Netflix’s upcoming film “Blonde” is an adaptation of the bestselling novel by Joyce Carol Oates, which reimagines the life of Marilyn Monroe, one of Hollywood’s most iconic stars. The biopic is set to premiere September 28th on the streaming platform.
Image Credit: Netflix
Synopsis of Film
“Blonde” is a psychological drama film that delves into the fictional re-imagination of Marilyn Monroe’s (Ana de Armas) childhood as Norma Jeane, her path to stardom, and her romantic relationships. Netflix describes the film as blurring “the lines of fact and fiction to explore the widening split between her public and private selves.”
Image Credit: Netflix
Director Statement on the Film
Director Andrew Dominik sat down in an interview with Vulture to discuss all things “Blonde.” Dominik was asked of his “approach” to the story and how it has changed. The director answered by stating, “With Blonde, the big idea initially was to imitate images that we’d already seen of her life. So if you Google Image search “Marilyn Monroe,” you’re going to see scenes from Blonde that we’ve imitated. The idea was to take stuff that we’re familiar with, imagery that we’re familiar with, and change the meaning of it in accordance with her drama.”
“So it’s like this uncomfortable déja vù thing where you’re seeing stuff you’ve already seen before, but the meaning of it is wrong. The meaning of it’s the opposite of what you think,” Dominik added. “A simple example would be “Bye Bye Baby” becomes a song about abortion. That’s the most prosaic way to put it, but it was an attempt to sort of use the collective unconscious, the collective visual memory, to try and harness that.”
Also, in an interview with Collider, Dominik described the movie as a film “for all the unloved children of the world. It’s like Citizen Kane and Raging Bull had a baby daughter.” He also expanded on the intention of the film: “the whole idea of Blonde was to detail a childhood drama and then show the way in which that drama splits the adults into a public and private self. And how the adult sees the world through the lens of that childhood drama, and it’s sort of a story of a person whose rational picture of the world as being overwhelmed by her unconscious, and it uses the iconography of Marilyn Monroe.”
The Cast of “Blonde”
Other members of this talented cast include: Bobby Cannavale, Adrien Brody, Julianne Nicholson, Xavier Samuel, and Evan Williams among others. Watch the official trailer here!
Are you excited to watch “Blonde” on Netflix?
Published by HOLR Magazine.