A century of Marilyn Monroe, immortal film icon

Today, however, a century after her birth, we want above all to remember her for her most iconic roles and for the influence she has had on mass culture. It should be noted that the actress's face and body have influenced so many artists, starting with Andy Warhol of course, but also Salvador Dali or Keith Haring, not to mention the many books and songs about Marilyn's life (one above all? "Candle in the Wind" by Elton John).

At a very young age, she debuted as a model and began working in the film industry in 1948, the year in which she starred in 'Blonde Orchid', a musical by Phil Karlson in which she also demonstrated her singing skills.

However, 1950 was to be decisive, when she starred in two masterpieces such as Joseph L. Mankiewicz's 'Eve against Eve' and John Huston's 'Asphalt Jungle': albeit in small roles, she was noticed by critics and audiences alike and thus began her Hollywood ascent.

It was especially in the field of comedy that she had great success, so much so that in 1952 she was chosen by an absolute master of the genre such as Howard Hawks for the beautiful 'The Magnificent Joke', a film in which she starred alongside Cary Grant and Ginger Rogers.

With the same director, she would achieve extraordinary success two years later with 'Men Prefer Blondes', a musical comedy that will go down in history for the songs - 'Bye Bye Baby' and 'Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friends' - sung by her and even for the clothes (her famous pink dress will be imitated for decades to come).

Also belonging to the same genre is another title to remember, Jean Negulesco's 'How to Marry a Millionaire' from 1953, while Henry Hathaway's noir 'Niagara', also from the same year, and Otto Preminger's western 'The Magnificent Prey' from 1954, move into different narrative territories.

If it was already thanks to these titles that Marilyn Monroe was now a world-famous diva, the image of her white skirt rising suddenly in Billy Wilder's 'When the Wife is on Holiday' (1955) would definitively consign her to myth.

After being chosen by Laurence Olivier for 'The Prince and the Dancer' in 1957, the actress would go on to obtain her most famous role ever, in another memorable and decidedly unconventional comedy, Billy Wilder's 'Some Like It Hot'.

The filming of the film was complicated, not least because the diva's instability was worsening, but the actress had already been accused before - among other things by Wilder himself for 'When the Wife is on Holiday' - of not being able to remember her lines and having constant delays in arriving on set.

His last complete film was 'The Misfits', the shooting of which began in July 1960 and was released the following year. Directed by John Huston, the film had a very complex production due to the continuous problems and delays caused by Marilyn Monroe, so much so that the widow of Clark Gable (who died a few days after the end of filming) said that the situation on the set had contributed to her husband's death.

Meanwhile, addiction to alcohol and psychotropic drugs increasingly undermined the actress' health, until that tragic day when her existence ended a couple of months after she had blown out 36 candles.

His life, career, beauty and iconographic reach, however, have not only been remembered by contemporary art, literature and music but, of course, also by film.

If in the decades following her death there have been several documentaries, feature films and television products that have told the story of her life, Marilyn Monroe has also been at the centre of works about her in the new millennium. Amidst forgettable titles such as Leonardo Pieraccioni's 'Me & Marilyn' or overly conventional ones such as Simon Curtis' 'Marilyn' with Michelle Williams, there is, however, one film that should be remembered and quoted today more than ever: 'Blonde'.

Based on the novel by Joyce Carol Oates and directed by Andrew Dominik, this 2022 film (starring Ana de Armas) is a great reflection on the meaning of the icon Marilyn, in constant contrast to the Norma Jeane that always remained inside her. An underestimated and controversial film, accompanied by remarkable insights in which it is the form that conveys the true content and enhanced by the splendid music by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis, 'Blonde' is not only one of the greatest titles of the last decade on the theme of identity crisis, but also a way of remembering, in a courageous and daring way, Marilyn Monroe, trying above all to show the split between her public image and her private fragilities.