Oh, Marilyn

On Wednesday, Will and me went to the cinema to see "My week with Marilyn". After talking about it for months, watching the trailer (more than once) and going on the tube and seeing the posters everywhere, we finally managed to sneak away from our busy busy schedule to go see it.
Considering all the expectation build up, the film didn't dissapoint me at all. Michelle Williams portrays to perfection all the habits, expressions, manias of the iconic actress. There are also beautifully shot moments like her admiring the doll house or the little dance with the white dress... you can see how tortured and troubled she was, and to a certain point, misunderstood. To me, she was made of contradictions:  naive but sexy, maniatic but intuitive, happy and sad.  And Eddie Redmayne is a sweetheart (and also a good actor), those freckles....

The costume designer is Jill Taylor (Match Point, Cassandra's Dream). She did a great job considering the budget restrictions. She looked at original stills from the cast and crew of The Prince and the Showgirl; that is where Emma Watson's vintage tartan dress came from. Eddie Redmayne wore vintage 1950s suits, more tailored and "uptight" to show his Englishness in contrast with the Americans like Milton Greene (Dominic Cooper) and Arthur Miller.

For Michelle, Taylor looked through the archives for photos of Marilyn on her early days of her engagement to Miller. Casual, off-duty outfits were achieved with pencil skirts, pullovers, knitted jerseys and, of course, her trademark head scarf and Ray Ban's. All the on-set dresses and some iconic looks, like the grey dress Marilyn wears when she lands in England were created from scratch because it was too expensive to rent. Taylor said in an inteview the white dress worn by Williams in the beginning of the movie was a nightmare! The zip got stuck the fourth day of filming; they didn't have the time to pull the dress apart to fix it so every day, Michelle had to be stitched into the dress! They were afraid the dress wouldn't make it through filming but it did.

XOXO

P.D It's theatre time! Going to the National on Sunday to watch "13" and wear my new dress...

"I'm selfish, impatient, and a little insecure. I make mistakes, I am out of control, and at times hard to handle. But if you can't handle me at my worst, then you sure as hell don't deserve me at my best"