My Week with Marilyn

[mochakitty]

From Wikipedia:

My Week with Marilyn is a British drama 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.

Plot

In the summer of 1956, 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.

Cast

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
Dougray Scott as Arthur Miller
Dominic Cooper as Milton H. Greene
Julia Ormond as Vivien Leigh
Derek Jacobi as Sir Owen Morshead
Zoë Wanamaker as Paula Strasberg
Richard Clifford as Richard Wattis
Philip Jackson as Roger Smith
Simon Russell Beale as Admiral Cotes-Preedy

Production

Development

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 explore his time on the set of The Prince and the Showgirl and the time he spent with Monroe. The screenplay has been adapted and written by Adrian Hodges.[4] The film is directed by Simon Curtis and it is his feature debut. David Parfitt produced the film, which was financed by The Weinstein Company and BBC Films.

Official Site

Trailer

Poster

Official Facebook

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My Week with Marilyn @ IMDb.com

[Deleted]

I saw this last night. I read Colin Clark's book, The Prince, The Showgirl and Me a long time ago, when I was a teenager and heavily into my Marilyn fixation, and I mostly remember the stuff about Marilyn and Sir Laurence Olivier. I think I remembered it because it was the most interesting and that holds true for the film: The film is great when Olivier is losing his mind and Marilyn is being...Marilyn on the film set, but kind of boring when it's about Colin Clark and his romantic fumblings and super-special (and possibly imaginary) bond with Marilyn. And because the story is Colin's account, Marilyn in this movie is mostly a Manic Pixie Dream Girl, which is not really the portrayal of her I'm most interested in seeing.

It was weird to see Michelle as Marilyn. I think she mostly nailed it, but if you're a Marilyn obsessive like I was/possibly still am, it's impossible to see her as the 'real' Marilyn, so you're always completely aware that she's acting. But then, if you also know Michelle Williams well, you're aware that she completely transformed herself, so I understand the accolades she's getting. The only place were she was completely off and took me out of the film was when she sang - her singing voice was nothing like Marilyn's and I think they should have just dubbed in Marilyn's real voice or a convincing sound-alike.

[ross]

I saw it and was surprised by how much I liked it. I still don't think Michelle Williams is able to project sex appeal but for what the part demanded she was good.

I was surprised and pleased Olivier was portrayed at least somewhat sympathetically; I'd been expecting an entirely antagonistic spin on him.

[stina]

Saw this today. The movie was ok, but Michelle Williams was awesome. In still photos I have seen of her, she didn't do it for me as Marilyn, but in motion she really nailed it. Great performance.

I was a little unsure of the point of Emma Watson's character, though her parting line (about his heart needing to be broken) was nice.