There won’t be a extra polarizing movie this awards season than “Blonde.” Andrew Dominik’s not-so-true biopic about Marilyn Monroe has been hailed as among the best movies of 2022 by some, whereas others assume it’s one of many worst. Even with an acclaimed efficiency by Ana de Armas as Monroe, the movie is yet one more characteristic from Dominik that’s met with a really blended response. But the filmmaker thinks he is aware of why Americans, specifically, disliked “Blonde.”
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While on the Red Sea Film Festival (through THR), Andrew Dominik mentioned “Blonde” and why he thinks his Marilyn Monroe movie has been criticized so closely by American audiences. Dominik readily admits that Americans “hated” his movie. He believes the primary motive is that these audiences aren’t prepared to simply accept a movie the place the lead girl isn’t “empowered.”
“Now we’re living in a time where it’s important to present women as empowered, and they want to reinvent Marilyn Monroe as an empowered woman. That’s what they want to see,” stated Dominik. “And if you’re not showing them that, it upsets them.”
The filmmaker additionally responded to criticisms that “Blonde” exploited Marilyn Monroe.
“Which is kind of strange, because she’s dead,” he added. “The movie doesn’t make any difference in one way or another. What they really mean is that the film exploited their memory of her, their image of her, which is fair enough. But that’s the whole idea of the movie. It’s trying to take the iconography of her life and put it into service of something else, it’s trying to take things that you’re familiar with, and turning the meaning inside out. But that’s what they don’t want to see.”
All of that is resulting in a world, Dominik believes, the place American movies have gotten “more conservative. He used the example of how audiences now want a bedtime story where the ending isn’t meant to provoke a real reaction. “But I don’t want to make bedtime stories,” he added.
While it’s refreshing to see a filmmaker fully conscious of why his newest movie didn’t translate properly with sure audiences, there’s additionally a transparent understanding by his phrases that Andrew Dominik will not be prepared to vary the way in which he presents his tasks. He’s going to proceed to make the movies he desires within the actual manner he desires, even when he’s going to piss off a big portion of the viewing public within the course of.
“Blonde” is offered now on Netflix.