My Week with Marilyn is a British biographical film directed by Simon Curtis and written by Adrian Hodges. It stars Michelle Williams, Kenneth Branagh, Eddie Redmayne, Dougray Scott, Judi Dench and Emma Watson. Based on two books by Colin Clark, it depicts the making of the 1957 film The Prince and the Showgirl, which starred Marilyn Monroe (Williams) and Laurence Olivier (Branagh). The film focuses on the week in which Monroe spent time being escorted around Britain by Clark (Redmayne), after her husband, Arthur Miller (Scott), left the country.
Principal photography began on 4 October 2010 at Pinewood Studios. Filming took place at Saltwood Castle, White Waltham Airfield and on locations in and around London. Curtis also used the same studio in which Monroe shot The Prince and the Showgirl in 1956. My Week with Marilyn had its world premiere at the New York Film Festival on 9 October 2011 and was shown at the Mill Valley Film Festival two days later. The film was released on 23 November 2011 in the United States and 25 November in the United Kingdom. For her portrayal of Monroe, Williams was awarded the Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Musical or Comedy Motion Picture. She also earned Best Actress nominations from the Academy Awards and British Academy Film Awards.
The film has an interesting plot. In the summer of 1956, aspiring filmmaker Colin Clark works as an assistant on the British set of The Prince and the Showgirl, which stars Laurence Olivier and Marilyn Monroe, who is also on honeymoon with her new husband, playwright Arthur Miller. When Miller leaves the country, Clark introduces Monroe to British life and they spend a week together, during which time she escapes from her Hollywood routine and the pressures of work.
The film has Michelle Williams as Marilyn Monroe, Kenneth Branagh as Sir Laurence Olivier, Eddie Redmayne as Colin Clark, Judi Dench as Dame Sybil Thorndike, Emma Watson as Lucy, Zoë Wanamaker as Paula Strasberg, Dougray Scott as Arthur Miller, Dominic Cooper as Milton H. Greene, Julia Ormond as Vivien Leigh, Derek Jacobi as Sir Owen Morshead, Richard Clifford as Richard Wattis, Philip Jackson as Roger Smith and Simon Russell Beale as Admiral Cotes-Preedy.
Adrian Hodges wrote and adapted the screenplay. My Week with Marilyn is based on Colin Clark's The Prince, The Showgirl and Me and My Week with Marilyn; two diary accounts, which document his time on the set of the 1957 film The Prince and the Showgirl and the time he spent with Monroe.
After reading the two books in 2004, Simon Curtis approached producer David Parfitt about making a film based on them. Everyone liked the idea, because Monroe is so familiar and iconic to people
In August 2009, Marcell Minaya of Digital Spy reported Scarlett Johansson had become the frontrunner to play Monroe in the film. Kate Hudson, Amy Adams and Michelle Williams were also named as potential candidates for Monroe. Three months later, it was revealed that Williams had been in talks for the role. In November 2011, Curtis revealed he had only sought Williams to play Monroe. She was the only actress that producers met with during casting. Williams committed to My Week with Marilyn two years before shooting on the film started. The actress told Adam Green of Vogue that the notion of playing Monroe was daunting, but as she finished reading the script, she knew she wanted the role. The actress then spent six months reading biographies, diaries, letters, poems, and notes about and from Monroe. She also looked at photographs, watched her films and listened to recordings. Williams had to gain weight for the role and she worked with a choreographer to help perfect Monroe's walk.
During the filming, White Waltham Airfield was turned into a 1950s London Heathrow Airport to recreate the moment when Monroe arrived in Britain to begin production on The Prince and the Showgirl. The studio in which Monroe shot The Prince and the Showgirl in 1956 was used to film scenes for My Week with Marilyn. Williams was given the same dressing room Monroe had used at the time of her shoot. Filming took place on locations in and around London. One such location included Parkside House in the village of Englefield Green, where Monroe and Miller lived during their stay in England. The film's production designer, Donal Woods, toured the house with Curtis prior to filming and noticed the exterior looked much as it did when Monroe posed for some publicity shots there fifty years ago.
