1. My Week with Marilyn (2011), dir. Simon Curtis

[strange_complex]

I saw this, my first film of 2012, today with ms_siobhan and planet_andy at the Hyde Park Picture House, and we all really enjoyed it.

I'm by no means an expert on Marilyn Monroe, so can't judge how accurate this portrayal of either the week in question or her character more generally was, but I am particularly interested in biopics at the moment because of an article which I am writing about screen portrayals of the emperor Augustus, so I watched it partly from that angle. I've been reading a rather good book by Dennis Bingham on the biopic as a genre, which emphasises how very much the biopic intersects and overlaps with other genres, and also argues that the lives of men and women are treated so differently in biopics that they virtually need to be understood as different genres themselves. Bingham suggests that biopics of women frequently view their lives in terms of suffering or victimhood, and particularly portray them as struggling (usually unsuccessfully) to negotiate an irresolvable tension between their public role and their personal life. All of this is easily identifiable in My Week with Marilyn - hardly surprisingly since it is central to her life-story anyway, at least in the mythologised version which most of us know.

The decision to focus on a short snapshot of her life was more interesting and innovative. Obviously, from the point of view of Colin Clark this was determined by the circumstances of his encounter with her, but the success of his memoirs and the decision to make it into a film say a lot about how effective this format can be for a biopic. It dispenses with the expectation of a comprehensive coverage, allowing the story to allude to earlier events and point the way to future ones as much or as little as suits it, while concentrating instead on drawing a rich and vivid character. I felt this worked very well here, especially combined with the use of Colin Clark as a point-of-view character who begins with a highly idealised view of Marilyn, and gradually moves to a much more real and intimate knowledge of her.

The cast was a veritable feast of British character-actors, many familiar from the small screen (My Family, Downton Abbey, Poirot), and they all deliver - but perhaps especially Kenneth Branagh as a wonderfully irritable Laurence Olivier. The script is sharp, and does a good job of exploring relevant issues such as the objectificaton of women, the effects of ageing, and the tension between the British theatrical acting tradition and the Hollywood screen equivalent. Colin Clark is very obviously a privileged posh-boy who gets where he does thanks to family money and connections, despite his protestations to the contrary, but that's not glossed over, and nor does he get away entirely without being criticised for it.

If you like biopics, Marilyn Monroe, portraits of the film production business, pretty scenery or British character actors, this one's for you.

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Comments

The Iron Lady

[la-guapita.livejournal.com]

Oh and just back from baby cinema (The Big Scream club) where I saw The Iron Lady. It has "Oscar worthiness" written all over it but I really enjoyed it actually and, rather predicatably, Meryl Streep's performance was brilliant. It's come in for a lot of criticism as a film, etc but I really liked it and didn't think it was a particularly unsympathetic portrayal. It was all about memory and subjectivity as well. You might enjoy it x

Re: The Iron Lady

[strange-complex.livejournal.com]

Hee - I find the idea of a cinema full of babies watching The Iron Lady extremely amusing! I'm sure it doesn't matter very much to them what is on the screen, but Mrs. Thatcher does seem a particularly long way away from fluffy bunnies and colourful flowers and other stereotypically-babyish things. I am certainly planning to see it, though, as I think it will help my thinking about what biopics can do considerably - especially as regards presenting the story of a controversial figure, which is also a major issue with Augustus.

Funnily enough, given what you've said above about Michelle Williams, Meryl Streep does seem to have been garnering a hell of a lot of praise for her performance as Thatcher - but maybe Streep is benefiting from a positive reputation which she has had to work for decades to achieve, and which Williams doesn't have access to yet? By which I mean, maybe Streep has eventually been able to transcend the media's usual reticence in praising female stars (which I think you are probably right about, actually), whereas Williams won't be in that position for a long time yet.

Re: The Iron Lady

[la-guapita.livejournal.com]

Hey. I think it's to do with a number of things. One, the more attractive an actress is, the less critics/the public seem to believe she can also act (it can't be a coincidence that many beautiful actresses only get access to an actor by playing roles where they are "uglified" - think Charlize Theron in Monster, Nicole Kidman in The Hours and to some extent Julia Roberts in Erin Brokovich (alright - made "trashy" in that example). Also, in The Iron Lady, Meryl Streep isn't competing with a male lead whereas in My Week with Marilyn, Michelle Williams is. Though, I do agree with you that Kenneth Brannagh is very well-established as an actor as is Meryl Streep by now so that must definitely play a role. Yes - on a lighter note, it is so surreal watching these kind of films with tiny babies! I found it amusing watching Twilight where there are some very gruesome, bloody scenes bouncing little Eloise up and down in her baby carrier! x

Re: The Iron Lady

[strange-complex.livejournal.com]

Yes, I think you're right about performances by attractive actresses - like if a woman is attractive, that must be all there is to her. There is certainly a long history of dismissing women on the grounds that there is nothing more to them than their looks (neatly combined with criticising them for the exact same thing!) to encourage that sort of behaviour. But I didn't know that there wasn't the same clear leading male role in The Iron Lady, not having seen it, and I'm sure you're right that that makes a big difference too.