Marilyn - your life

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Movie
German title Marilyn - your life
Original title Norma Jean & Marilyn (also: Norma Jean and Marilyn)
Country of production USA , UK
original language English
Publishing year 1996
length 108 minutes
Age rating FSK 16
Rod
Director Tim Fywell
script Jill Isaacs
production Guy Riedel
music Christopher Young
camera John Thomas
cut Glenn Farr
occupation

Marilyn Your Life (Norma Jean & Marilyn) is an American - British biography from 1996 . Directed by Tim Fywell and written by Jill Isaacs basis of the book Goddess of Anthony Summers .

action

The little girl Norma Jeane Baker had a difficult childhood: Her mother - like her grandmother - became seriously mentally ill and was given inpatient treatment, whereupon she lived with various foster parents and also for a time with Grace Goddard, a friend of her mother. That time ends when the foster father becomes intrusive. She then comes as a foster child to the strictly religious couple Albert Wayne and Ida Bolender, where one of the couple's tenants sexually abuses them. When she reports this to the foster parents, she is not believed and Norma Jeane has to ask forgiveness for her sinful thoughts.

A few years later, Norma Jean ( Ashley Judd ) works as a model. She had meanwhile married and taken the name Dougherty, but the marriage was long divorced. She meets the bodyguard Eddie Jordan ( Josh Charles ), who also dreams of an acting career, and begins a romance with him. When he is the first to win a film contract, she gets angry. He then encourages her to work on her talent, after which she explains that women get to the top not through talent, but physical effort. The first step on the way up is then the band leader Ted Lewis, Eddie's uncle. He introduces her to agent Johnny Hyde ( Ron Rifkin ) and also gets her prescription drugs. Norma Jeanes ambitions lead to the end of the relationship with Eddie.

Johnny Hyde separates from his wife, lets Norma Jeane move in and helps her sign her own film deal with 20th Century Fox. Together with an employee of the film studio ( Herb Mitchell ) they develop the stage name "Marilyn Monroe" ( Mira Sorvino ). Cosmetic measures and cosmetic operations then complete the transformation into the upcoming icon, which now gives actress Marilyn the feeling of getting rid of Norma Jean - and with it her prehistory or past - forever. However, Marilyn has visions in which Norma Jean appears and gives her - mostly critical - advice about her lifestyle. With the combination of pills and alcohol these visions disappear again, but make Marilyn dependent. Her first film roles are small, but with Johnny Hyde's leading role in Blondes , she's preferred to attract attention. However, Hyde dies of a heart attack shortly afterwards.

Marilyn moves in with her acting teacher Natasha Lytess ( Lindsay Crouse ), with whom she has a very close relationship. She also has a short-term relationship with her singing teacher, but he ends it because she doesn't seem intelligent enough to him. She then met the former baseball player Joe DiMaggio, whom she married relatively quickly - against the protest of her vision Norma Jeane - in order to live as a housewife in San Francisco. However, she realizes comparatively quickly that this lifestyle is not for her. She gratefully accepts the offer for a leading role, as it helps her to end the marriage.

Not only does Marilyn want to play other roles, she is also negotiating a new and better deal with the film studio. She moves to New York to take lessons from famous drama teacher Lee Strasberg ( Dana Goldstone ). She meets the playwright Arthur Miller ( David Dukes ), whom she - like Joe Di Maggio before, against the express advice of her vision Norma Jeane - marries. She becomes pregnant but loses the child. During the recording of the film Some Like It Hot , Marilyn is already completely confused by her addiction and without self-confidence. The marriage to Arthur Miller is also strained and finally ends with the recording of the film Misfits . Then Marilyn slowly steers towards its end.

Her psychiatrist discovers her self-talk and has her admitted to a psychiatric clinic. When she is released from there, Marilyn changes psychiatrist, but remains loyal to the abuse of drugs and alcohol. She begins an affair with the US President John F. Kennedy and hopes that a solid partnership can develop from it. However, due to burgeoning rumors, Kennedy ended the relationship. As a result, Marilyn tied up with Attorney General Robert Kennedy, the brother of the US President. She begins shooting a new film at the same time, but is fired because of her poor overall condition. Her request to Robert Kennedy, as attorney general, for her reinstatement, but only for the fact that he - like his brother before - breaks off the relationship with her. Marilyn eventually mixes a deadly cocktail with medication and champagne and has one final vision of Norma Jeane. She dies in the ambulance on the way to the hospital.

criticism

Rotten Tomatoes thinks film is "fascinating".

The "unconventional concept that two actresses portray the woman who became world famous as Marilyn Monroe," pays off, said Todd Everett convinced of Variety . Judd and Sorvino are great and director Tim Fywell did his job very gifted.

Elsewhere it was said that the implementation with two actresses was a good idea and that Sorvino's portrayal of Marilyn Monroe was by and large remarkable, even if it stalled in the meantime. The last, “dark and disturbing” third of the film was less well received, while the first two thirds around her Marilyn Monroe rise were more satisfying.

About ten years later, Mike Seely of Riverfront Times came to a completely contrary opinion : The executive company HBO is now known as a top producer through works like Sex and the City , but is also responsible for guano like Norma Jean & Marilyn . Otherwise the first hour of the film is bearable, since Ashley Judd shows a good performance. However, Mira Sorvino's interpretation of Monroe is simply “terrible” or “so bad” that it cannot be a coincidence that the former Oscar winner (1996 for Beloved Aphrodite ) has not made any relevant films since then.

Awards

Ashley Judd and Mira Sorvino were nominated for a Golden Globe in 1997 in the category “ Best Actress - Mini-Series or TV Movie ” . The five nominations for an Emmy in 1997 included those for Ashley Judd, Mira Sorvino, camera work, and film music.

background

The film was u. a. Filmed in "Grauman's Chinese Theater" in Hollywood . It was produced for the Home Box Office television station and first broadcast in May 1996. The film was released on video in Portugal in March 1999 and shown in Spanish cinemas from September 1999 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b m / norma_jean_and_marilyn / about. uk.rottentomatoes.com, September 28, 2007, archived from the original on February 1, 2013 ; accessed on September 20, 2016 .
  2. ^ Todd Everett: Norma Jean & Marilyn. In: variety.com. May 15, 1996, accessed March 7, 2019 .
  3. ^ At-A-Glance Film Reviews: Norma Jean and Marilyn (1996). In: rinkworks.com. Retrieved March 7, 2019 .
  4. ↑ Mike Seely: Norma Jean & Marilyn (1996). In: riverfronttimes.com. February 16, 2005, accessed March 7, 2019 .
  5. ^ Filming locations for Norma Jean & Marilyn, accessed September 28, 2007
  6. ^ Opening dates for Norma Jean & Marilyn, accessed September 28, 2007