At the start of this year, France’s premier weekly magazine, Paris Match declared across it’s front cover that 2012 would be the year of Marilyn! After almost thirty further covers on French magazines alone since the start of this year and Marilyn’s image being the face of the 2012 film festival in Cannes, it turned out to be an accurate prediction.
The French have had a love affair with Marilyn that has endured over sixty years, from her beginnings in John Huston’s, The Asphalt Jungle and her last completed film The Misfits, Marilyn Monroe has marked the history of world cinema with unforgettable hits such as Some Like It Hot, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, River Of No Return and The Seven Year Itch.With the help of exclusive interviews from the likes of Marilyn’s half sister, Bernice Miracle and more than 300 rare images, this book looks back on the career of this extraordinary woman who 50 years after her death continues to fuel the fantasies of the living today.In the preface, written by Brigitte Bardot, she reflects on her chance encounter with Marilyn on October 29th, 1956 at the Empire Cinema in Leicester Square, London while waiting to meet Queen Elizabeth at the Royal Film Performance.
She writes;- “Beautiful blonde in a gold dress neckline to the ankles, she did not bother protocol. One wanted to kiss her as her cheeks were pink and fresh. Her hair ran down her neck and around her ears, she looked as she was just out of her bed, happy and natural!I found myself in the “Ladies” with her, I pulled my messy hair up and in a hurry and unpick the “tulle” that covered my breasts, she, seeing herself in the mirror, smiling left, then right. She smelled of Chanel No. 5. I adored her, watched her, fascinated, forgetting my hair.
I wanted to be “HER”, having her own personality and character.It was the first and last time in my life I saw her, she seduced me in 30 seconds.It emanated from her graceful fragility, soft playfulness, I’ll never forget her and when I learned the news of her death a few years later, I had a very painful pinch in the heart as if a very loved person just leave me.A stunning tribute to the greatest among the great.
By Fraser Penney
