This morning I saw My Week with Marilyn and was enthralled from beginnng to end. Not just by Michelle William’s subtle and nuanced performance as Marilyn but by the complex and troubled woman she portrayed. At once seductive, manipulative, vulnerable and unstable, she could transfix those who saw her in person as well as on the screen. She was a star in the true sense of the word – one of a kind.
On the set of The Prince and The Showgirl, Marilyn was often late and unpredictable, infuriating Laurence Olivier, which only worsened her behaviour. Also exasperated with her, her current husband, Arthur Miller, departed for the States to get a break from her. Marilyn used Colin Clark, third assistant to the director, as a crutch when everyone seems against her. I will leave it to you to decide to what degree she used him and then spat him out. However, what does come across in the film is what an extraordinary actress she was.
At the end of the movie, no one moved in the cinema and that is the true mark of an enthralling film.
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