Monroe was the Calvin Klein girl before there was Calvin Klein because she was way ahead of her time in her personal styling. During that period women were much more, in their everyday life, put together and she was very casual, very simple. She dressed for comfort. She had a simplicity, an ease about her and a casualness, which obviously she didn't in her professional life.
The costume designer for My Week with Marilyn was Jill Taylor. She trawled through loads and loads of antiques fairs and vintage shops to see if she could find original vintage pieces that would suffice for the film. She was pretty successful but she also had to reproduce a lot from original photographs – for example, she had to do the scene where she lands in this country, which is well-documented on newsreel.
Taylor worked from many photographs of Monroe, particularly ones taken on her honeymoon with Miller. Taylor drew upon a certain picture of the actress wearing a man's shirt and a pencil skirt and she made the outfit for the film. There was also one scene when [Michelle as Marilyn] is in a car and she's got a black chiffon headscarf and there was a coat she did for her that was actually in the Sotheby's catalogue. She reproduced that coat, which was like an oatmeal silk coat with a black velvet collar, and she made it into a jacket for Michelle, rather than a coat.
The hair and make-up designer for the film was Jenny Shircore. The biggest challenge for her was transforming Williams into Monroe. Williams' features are quite different from Monroe's, but she did not want to use prosthetics to shape her face as the emotion Williams was conveying in her performance had to come through the make-up. There are times in the film when she's actually wearing very little make-up but Jenny still kept tiny aspects of Marilyn, such as the eyebrows, the shading and the shape of the lips, so she would keep three or four major points that helped her towards Marilyn. Some of it was quite difficult, because Michelle's eyes are completely different. Marilyn had very distinctive eyelids, so Jenny had to try and form that shape on Michelle's eyes by the use of light and shade.
The film has received generally positive reviews from critics. As per reports, 84% of 147 critics have given the film a positive review, with a rating average of 7.2 out of 10. According to the site's summary of the critical consensus, "Michelle Williams shines in My Week with Marilyn, capturing the magnetism and vulnerability of Marilyn Monroe."
For her performances in My Week with Marilyn, Meek's Cutoff and Take This Waltz, Williams was given the Best Actress award at the 2011 Hollywood Film Festival. On 25 November 2011, it was announced Williams would receive the 2012 Desert Palm Achievement Actress Award from the Palm Springs International Film Festival in recognition of her performance in My Week with Marilyn.
Thus My Week with Marilyn is a great film. So do watch it when it gets released on 24 February 2012. Don't miss the film.
Principal photography began on 4 October 2010 at Pinewood Studios. Filming took place at Saltwood Castle, White Waltham Airfield and on locations in and around London. Curtis also used the same studio in which Monroe shot The Prince and the Showgirl in 1956. My Week with Marilyn had its world premiere at the New York Film Festival on 9 October 2011 and was shown at the Mill Valley Film Festival two days later. The film was released on 23 November 2011 in the United States and 25 November in the United Kingdom. For her portrayal of Monroe, Williams was awarded the Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Musical or Comedy Motion Picture. She also earned Best Actress nominations from the Academy Awards and British Academy Film Awards.
The film has an interesting plot. In the summer of 1956, aspiring filmmaker Colin Clark works as an assistant on the British set of The Prince and the Showgirl, which stars Laurence Olivier and Marilyn Monroe, who is also on honeymoon with her new husband, playwright Arthur Miller. When Miller leaves the country, Clark introduces Monroe to British life and they spend a week together, during which time she escapes from her Hollywood routine and the pressures of work.
The film has Michelle Williams as Marilyn Monroe, Kenneth Branagh as Sir Laurence Olivier, Eddie Redmayne as Colin Clark, Judi Dench as Dame Sybil Thorndike, Emma Watson as Lucy, Zoë Wanamaker as Paula Strasberg, Dougray Scott as Arthur Miller, Dominic Cooper as Milton H. Greene, Julia Ormond as Vivien Leigh, Derek Jacobi as Sir Owen Morshead, Richard Clifford as Richard Wattis, Philip Jackson as Roger Smith and Simon Russell Beale as Admiral Cotes-Preedy.
Adrian Hodges wrote and adapted the screenplay. My Week with Marilyn is based on Colin Clark's The Prince, The Showgirl and Me and My Week with Marilyn; two diary accounts, which document his time on the set of the 1957 film The Prince and the Showgirl and the time he spent with Monroe.
