BIonde
A familiar icon is brought vividly to life with cinematic artistry and an astonishing performance from Ana de Armas.
A girl’s best friend: Ana de Armas
A year ago, one might have thought that America’s two great icons of the twentieth century had been given their cinematic due. Then along came two Australian filmmakers who decided to break the accepted mould. Baz Luhrmann appropriated the legend of Elvis in his own inimitable style, and now Andrew Dominik has a stab at the Marilyn myth. Ostensibly, Dominik’s Blonde is based on the novel by Joyce Carol Oates, although the director has stated that little of his film is taken from the book, while Oates insisted that her novel was a work of fiction. Yet the very concept of the cinematic biography is a nebulous thing. Part guesswork, part hearsay, it can never be truly accurate, any more than the truth can be trapped in a bottle or on the written page. Here, Andrew Dominik has taken the bullet points of what we know of Marilyn’s life and animated them with a deeply felt impressionistic verve. His ace card is the unexpected presence of Ana de Armas as Monroe, along with an imagination that twists the very possibilities of biographical cinema.
Cherry-picking a number of visual styles, hues and ratios, Dominik casts a hallucinogenic spell, as he guides the onlooker through a catalogue of catastrophe, as the little girl sees her mother institutionalized before she herself is subjected to a misogynistic world of predatory men. All Marilyn wanted was an ordinary childhood and a family of her own, but the ghost of an absent father and a series of miscarriages (and one enforced abortion) were to undermine any chance of happiness. Blonde is not an easy watch, and being episodic and 166 minutes in length, it demands a commitment from the viewer, a commitment that is eventually rewarded.
Ana de Armas, who was born in Havana and whose first language is Spanish, seems a perverse choice to play Marilyn Monroe. Even her nationality as Christopher Plummer’s nurse in Knives Out was a fluid thing, as she is variously described as Ecuadorian, Paraguayan, Uruguayan and Brazilian. But much as the Californian Kristen Stewart nailed Princess Diana in another unorthodox biography (Spencer), so de Armas inhabits the breathy vulnerability of Monroe with a staggering verisimilitude. Whether pouting ‘Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend’ or ‘I Wanna Be Loved By You’ or posing in a string of Monroe’s iconic outfits (formal, informal, birthday suit), she would seem born to play the American actress. It’s became a cliché to say, but she really is a revelation and talk of her Oscar chances no exaggeration.
Blonde may be described as a work of fiction to protect itself and the estate of Monroe, but the familiar spirit of tragedy resonates throughout. The re-enacted moments of rumour and gossip are more problematic, such as a grotesque sexual encounter with a very prominent American politician (Caspar Phillipson), and a humiliating, drug-induced stupor onboard an aeroplane. But when de Armas is allowed to plumb the recesses of her character’s anguish, such as during an astonishingly moving audition, the human being is brought poignantly to life. And yet the most telling scene of all is a quiet moment when Monroe and her future husband Arthur Miller (Adrien Brody) discuss the intricacies of Chekhov. Some may find Dominik’s approach self-indulgent and even voyeuristic, but for all its elliptical liberties, the film traps the essence of the myth, both behind the scenes and on-camera when de Armas herself shares the screen with the likes of George Sanders and Tony Curtis.
JAMES CAMERON-WILSON
Cast: Ana de Armas, Adrien Brody, Bobby Cannavale, Xavier Samuel, Julianne Nicholson, Lily Fisher, Evan Williams, Toby Huss, David Warshofsky, Caspar Phillipson, Dan Butler, Sara Paxton, Rebecca Wisocky, Tygh Runyan, Ned Bellamy, Ravil Isyanov, Chris Lemmon, George Sanders, Tony Curtis.
Dir Andrew Dominik, Pro Brad Pitt, Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, Tracey Landon and Scott Robertson, Screenplay Andrew Dominik, from the novel by Joyce Carol Oates, Ph Chayse Irvin, Pro Des Florencia Martin, Ed Adam Robinson, Music Nick Cave and Warren Ellis, Costumes Jennifer Johnson, Sound Leslie Shatz, Dialect coach Jessica Drake.
Plan B Entertainment-Netflix.
166 mins. USA. 2022. UK and US Rel: 28 September 2022. Cert. 18.
