Tuesday, January 17, 2012
Me, You and Marilyn
Patsy's Review of My Week with Marilyn
by Patsy Morgan
As Cait mentions in her previous review, biography films are difficult to pull off. My Week With Marilyn, however, seems to rise to the challenge. Perhaps the difference is that it is an autobiographical story, which allows the audience to make more than a few concessions. The origins of this film had me pondering for many hours as to how the story, in its final presentation, came to be. On the surface, it's based on the experience of Colin Clark when he worked on the film, The Prince and the Showgirl, with Laurence Olivier and Marilyn Monroe. One can forgive any biases presented; any aspects of the characters that seem to be skewed, when taking into account the story is being told as seen through the eyes of a 23 year old film school graduate, working on his first major motion picture. But then, I pondered further. This story is more than just that as seen through the eyes of a 23 year old male at his first job. How much do you remember about your first job? Of course, you'd remember much more if it was working with Marilyn Monroe! And you kept a diary. I was cynical about the diary a little bit. I would imagine that in the years between his journaling and the publishing of the two journals this film is based on, Mr. Clark did a bit of polishing and editing. So, it's safe to assume that this story, in final presentation, is told through the eyes of a 23 year old film school graduate, as he recollected from his journals, published much later. Are you still with me? All that to explain why I find this film to be believable, more so than other films about real people. I was able to buy into it. It must also be much easier to account for a week of someone's life, rather than their entire life. The audience was allowed to bring their own preconceived ideas about the characters into the story. And there are a lot of preconceived notions about Marilyn Monroe.
As Cait mentions in her previous review, biography films are difficult to pull off. My Week With Marilyn, however, seems to rise to the challenge. Perhaps the difference is that it is an autobiographical story, which allows the audience to make more than a few concessions. The origins of this film had me pondering for many hours as to how the story, in its final presentation, came to be. On the surface, it's based on the experience of Colin Clark when he worked on the film, The Prince and the Showgirl, with Laurence Olivier and Marilyn Monroe. One can forgive any biases presented; any aspects of the characters that seem to be skewed, when taking into account the story is being told as seen through the eyes of a 23 year old film school graduate, working on his first major motion picture. But then, I pondered further. This story is more than just that as seen through the eyes of a 23 year old male at his first job. How much do you remember about your first job? Of course, you'd remember much more if it was working with Marilyn Monroe! And you kept a diary. I was cynical about the diary a little bit. I would imagine that in the years between his journaling and the publishing of the two journals this film is based on, Mr. Clark did a bit of polishing and editing. So, it's safe to assume that this story, in final presentation, is told through the eyes of a 23 year old film school graduate, as he recollected from his journals, published much later. Are you still with me? All that to explain why I find this film to be believable, more so than other films about real people. I was able to buy into it. It must also be much easier to account for a week of someone's life, rather than their entire life. The audience was allowed to bring their own preconceived ideas about the characters into the story. And there are a lot of preconceived notions about Marilyn Monroe.
Caitlin's Review of My Week with Marilyn
My 99 Minutes with Michelle Williams
by Caitlin Murphy
by Caitlin Murphy
For people who love movies, it doesn’t get much better than movies about making movies; they feel like double dipping. And this has been a good year for just that, with critically-lauded films like The Artist and Hugo tipping their hats to the medium through the medium.
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