After reading the two books in 2004, Simon Curtis approached producer David Parfitt about making a film based on them. Everyone liked the idea, because Monroe is so familiar and iconic to people
In August 2009, Marcell Minaya of Digital Spy reported Scarlett Johansson had become the frontrunner to play Monroe in the film. Kate Hudson, Amy Adams and Michelle Williams were also named as potential candidates for Monroe. Three months later, it was revealed that Williams had been in talks for the role. In November 2011, Curtis revealed he had only sought Williams to play Monroe. She was the only actress that producers met with during casting. Williams committed to My Week with Marilyn two years before shooting on the film started. The actress told Adam Green of Vogue that the notion of playing Monroe was daunting, but as she finished reading the script, she knew she wanted the role. The actress then spent six months reading biographies, diaries, letters, poems, and notes about and from Monroe. She also looked at photographs, watched her films and listened to recordings. Williams had to gain weight for the role and she worked with a choreographer to help perfect Monroe's walk.
During the filming, White Waltham Airfield was turned into a 1950s London Heathrow Airport to recreate the moment when Monroe arrived in Britain to begin production on The Prince and the Showgirl. The studio in which Monroe shot The Prince and the Showgirl in 1956 was used to film scenes for My Week with Marilyn. Williams was given the same dressing room Monroe had used at the time of her shoot. Filming took place on locations in and around London. One such location included Parkside House in the village of Englefield Green, where Monroe and Miller lived during their stay in England. The film's production designer, Donal Woods, toured the house with Curtis prior to filming and noticed the exterior looked much as it did when Monroe posed for some publicity shots there fifty years ago.
Monroe was the Calvin Klein girl before there was Calvin Klein because she was way ahead of her time in her personal styling. During that period women were much more, in their everyday life, put together and she was very casual, very simple. She dressed for comfort. She had a simplicity, an ease about her and a casualness, which obviously she didn't in her professional life.
The costume designer for My Week with Marilyn was Jill Taylor. She trawled through loads and loads of antiques fairs and vintage shops to see if she could find original vintage pieces that would suffice for the film. She was pretty successful but she also had to reproduce a lot from original photographs – for example, she had to do the scene where she lands in this country, which is well-documented on newsreel.
Taylor worked from many photographs of Monroe, particularly ones taken on her honeymoon with Miller. Taylor drew upon a certain picture of the actress wearing a man's shirt and a pencil skirt and she made the outfit for the film. There was also one scene when [Michelle as Marilyn] is in a car and she's got a black chiffon headscarf and there was a coat she did for her that was actually in the Sotheby's catalogue. She reproduced that coat, which was like an oatmeal silk coat with a black velvet collar, and she made it into a jacket for Michelle, rather than a coat.
The hair and make-up designer for the film was Jenny Shircore. The biggest challenge for her was transforming Williams into Monroe. Williams' features are quite different from Monroe's, but she did not want to use prosthetics to shape her face as the emotion Williams was conveying in her performance had to come through the make-up. There are times in the film when she's actually wearing very little make-up but Jenny still kept tiny aspects of Marilyn, such as the eyebrows, the shading and the shape of the lips, so she would keep three or four major points that helped her towards Marilyn. Some of it was quite difficult, because Michelle's eyes are completely different. Marilyn had very distinctive eyelids, so Jenny had to try and form that shape on Michelle's eyes by the use of light and shade.
The film has received generally positive reviews from critics. As per reports, 84% of 147 critics have given the film a positive review, with a rating average of 7.2 out of 10. According to the site's summary of the critical consensus, "Michelle Williams shines in My Week with Marilyn, capturing the magnetism and vulnerability of Marilyn Monroe."
For her performances in My Week with Marilyn, Meek's Cutoff and Take This Waltz, Williams was given the Best Actress award at the 2011 Hollywood Film Festival. On 25 November 2011, it was announced Williams would receive the 2012 Desert Palm Achievement Actress Award from the Palm Springs International Film Festival in recognition of her performance in My Week with Marilyn.
Thus My Week with Marilyn is a great film. So do watch it when it gets released on 24 February 2012. Don't miss the film.
No comments:
Post a Comment