(USA, 105 min.)
Dir. Liz Garbus
Featuring: F. Murray Abraham, Elizabeth Banks, Ellen
Burstyn, Glenn Close, Hope Davis, Viola Davis, Jennifer Ehle, Ben Foster, Paul
Giamatti, Jack Huston, Lindsay Lohan, Janet McTeer, Jeremy Piven, Oliver Platt,
David Strathairn, Lily Taylor, Uma Thurman, Marisa Tomei, Evan Rachel Wood.
A trip to London a few years back included a visit to the
Tate. The highlight of the collection of modern art came in the Andy Warhol
wing. Standing out amongst the gaudy cow wallpaper of the room is Warhol’s
famed Marilyn Diptych, which is every bit the masterpiece in person as one hopes it to
be. This trip included a few days in Paris, too, and I’d say that Marilyn is a
far better sight than the Mona Lisa is.
I like Warhol’s “Marilyn” so much due to my fascination with stars and celebrity. By copying Monroe’s image over and over, the work immortalizes her through repetition. Warhol manipulates each portrait of Marilyn with a different edge, much like how a celebrity’s persona morphs as it circulates through popular culture like a mythological message in a game of broken telephone. Warhol captures Marilyn’s mortality, too, by splitting the piece in two and making one side a greyscale series of copies that grow dull. Notice how one side of the piece fades and how the coloured side remains vibrant. Warhol made this piece the same year Marilyn died, so it’s brilliant how much the piece anticipates how one Marilyn would dwindle from the public eye, while the other Marilyn remains the icon of celebrity. She probably always will.
Liz Garbus’s stylish documentary Love, Marilyn acts as a cinematic cousin to Andy Warhol’s iconic portrait
of Marilyn Monroe. The aura of Marilyn exists primarily due to the Warholian
reproduction and circulation of Marilyn’s image. Her story has been told in
1000s of books, articles, films, discussions, musings, blog posts, etc. Even if
one hasn’t seen a single one of her films, or if one can’t even name one of them,
the story of tragic story Marilyn Monroe is, nevertheless, probably vaguely
familiar. One intellectual in the film likens Marilyn’s story to Greek Tragedy
and calls Marilyn the Oedipus of this generation. The statement sounds like
bullshit academic hyperbole, but it shows the star status that Marilyn carries
fifty years after her death.
The tale of Love,
Marilyn is like a new staging of an old Greek myth. A fine artistic conceit
can revive a well-trodden story. Garbus achieves a multifaceted reiteration of
the Marilyn mystique by assembling a group of twenty-odd actresses to read a
collection of newly discovered writings by the star. In addition to the
familiar biography of Marilyn Monroe provided by scholars and friends, who all
discuss the folktale that the persona of “Marilyn Monroe” was the greatest role
the actress ever played, the actresses add Marilyn’s own voice to mix. It’s
sort of like an interior monologue that runs through the manipulation and
reconstruction of Marilyn’s life.
While neither the biographical elements nor Marilyn’s
scribblings offer anything new, aside from her roast chicken recipe, one can’t
deny the impressively exhaustive range of footage Garbus presents. Virtually
every photograph ever taken of Marilyn Monroe must appear in some frame of Love, Marilyn. The archival footage is
helpful, too, as scenes of Marilyn both onscreen and off complement the stories
shared by witnesses and actresses. Love,
Marilyn is a great crash course for anyone in search of a quick lesson of
Marilyn’s life and legacy.
What makes Love,
Marilyn worth seeing in spite the tiring accumulation of Marilyn movies
(see: My Week with Marilyn) is
Garbus’s feat with the actresses who give Marilyn a voice. (A series of male
actors also appears to read biographies and letters from the men in Marilyn’s
life.) The actresses create a Marilyn mosaic that builds a woman out of all the
fragments of Marilyn’s life that have been left out of the portraits offered previously.
Here is Marilyn’s desperation in her own voice as Uma Thurman clasps her neck
and reads Marilyn’s frenetic notes that push her to do more with herself. Here
is Marilyn’s insecurity, as Marisa Tomei hesitates and conveys Marilyn’s
self-doubts. Here is Marilyn’s ambition in Evan Rachel Wood and her sauciness
in Lindsay Lohan.
As the actresses are crosscut by editor Azin Samari, who
does a remarkable feat of creating a collective Marilyn, the actress’s legacy
echoes through the passion that each star uses to honour Marilyn Monroe.
Marilyn’s more of an aura than an actress, really, thanks to the longevity of
such a short career.
Each snippet of Marilyn reveals the traits with which one
defines a star. Her voluptuousness, her composure, and her delivery are all
highlighted as the hallmarks of a Hollywood legend. As each (auto)biographical extract
sizes Marilyn up, however, one can’t help but return the study to the actresses
who are piecing Marilyn together. Some actresses don’t quite have the sense of
spontaneity Marilyn is said to have. Others show their mechanics more readily,
while others (ex: Janet McTeer) inhabit their character with immersive fullness.
Some actresses have the strong presence that seems to be a Marilyn rarity.
Viola Davis, for one, has a great screen presence as she reads Marilyn’s words
with down-to-earth authority.
One of the biggest riddles of Love, Marilyn is whether the endless veneration of the full-bodied blonde
has kept other worthy talents from the spotlight. Amongst the Oscar winners and
blonde-bombshells of the film appears Jennifer Ehle (Zero Dark Thirty), who easily upstages every A-lister in the film.
Ehle is classically beautiful—she resembles a young Meryl Streep—and she reads
Marilyn’s words with a sense of naturalness and authenticity that none of the
other actresses quite match. There’s a playfulness that inhabits her readings,
too, that Marilyn would have probably enjoyed. Ehle has the same kind of screen
magnetism that people look for in a star and you can feel it each time Love, Marilyn cuts either to her or away
from her. Why isn’t she a bigger star? Parts in films such as The King’s Speech and Zero Dark Thirty will hopefully help,
just as it took Marilyn a while to graduate to bigger parts.
Love, Marilyn assembles
a full, vivacious portrait of the Hollywood icon. Liz Garbus provides a smart
look at Marilyn Monroe, giving the star her own role in her story, thus letting
Marilyn enjoy her fifteen minutes of fame each time one of her protégés brings
her words to life. By circulating and repeating the deification of Marilyn
Monroe, Love, Marilyn is a love
letter to a star that will never fade.
Rating: ★★★★ (out of ★★★★★)
Rating: ★★★★ (out of ★★★★★)
Love, Marilyn screened in Toronto at TIFF BellLightbox.
