From her tumultuous childhood to her meteoric rise and complex love stories – from Norma Jeane Baker to Marilyn Monroe –, Blonde hair blurs the line between reality and fiction to explore the gap between the public life and the private life of the woman who, 60 years after her death, remains an icon.
Posted at 11:30 a.m.
Inspired by a fictional biography published by Joyce Carol Oates some twenty years ago, Andrew Dominik interferes in the private spheres of Marilyn Monroe’s life, which are by definition undocumented. The filmmaker thus has the space required to invent his vision of things, not being required to be faithful to reality.
As spencer last year, allegory on Princess Diana, Blonde hair has nothing of the traditional biofilm, even less of the documentary. This is what makes it interesting. That said, the filmmaker inserts into his fragmented story, sometimes in color, sometimes in black and white, the most famous episodes in the life of the woman who, 60 years after her death, remains present in the global collective imagination.
To best capture the spirit of Marilyn Monroe, Andrew Dominik (The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, Killing Them Softly) chose an impressionistic approach. Blonde hair thus resembles a series of fragments of a memory which collide.
One of the main axes of the story is the relationship to motherhood. The first act is devoted to depicting the violent relationship that her mother (Julianne Nicholson) had with her, blaming her for all her misfortunes, including the abandonment of the husband (and father), who did not want a child.
By focusing on the contrast between the adulation that Norma Jeane will later receive, when she becomes Marilyn Monroe, and the inner emptiness left by this unhealable wound, Andrew Dominik paints the portrait of a woman who is both strong and fragile. , confronted with her tumultuous love affairs and her own desire for motherhood. The star is also constantly torn by the image that admirers have of Marilyn Monroe, which in no way corresponds to the true nature, much darker, of Norma Jeane Baker. Andrew Dominik’s vision is clear: this woman was a victim in all aspects of her too short life, crushed moreover by the Hollywood machine.
Ana de Armas threw herself body and soul into the character, with the abandonment of the one who, like the icon in her time, aspires to the greatest scores. The actress offers a remarkable performance in a film that is too long, the audacity of which will be celebrated by some, decried by others.
Launched at the Venice Film Festival, during which a first version of this text was published, Blonde hair is showing in Montreal at the Cinémathèque québécoise and the Cinéma Moderne. Netflix will drop it on its platform on September 28.
Biographical drama
Blonde hair
Andrew Dominick
With Ana de Armas, Bobby Cannavale and Adrien Brody
2:45 a.m.