So in Media, we watched the 2011 film "My Week with Marilyn", starring Eddie Redmayne and Michelle Williams. It's a film based on a real week in the life of personal assistant Colin Clark, as he works on the 50's film "The Prince and The Showgirl", and shows the affair of Clark and Marilyn Monroe, the main actress of "The Prince and The Showgirl".
While "My Week with Marilyn" shows views of a lot of subjects, such as how women are treated, how people of different ages are treated, etc. However, I decided to cover how stardom and being a celebrity is shown in the film.
Firstly, it is illustrated that celebrities are treated as if they aren't normal people, which, upon first glance, could be expected; people still do that nowadays.
However, the film shows how the media and interviewers treat Marilyn with less respect regarding her privacy, asking very personal questions.
Arthur P. Jacobs - "Marilyn! Is it true you wear nothing in bed except perfume?"Nowadays, the media does not ask such personal questions, and mostly ask questions about the film they're working on; any other questions asked are mostly just a bit of banter or fun, such as asking what fun they had behind the scenes, or questions like "Does pineapple belong on pizza?" Some could pass off what was asked in the film as "just banter," yet if it was asked today, many celebrities would turn down the question due to it being too personal.
Marilyn Monroe - "Ooh, darling, as I'm in England, let's say I sleep in nothing but Yardley's Lavender."
The lack of respect celebrities got in the 50's, along with celebrities expecting such treatment, made it so the question asked in the film, regarding what Marilyn wears in bed, would be considered a normal question to be asked for a bit of fun.
It is also shown how celebrities surrounded themselves with older "yes-men." What is a yes-man?
"Yes-Man - A weak person who always agrees with their political leader or their superior at work."Essentially, someone who agrees with their employer and always tries to stay on their good side, for example, George Lucas surrounded himself with them while making the Star Wars prequels. "My Week With Marilyn" showed Marilyn's yes-man in plain sight, as her mentor... Paula Strasberg.
She was Monroe's acting coach for many years up until the actress's death in 1962. The film shows her treating Marilyn very differently from the press.
Strasberg treated Monroe as if she were a goddess, alike how fangirls of singers treat their idols. After numerous bad takes, Monroe is very worried about how she can't get it right. However, Strasberg literally gets on her knees and starts praying to Monroe, claiming she did great, and she's the greatest actress of all time.
Monroe having this person around could be caused by 2 main reasons.
Firstly, some could argue that she kept Strasberg around to have an overinflated ego, and to be more selfish and narcissistic. However, I do not believe this to be true. "My Week With Marilyn" showed that Monroe had some serious self esteem and confidence issues, so my second possible reason for her keeping Strasberg around was to boost her confidence, yet also to keep her grounded, and not let stardom get to her.
One final aspect of stardom shown in the film is, due to celebrities being more known around the world, they can't just live a normal life (understatement of the year).
In one scene during "My Week With Marilyn," Colin Clark and Marilyn Monroe try going shopping down a street. However, once one person recognises Marilyn, she's crowded by fans. This happens multiple times during the movie, including the shopping street, a school, etc.
Whenever Marilyn tries doing something normal or average, her celebrity status gets in the way, and while she appears happy on the outside, she admits to Colin later she wants to give it all up after they finish the film they're working on.
To conclude, Marilyn Monroe's celebrity life presented in "My Week With Marilyn" was not one she necessarily wanted, but one she had and simply had to deal with everything that came her way because of it.
Anyways, that's me done for now!
Catch you later!
~ Noah C :D
No comments:
Post a Comment