I confess I have had this documentary on my queue for a long while. I kept debating watching it because I have read so many books on Marilyn that I felt like there is nothing new for me to learn. I was wrong.
This 2012 documentary was based on the book Fragments: Poems, Intimate Notes, Letters which is a collection of MM's own personal thoughts and feelings. MM shared her most private inner reflections and wrote them in notebooks and various pieces of paper,
Love, Marilyn is a unique documentary by which a group of celebrities are reading MM's passages while photos and footage of MM are paired with it. Honestly, the reading of MM's writings took me a while to get used to. Some people were annoying to listen to but there were others seemed really invested and you can get a sense that they admired MM a great deal. I think the best part for me was hearing her words being spoken aloud and all the footage that went along with it. There were moments where I felt as though I were hearing MM saying the words herself.
The documentary felt like a love letter to Marilyn. It felt like and ode to her and who she really was and who she was trying to be.
She was an ordinary girl who felt like she deserved an extraordinary life. Her passions were acting and discovering who she was. There is no denying that she used her body to play the Hollywood game and to get ahead in the industry but there is also no denying that she wanted to be more than just that. She delved into herself over and over again and everyday she continued to try to really learn who she was. One can really admire a person who strives to be better.
Her physical beauty usually blinds most people into just focusing on her body, her sexual exploits, her roles as sex pots rather taking the time to notice that there was so much more behind that smile than she let on.
When I was 15 my uncle asking me why I liked MM so much, I told him that to me she was this innocent and vulnerable person who struggled to keep all the parts of herself balanced. He was surprised to hear that because of course he focused on her beauty and her scandals.
After watching this documentary and hearing her own written words being spoken out loud I felt proud that I always tried to look deeper and beyond the dazzle of the movie star that she undoubtedly was. I think everyone deserves that. To have someone look behind the glitter and the glam of what one projects.
I walked away from this documentary enlightened and simply wowed. I really hope that you decide to give it a go. Don't wait as long as I did. I am so glad I finally decided to watch it. It was incredibly moving and insightful.
Such a beautiful, touching post, Daffny. Thank you, if it's available on Netflix Canada, I will be watching this doc on the double.
ReplyDeletexoxo ♥ Jessica