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There is a period of instability Marilyn Monroe: A Hollywood iconA new exhibition opens in Los Angeles this weekend, where some of the star’s last recorded words come from the walls of the building.
His words, calm and unassuming, were taken from a restored photograph of his last interview, which was published in Life magazine on the day of his death.
“Having a profile, you can read about yourself and someone else’s opinion about you, but the important thing is how you feel about yourself, so that you can live and be yourself every day,” Marilyn Monroe said in 1962. “I love people, but people scare me.”
It’s a moment that encapsulates Monroe’s complicated relationship with fame and the tension between her public and private life. And while the exhibition has impressive costumes and photography, it is the intimate things that are shown – letters, notes, personal effects – that leave a great impression.
This exhibition is one of several this year – in addition to the British Film Institute and National Portrait Gallery in London – to celebrate Monroe’s 100th birthday, and the curators worked together to make sure everyone was special, said Sophia Serrano, the Academy Museum’s director of events. Clothes, belongings, documents and animations of various kinds are presented in the museum in the most spectacular way: at the entrance of the entrance hall there is a red carpet and a large movie screen where Monroe kisses the viewers; her music is played throughout the show, and it’s decorated in red, with chandeliers and heart-shaped pillows – a nod to her performance. Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend and the studios “set him up as America’s favorite”, says Serrano.
The pink dress she wears during this time – never seen in public, Serrano notes – has pride of place. Other items, including a dress from the film Love Happy and several letters and photographs, have never been made available for public viewing. Some of the most memorable outfits include a well-made dress with a large feather tail from a charity appearance at Madison Square Garden, where Monroe rode an elephant and announced her new production company; on the other end of the spectrum are simple pajamas from The Seven-Year Itch. The original white dress The film does not look very good with air on the subway, but there is a parallel with the same artist, William Travilla.
On one wall are Monroe’s jeans, with a caption describing her iconic work in women’s denim. It’s a lot more stylish than most clothes, but – along with its many accessories, including a telephone, a chair, notebooks, a glass of wine and an address book – it delivers compellingly. take a look at Monroe’s private life. Very powerful are the letters and notes written by Monroe as well. Two pages have songs about the actor in a relaxed way: “I’m afraid to say anything about him for fear that he will think that I’m trying to seduce him – trying to get him to love me,” he wrote in a circle about an unknown person. Elsewhere, he wrote: “I find that honesty is often mistaken for stupidity.” In a handwritten letter to director John Huston, Monroe, who was interested in psychoanalysis, refused to participate in the treatment. Sigmund Freud filmhe writes: “I have it on good authority that the Freud family does not allow anyone to make a portrait of Freud’s life – so I would not want to be part of it.”
There is also an exchange of telegrams between director Billy Wilder and Monroe’s husband at the time, a playwright. Arthur Millerin which Wilder criticizes Monroe’s character: “Her biggest problem is that she doesn’t understand anyone else’s problems.” Miller replies: “Your humor, Billy, isn’t too funny to hide the truth. You are an unjust and cruel man. My only consolation is that even in you his beauty and humanity are as visible as they always are.”
We see in all circles how concerns about public image weighed on the actor; there are newspaper articles that he wrote about himself and the details of his collaborations with favorite designers and artists (one photo has a large X drawn above him after he turned it down as a Vogue cover; in another, after criticizing his fashion choices, he wears a potato sack). The television video serves as a reminder of the incredible sex he endured, as well as his sense of humor: when the interviewer asks him if he weighs the same as he did at the previous event, he says it’s the same, “but it’s a different suit”. A voice asks: “Are you a happy girl now?” His answer: “Eh.”
However, he was able to show happiness, on screen and in life. “For hours they danced and sang and flirted – they did Marilyn Monroe,” the artist Richard Avedon writes in a caption on the exhibition wall. “And after the night was over…he sat in the corner like a child, after everything was gone.”
His childhood was difficult, he says in an interview with Life, but he found happiness in thinking and playing. “Then I heard someone say, you know: ‘I’m acting.’ And I said: ‘That’s what I want to be!’” he says.
“But when you grow up, you find out,” he says with a wry laugh, “they play.” very much difficult for you.”
