film to be incendiary and he's succeeded in that. It's made me want to rewatch Jesse James and Killing Them Softly which are also two attacks on American culture and mythology, if you like. I know a lot of people couldn't stand Killing Them Softly but I've always championed it.

I would definitely recommend reading his BFI interview (preferably after the film) because it's fascinating to see such a frank interview between two people with such diametrically opposed opinions on the film in a fairly courteous manner. Kudos to both the interviewer and Dominik for having the debate out in the open about the film.

I haven't seen Blonde so I can't speak directly about it's merits, but being highly controversial sparks interest...and makes for good media buzz, which then results in more profit. If Blonde had been an R rated film about a fictional 1950s movie star with no resemblance to Marilyn Monroe I doubt we'd be talking about it right now.

Interesting. I’ve read good reviews of the movie & I’ve read bad reviews. (Even @Gideon58 who told us he likes all things Monroe has given it only 2 popcorns.)

Eventually I will see it for myself. What interests me so far is how much de Armas looks like Monroe in the photos I’ve seen.

A link to my review:

https://www.movieforums.com/reviews/2337731-blonde.html

I loved The Assassination of Jesse James and that's the main reason I wanted to see this and had high expectations for it.

Re: Blonde 2022
 

Honestly, I love that film can even still stir up this kind of discussion in the mainstream. Shows the medium is still relevant in the world today.

I agree with pretty much all of what you say in this post, but really? Von Trier?

Same kind of energy as von Trier's latest output if you ask me. But that might be subjective.

Right. I suppose if you only count the recent stuff, I can see that.

Watched this last night and it certainly had an impact. I think Yoda's point about expectations is spot on - I started watching having read the reviews and some of the outrage so wasn't expecting a standard biopic. If anything, I found it less graphic and exploitative than I was expecting it to be.

I think it's an upsetting film, certainly, but... in a good way. I respect a film that can upset you but make you think it's brilliant at the same time. I actually cried twice, and was ready to declare it a masterpiece the second time...but there was still an hour to go. In the end it's just a little too long, a little too self indulgent, a little too repetitive. I think it does perhaps go a bit too far in the final section, but I think there was a haziness to it that meant it wasn't clear whether any of it really happened like that, or was a drug induced hallucination/augmentation...it actually struck me forcefully that it was more of a metaphorical presentation than a retelling of events.

I think it laboured the point about her daddy issues a bit much, to the point of being reductive. I didn't mind the overall focus on suffering, though, because it's pretty clear it's a deliberate choice. This is The Passion of Marilyn Monroe. I don't think it's trying to show a balanced picture of her life. I'm not sure she had to be topless quite so much of the time to achieve that but there we are.

I think that review from Mark Kermode about it being essentially a horror film is right - there's a scene in which the reflection of Marilyn in the mirror moves independently of Norma Jean sitting in front of the mirror and it's more chilling and resonant than a similar device in Don't Worry Darling. Trauma is the monster and it won't let her go.

Ana de Armas was brilliant, she should be in contention for awards, certainly. I thought the supporting cast were great, too. I loved how it was shot, incredible that the slipping in and out if colour and black and white worked so well without either symbolising a particular thing specifically but adding to the overall sense of slipping between happy/unhappy, childhood/adulthood, success/disaster, real/metaphor, wellness/illness, hope/despair and the unreality of acting, playing a part. There is no standard biopic of Marilyn because she never really existed.