MovieChat Forums > My Week with Marilyn (2011) Discussion > I think this kind of sanitizes Monroe...

I think this kind of sanitizes Monroe...

posted 12 years ago by cookiela2001
3 replies | jump to latest

...which isn't all that dramatic.

I love Mornoe as an artist and her life story is certainly interesting, but this film seems to present a pretty idealized vision of her. On the director's commentary track, he said they cut a scene where the English crew (who despised her) left the presents she gave them at the end of filming behind, because "that would have been too cruel" to show. Well.....so what?

I certainly have sympathy for Monroe and there are events that explained her behavior, but I think her behavior was a lot worse and unprofessional on this film than what's shown here. It would have been so much more interesting to actually get into all that.

I think one thing that explains her erratic behavior is by this point, she'd been on pills for over 10 years....and those drugs start to errode your brain and perception over long-term use. She was a drinker, too...but I imagine the drugs did more damage.

[–] heyuactor 12 years ago

That scene about the presents she gave them would have been interesting, I wish it had been left in.
Probably both Monroe and Olivier were 'kind of sanitized' here. I don't remember where I read it, or if it was true, but people did report that he was mean to her, even meaner than shown in the movie.
Oil and water.

"Did you make coffee...? Make it!"--Cheyenne.

[–] cookiela2001 12 years ago

<< Probably both Monroe and Olivier were 'kind of sanitized' here. I don't remember where I read it, or if it was true, but people did report that he was mean to her, even meaner than shown in the movie. >>

The first stupid thing Olivier did was ignore director Joshua Logan's advice, and let Paula Strasberg actually be on the set. (Logan made her stay in Monroe's dressing room when they did Bus Stop together the year before.) This flipped Olivier out when Monroe's attention was divided, BUT IT WAS HIS OWN F-ING FAULT.

Logan had also specifically told Olivier that it was best to not give Monroe too much direction, but let her follow her own instincts in her own time, and that way "something wonderful happened". Then Olivier called Logan and said, "What did you do when you're telling her how to say a line, or showing her how to play something, and she just walks away?" And Logan was like, "Uh...telling her how to say a line??"

The pathetic thing is Olivier is completely stiff and utterly BORING in the finished movie. He makes no connection with Monroe at all. She's utterly captivating, though, and I think she looks better in this movie than any of the others (maybe because her makeup is fairly natural looking.)
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[–] Howlin Wolf 12 years ago

Of course it sanitizes her... Colin is the audience's window into her life, and he sees her through rose-tinted glasses until shortly before the end of their purported association.

Born when she kissed me, died when she left me, lived whilst she loved me