Norma Jeane Mortenson Baker was born on June 1, 1926, and died at thirty-six, after an acting career spanning just thirteen years, with twenty or so minor roles and a dozen leading roles. First trapped in the cliché of the ditzy blonde, then a leading lady, but also a victim of a contagious popularity fueled by the magic of Technicolor, her photogenic nature, and above all, the explosive power of her sensuality. It was Billy Wilder, with "The Seven Year Itch" and "Some Like It Hot," who finally introduced the world to Marilyn Monroe's genius, her talents as a comedic performer, capable of mocking Yankee puritanism.
In collaboration with the Cineteca di Bologna
A hundred years after her birth, we celebrate the icon Monroe, in collaboration with the Cineteca di Bologna, with four masterpieces in which she starred ("Some Like It Hot," "The Seven Year Itch," "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes," and "The Misfits"), directed by three giants of classic American cinema: Billy Wilder, Howard Hawks, and John Huston.
Revisiting the films in which Marilyn illuminated with her presence will be the best way to rediscover and honor her, to recognize her absolute, incandescent, and uncomfortable uniqueness.