On none is the grandeur and servitude of stardom visited more brutally than on the sex symbols. Owing their fame to their bodies they seldom escape the indignity of being thought of as ‘only a body’ or ‘the girl with the shape’, or simply ‘a piece of flesh’.
While this is primarily a picture book of Bruno Bernard’s photographs of Marilyn Monroe from young model, Norma Jean (the ‘e’ dropped off Jeane here) to some of Marilyn’s highlights in Hollywood, in particular the re-filming of the famous ‘The Seven Year Itch’ skirt blowing scene captured in the studio.
What is interesting is the text, Susan has incorporated her fathers own writings , much of it originally written for Requiem For Marilyn, an earlier Bruno Bernard book, where he tries explores the depth of her character, he writes about some of the myths surrounding her death and the people responsible for them, supported by his own investigative evidence and correspondence with some of the people involved or not as the case may be. I feel at times it seems out of place but it does go deeper than other books of this forte. However, the introductions by Lindsay Lohan and Jane Russell are fine and very charming and fit in perfectly.
With so many books being published on Marilyn recently, and as 2012 marks the fiftieth anniversary of her death, publishers are looking for something that’s not anodyne and dull to appeal to a mass public as interest in Marilyn Monroe’s life and career soars and is going through a renaissance. It’s no surprise that we are treated to another book on her from the Bernard of Hollywood archives. This time they have produced a stunning book and the photographs themselves would have been more than enough.
By Fraser Penney
