Cinema Saturday

Special Marilyn Monroe Edition
My Week With Marilyn
Forever Marilyn: The Blu-Ray Collection (coming July 31st US)
Marilyn: The Passion & Paradox of Marilyn Monroe by Lois Banner (out July 17)

My Week With Marilyn (starring Michelle Williams) as one of the big movies of 2011. Based on two books by Colin Clark (The Prince, the Showgirl, and Me & My Week With Marilyn), the film chronicles the week an assistant on the set of The Prince and The Showgirl (1957) spent with Marilyn Monroe.

The movie gives viewers the chance to see a more personal side of Monroe. From the trouble she had on set, to her insecurities, but it also shows the brilliant movie star Marilyn who captivated so many, as well. And Michelle Williams does an absolutely brilliant job capturing all aspects of the late actresses personality.


Whether My Week With Marilyn (Amazon link) piqued your interest in Marilyn Monroe, you've been a longtime fan or you're just wondering what all the to-do is about, this summer brings some releases sure to interest you.

With August marking the 50th anniversary of her death, both a BluRay collection of her films as well as a new biography are being released. Both the Forever Marilyn Blu-Ray Collection from Fox and Marilyn: The Passion and Paradox of Marilyn Monroe by Lois Banner will be released in July (Bloomsbury USA). (The Blu-Ray collection should already be up for pre-order but I can't find a link - I'll add one as soon as I can!).


Press release about the film collection:

FALL IN LOVE ALL OVER AGAIN WITH THE

LEGENDARY BEAUTY

Featuring Seven Classic Films, Marilyn is Flawless in

This One-of-a Kind Premium Blu-ray Collection Available in July

Celebrate the life, the legend and the beauty of Marilyn Monroe.  The iconic blonde bombshell shines in high definition in FOREVER MARILYN: THE BLU-RAY COLLECTION.  With classics like The Misfits and Some Like It Hot as well as new-to-Blu-ray titles How to Marry A Millionaire, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Seven Year Itch, There’s No Business Like Show Business and River of No Return this unique set of films, those that made Marilyn a star, is a collector’s dream.  Marking the 50^th anniversary of the passing of this Hollywood legend, the seven disc collection will be available as a Blu-ray set and individual titles beginning July 20^th Internationally (Germany) and on July 31^st in North America from Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment.  Starting today (June 1^st), Marilyn fans around the world can pre-order the Collection with online retailers.

The Misfits

A sexy divorcée falls for an over-the-hill cowboy who is struggling to maintain his romantically independent lifestyle in early-sixties Nevada.

Some Like It Hot

When two musicians witness a mob hit, they flee the state in an all-female band disguised as women, but further complications set in.

How to Marry A Millionaire

Three women set out to find eligible millionaires to marry, but find true love in the process.

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes

Two singers, best friends Lorelei Lee and Dorothy Shaw travel to Paris pursued by a private detective hired by Lorelei's fiancé's disapproving father to keep an eye on her, a rich, enamoured old man and many other doting admirers.

Seven Year Itch

When his family goes away for the summer, a so far faithful husband is tempted by a beautiful neighbor

There’s No Business Like Show Business

Molly and Terry Donahue, plus their three children, are The Five Donahues. Son Tim meets hat-check girl Vicky and the family act begins to fall apart.

River of No Return

A frontier farmer takes off with his son and a saloon singer after the man who stole his rifle and his horse.

About Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment

Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment, LLC (TCFHE) is a recognized global industry leader and a subsidiary of Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation, a News Corporation company. Representing 75 years of innovative and award-winning filmmaking from Twentieth Century Fox, TCFHE is the worldwide marketing, sales and distribution company for all Fox film and television programming, acquisitions and original productions on DVD, Blu-ray Disc Digital Copy, Video On Demand and Digital Download. The company also releases all products globally for MGM Home Entertainment. Each year TCFHE introduces hundreds of new and newly enhanced products, which it services to retail outlets from mass merchants and warehouse clubs to specialty stores and e-commerce throughout the world.

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and Marilyn: The Passion and Paradox of Marilyn Monroe:

Like her art, Marilyn Monroe was rooted in paradox: She was a powerful star and a childlike waif; a joyful, irreverent party girl with a deeply spiritual side; a superb friend and a narcissist; a dumb blonde and an intellectual. No previous biographer has recognized—much less attempted to analyze—most of these aspects of her personality. Lois Banner has. Since Marilyn’s death in August of 1962, the appetite for information about her has been insatiable. Biographies of Marilyn abound, and whether these books are sensational or flawed, Marilyn’s fans have always come out in bestselling numbers. This time, with Lois Banner’s Revelations, the fans won’t be disappointed. This is no retread of recycled material. As one of the founders of the field of women’s history, Banner will reveal Marilyn Monroe in the way that only a top-notch historian and biographer could. In researching Revelations, Banner’s credentials opened doors. She gained access to Marilyn intimates who hadn’t spoken to other biographers, and to private material unseen, ignored, or misinterpreted by her predecessors. With new details about Marilyn’s childhood foster homes, her sexual abuse, her multiple marriages, her affairs, and her untimely death at the age of thirty-six, Revelations is, at last, the nuanced biography Marilyn fans have been waiting for. (Amazon & Goodreads)

I really love that these are going to give a full perspective and retrospective . . . Between all the movies and the book, it seems like a great way to have a real idea of who Marilyn Monroe was - not just the girl who stood over a subway grate or whose picture gets posted on Twitter/Tumblr.

The book sounds interesting on its own and I love old films done onto Blu-Ray because they look brilliant . . but then together I think it'll be a fantastic combination!



Are you a big Marilyn Monroe fan or have you only seen My Week With Marilyn (if that)?


(Fox Press Release via ThinkJam)