Joyce Carol Oates weighs in on the brutality in Blonde adaptation: “Not for the faint of heart”
Joyce Carol Oates thinks Marilyn Monroe's real life was even worse than what's depicted in Andrew Dominik's Blonde
Aux News Joyce Carol Oates
In another press cycle, Blonde would be the most controversial film of the year. It took decades for Andrew Dominik to get his brutally graphic fictionalized version of Marilyn Monroe’s life off the ground, and several years after that to actually get it on screen. It’s all worth it to Joyce Carol Oates, author of the novel Blonde (and many outrageous tweets), who calls the film “a work of art.” “Andrew Dominik is a very idiosyncratic director, so he appropriated the subject and made it into his own vision,” she says in a new interview with The New Yorker.
Oates mentions multiple times that she “didn’t have anything to do with” the making of the film, though “once in a while, Andrew would get in contact with” her. By the time she was given an “almost-final cut,” she says, “I had to stop watching about midway through. The film is emotionally exhausting.”
“It’s almost three hours long. I had to stop watching it, go away for a couple of hours, and come back. It’s demanding of the viewer,” she admits of the Ana de Armas-starring vehicle. “The last quarter is very hallucinatory. Marilyn Monroe is addicted to barbiturates, and she’s suicidal; she’s losing her mind. She descends into a surreal world, one that is astonishingly vivid, and you almost feel that you’re losing your mind. I remember a certain immersion: it’s not a movie that you’re watching so much as being immersed in. Not for the faint of heart.”
That being said, Oates argues that Blonde, which vividly depicts miscarriages, abortions, and sexual assaults, is “probably closer to what she actually experienced” than other films about Marilyn Monroe; “The last few days of her life were brutal,” Oates asserts. Asked about the film’s controversial NC-17 rating, the writer didn’t “have any particular feelings,” but claims, “The real things that happened to Marilyn Monroe are much worse than anything in the movie.” Monroe isn’t here to dispute that account, but the novelist’s and filmmaker’s decisions to portray her life as unending misery will live forever.
30 Comments
This movie sounds like its for the following:
* Critics
* Oscar Voters
* People who enjoy being punished by their recreational entertainment
* People who are literally out of anything else to watch
* Subhumans who get erections at rape scenes
None of those people are me.
Honest question, at a point is it empathic to show someone being miserable almost every moment? Even the saddest person has some upbeat moments from time to time. The five women who got murdered by Jack the Ripper obviously have sad stories that end poorly but its not always defined by misery, one was for a while living in a castle and one was taught by a boxing uncle for example. I understand not wanting to sugar coat a story but making Passion of Marilyn feels a bit too much the other direction, and I’m not even talking about if its historically accurate that’s another matter.
I mean, when are making a movie that even the author of the book its based on had to take five hours to watch – three-hour movie with a two-hour mental health break – don’t you have to stop midway an evaluate things?
Feel like in 20 years, Ana de Armas is going to be giving the same kind of interviews about this movie that Sharon Stone gives about Basic Insinct.
Just a delightful afternoon at the cinemah!
Oh god your probably right, although judging by some of her comments I give it 18 months instead of 20 years.
What?
“Even the saddest person has some upbeat moments from time to time.” Be very thankful your life has gone well *enough* to consider this a true statement. When you’re in the miasma of depression, dependency, and reacting to trauma…you don’t have the occasional ups with the downs most people take for granted. Different situation but I’ve been suffering endless pain on my left side for the last 11 years (I literally feel like Two Face from Batman). I honestly don’t know the last time I’ve genuinely laughed, and genuinely felt happy has been twice as long out (depression, deep ones, come with the territory). Some of us just suffer and that’s absolutely our lives. Monroe did not have the kinda life where genuine joys were an assured thing on the horizon, and when you catch that feeling of ‘this is how I’ll feel for the rest of my life’, whether true or not….it takes you to some really awful and dark places. I think shining this light on her truth when we otherwise glamorize her life is important: we all need to be reminded not all of us have spoken with joy in a long time, and wealth and fame aren’t assured paths to finding it. Honestly seems like they’re paths in the opposite direction for most.
I hope you find the peace you’re looking for. Nothing about this movie sounds like it will bring it.
The film doesn’t even mention the early performances (Bus Stop, for one) that Monroe *did* get acknowledgement for…
I read four or five Joyce Carol Oates novels but had to stop because her reliance on sexual violence for plot was exhausting. Even her work from the 90s (like Blonde) feels very lodged in the mid-70s. There’s nothing empathetic about it, just a parade of violent men and victimized women. As the work gets older and Oates gets more out of touch it gets harder to ignore.
Yikes galore. I admittedly never read any of Oates work but I was at least aware of her, not well enough I suppose. That just sounds aggravating.
I haven’t seen the film yet, but I think that there was an effort by the director to create a counter balance to the “Candle in the Wind” version of Marilyn’s life that has been a staple of the culture for so long. It is, however, starting to sound like a real slog of a film, which can defeat that purpose.
Movies are better when they actually have a POV. If you want to watch what you’re describing, maybe try every biopic ever made?
The brunch crowd’s mascot has spoken.
Okay, but why? Why make this it just feels gross. Who is this movie for?
“I had to stop watching about midway through. The film is emotionally exhausting.”Yeah, I thought the accent was distracting too.
Does the talking fetus have an accent too?
They can do amazing work with voice recordings now. The Gary Coleman estate was pleased to get the call.
“Wha-chu talkin’ ‘bout?!”
“Wha-chu talkin’ bout, Attorney General Kennedy? Hey, why are you coming at my mamma’s belly with that syringe…”
Was that a deleted scene from Kid From Left Field?
Kevin Hart does the voice. And the body.
Way more distracting that JFK is played by Luis Guzman.
Yeah, but Lin Manuel as Nixon really sells it…
He did get laid like crazy in college. Probably tapped into that.
He does have the hair for it
Wow, a jab at the accent. How original.
I vote that Oates is forced to watch the whole movie again in one sitting and we’ll see if she’s still as praiseworthy about it.
“I like cashing checks.”