Blonde Movie Explained: What’s Up With the Ending?

On September 8 at the Venice Film Festival, and on the 28th, another biopic about the legendary Marilyn Monroe was released on Netflix. Andrew Dominic (“How the Coward Robert Redford Killed Jesse James,” “Casino Robbery”) took on the task of writing the script for this film, as well as directing it, and the main role was played by the Cuban-Spanish beauty Ana de Armas.

Pros:

a story that can hook you, a wonderful performance by Ana de Armas, a non-standard approach to the genre, powerful musical accompaniment

Disadvantages:

some scenes are optional and, as a result, a little drawn out, excesses with provocativeness, lack of Englsih voice acting

Blonde Movie Meaning

Genre biographical drama

Director Andrew Dominik

Starring Ana de Armas, Julianne Nicholson, Bobby Cannavale, Adrien Brody, Xavier Samuel

Premiere Netflix

Year of release 2022

Website IMDb

“Blonde” is the second film adaptation of the novel of the same name by Joyce Carol Oates, telling about the unbearably difficult and tragic fate of the titular heroine. But, following the example of the literary source, Dominic in his work does not at all aim to accurately document Monroe’s life story.

And in general, it introduces the viewer closer to Norma Jean Baker - always a small, abandoned and lonely girl, who only pretended to be a charming, happy and very successful woman, who became a real sex symbol of the 50s and the embodiment of the American dream, which for many remained nothing something unattainable. First of all, this is a story about Norma’s inner experiences, her own dreams and hopes, which were never destined to come true.

This is a story about the dirty rules of the film industry of the middle of the last century, despite the fact that this era in Hollywood is still called the golden one. This is a story about Marilyn’s inability to build exactly the career she wanted, because the exploitative image of a dumb blonde created by the studio became the actress’s calling card and it was almost impossible to get rid of it.

In addition, the audience of that time, especially the male one, only demanded from Monroe just such performances as frivolous simpletons - from her point of view, humiliating and idiotic, as if it was not she who embodied them so well on the screen. When a girl started talking about Dostoevsky or Chekhov, the studio bosses had no choice but to laugh in response and appreciate the seductive figure of the beauty.

Therefore, looking at the main character from the side with which she is shown in “Blonde”, there comes a strong understanding that no glory could replace Norma with what she really wanted, namely, simple human happiness. To be understood, loved and respected. For the father to caress and at least once in his life tell her how much he loves his little girl. So that her mother would rejoice at her success. But this was an unattainable dream, given various factors that, for the most part, did not even depend on it. Could the fate of such a broken and vulnerable woman have been anything other than tragic? The question is, of course, rhetorical.

In “Blonde,” Dominic talks about important events in the life of a famous character, but his work can only seem like a sweeping biopic and is infinitely far from modern traditional biographical films coming from Hollywood. The latter can boast of large budgets and bright scenes, surprise with incredible acting transformations or, if necessary, wonderful musical numbers, but due to lack of time they are not able to fully reveal the characters’ characters and are forced to develop the narrative in a rhythm of “galloping across Europe” (one of the last such projects was "Elvis" by Baz Luhrmann). “The Blonde” does not have such problems at all, because it follows a completely different path.

This movie is radical and deep, and therefore more daring. In its pessimistic mood, it is closer to experimentalism like Gus Van Sant’s “The Last Days,” which told about the end of Kurt Cobain’s journey. Initially, this is an attempt to get into Marilyn’s head, and not under her skirt, as the mad crowd chanting her name, consisting mainly of lustful men with mouths deformed like ghostface, craved.

This is a bizarre journey into endless suffering, as if the creators had no other goal than to expose the soul (and a little body) of the unfortunate star, meticulously demonstrating all the hardships in her life as if under a microscope. Meanwhile, this is also, to some extent, a manipulative movie, because just as the verbose source material turns out to be difficult reading, here too this surprisingly depressing narrative literally screams that the main character, like no one else, deserves sincere compassion.

But what you absolutely don’t have to worry about is the transformation performed by de Armas: she not only visually resembles Marilyn (sometimes even strikingly similar), but also shows herself perfectly as a serious dramatic actress - ironically, this is exactly the kind of role that which Monroe herself longed for so much. This is a truly powerful acting challenge, and Ana was certainly able to handle it.

And the creators do not refuse to experiment with the image: it constantly changes the aspect ratio and jumps from color to monochrome and vice versa. At the same time, Chasey Irwin’s camera, as if glued, follows the lead singer everywhere, catches many close-ups of her face so that the viewer can better feel the emotional state of the character, and films as if “from the shoulder” during dynamic moments when, say, Marilyn is running at full speed along the corridor. Some scenes are subject to deliberate visual distortion, such as scenes where the picture becomes out of focus. All this works for one or another effect or emotion that the authors are trying to evoke.

Moments look interesting when something happens in the frame, and the viewer knows for sure what the heroine is feeling at that moment, and then the scenes take on a completely different meaning or context. Sometimes Marilyn's thoughts are voiced directly, as was the case in the scene where she is forced to give a blowjob to John F. Kennedy, and such soft-pornographic content, also involving the US President and using extreme close-up of this process, can hardly be expected from a traditional mainstream biopic . However, there is no evidence for such a case, because, as in Oates's work, some of it is true, and some of it is fiction, but in the end it doesn't matter what it is.

The great Hitchcock once said that a film is life from which the stains of boredom have been removed, and thanks to editing techniques, the story in the film really looks as if everything that is not worth the audience’s attention has been removed from it. This is an unconventional biographical movie, in which a lot of contradictions collided, such as success and failure, fame and oblivion, the Hollywood splendor of the 50s and the disgusting internal cuisine of the then film industry, and also the authenticity of one’s “I” and the artificiality of a fictional alter ego, albeit terribly successful. All these and many other contradictions best characterize the image and life of Marilyn herself.

As in the aforementioned “Last Days,” in “Blonde” the soul of the lifeless heroine will leave her physical shell, and then smile coquettishly at the viewer, as only she can. However, due to the sadness the film inspires, it is unlikely that you will be able to smile in response.

Read Also: Blonde Ending Explained

Conclusion:

In “Blonde,” the director does not intend to compromise with the viewer (although, perhaps, he still had to cut out the most explicit scenes), and de Armas gives such a confident performance that it is absolutely impossible to remain indifferent to the suffering of her heroine