MELBOURNE UNIVERSITY FILM INQUIRER

Blonde is a film that was guaranteed to be divisive and controversial. Indeed, it has already generated a lot in the way of both. However, it is undeniable that it is also a bold work of art. It’s a shame Netflix wants to avoid making films like this following their statement about ‘vanity projects’ when Blonde is a film that pushes cinema forward as a medium. It immerses the audience in an uncomfortable place, but it does so artfully and with grace. It is one of the most immersive and moving films I’ve seen all year.

Andrew Dominik is an auteur who made his name with films like Chopper and The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. Films that focus on the dark side of fame. Blonde is no exception. Where Chopper and Jesse James, however, are explorations of masculine identity and how an image of oneself cannot be controlled once it is in the public eye, Blonde concentrates on feminine identity and the nature of being a woman in a male-dominated world. It dedicates three hours to exploring what it means to give people what they want at the expense of your sanity.

Masquerading as a biopic about Marilyn Monroe/Norma Jeane Mortenson but largely fictional, it is really about the discrepancy between the public perception of a person and who they truly are, paradoxically enough. It is fragmented and elliptical, but that’s because Norma’s self-perception is also fragmented. It is surreal and dreamlike because indulging in fantasy is a coping mechanism for Norma, who admits she is a slave to Marilyn. It preoccupies itself with capturing Norma’s state of mind, eschewing a conventional biopic structure in favour of vignettes that switch between black and white, colour and various aspect ratios in exploring Jeane’s central fractured identity. Glamour and glitz is the life of Marilyn, but Norma must contend with the darkness of reality.

I suppose Blonde was guaranteed to be controversial because Marilyn Monroe is a Rorschach test of a person. She is someone onto whom people project their own agendas and desires. They may identify with her struggles, successes or sex symbol status. They may view her roles and herself as vacuous or smart. And they may thus have different and protective viewpoints on how she should and shouldn’t be portrayed. The film is full of challenging content and the way it handles its subject matter will not be to everyone’s taste. Not helping matters is the film’s length, the fact that Roe v. Wade was overturned this year and the film features a talking fetus that has been read as pro-life, or that Dominik has been openly contemptuous of Monroe’s filmography in interviews. However, where the film succeeds is that it doesn’t ask you to feel a certain way about the events it depicts. I imagine it will age quite gracefully. In 10 or 20 years time, the discourse will have moved on, but the film will remain and speak for itself.

Dominik views Norma “Marilyn Monroe” Jeane in the film as a character, rather than a person who once lived. Some might say that’s disrespectful, but it works in favour of the cinematic experience, which should be a filmmaker’s priority. It’s ironic to me that, in humanising such an icon, Dominik must contend with her fans, who idolise a version of her they have themselves created in their heads, and not the human being she really was either.

Rating: 9/10

Blonde (rated R 18+ in Australia for high impact sexual violence) can be seen on Netflix now.