Marilyn Monroe, a timeless icon, would have turned 95 in these days. Musa News wants to remember not only the film diva, but the woman Norma Jeane Mortenson Baker.
Myths transcend the boundaries of time and space. They belong to everyone, regardless of gender, age, political or religious faith. They are myths precisely because they have broken down all the fences that can create senseless divisions. They are myths precisely because they have united, unite and will unite. They are myths because we will continue to celebrate them today as yesterday, in a hundred years and beyond. An eternal myth these days would have turned 95, but disappeared nearly 60. When it comes to human myths, the first name that comes to mind is his.
A spontaneous, direct response, a bit like when they ask us which car we would prefer to own and we answer straight away: the Ferrari. Her real name was Norma Jeane Mortenson Baker, but the world, for nearly a century, has known her as Marilyn Monroe. Marilyn Monroe's was a short life, which died suddenly. Made of great joys but also and, above all, of unspeakable pains, of dreams that slowly turned into reality but also and above all of unfulfilled desires.
A melancholy joy
When you look at the eyes of Marilyn Monroe you always have the impression of seeing, in the background, something that resembles a form of melancholy, sadness, a joy that is not completely authentic behind a bright face. Probably this impression is compromised by the fact that we are aware of the sad fate that fate had assigned to it. Or maybe not. The first years of Marilyn / Norma's life already present situations that are too big for a child to live and manage. His mother Gladys, who suffered from mental problems and then the move from one family home to another, with the unbearable aftermath of the physical and psychological violence suffered.
That difficult, sad and complex childhood could not fail to leave indelible marks on the skin and soul of Marilyn / Norma. His three marriages consumed greedily one after the other like glasses of water when one is very thirsty testify to his desire to do everything immediately. As if she knew that the time that fate had allotted to her wasn't enough to fully enjoy the joys of life. All things needed to be done quickly. Always. He was very clear about his goals and pursued them with ferocious determination.
Marilyn Monroe, the Inimitable
Her films, the iconic scenes that have often, over the decades, been shot for desperate attempts to imitate the inimitable, give a sense of what Marilyn Monroe meant for cinema and the collective imagination. Only the genius of Andy Warhol managed to stop time in Marilyn Monroe. That face, immortalized in his iconographies, dated 1967, is probably the best known, observed, reproduced image in the world. That of the American artist was the only way to reproduce something absolutely unique, unreproducible.
The character Marilyn Monroe belongs to many worlds. In the cinema, the world she belonged to as an actress, but also in costume, glamor, gossip. He belonged to the world of men who cut out and kept his photos in their wallets. But she also belonged to the world of women, because in an absolutely masculine and male-dominated environment like American cinema of the 50s, Marilyn had become a star anyway, she had made it: " men as long as she can live there as a woman ”, she loved to repeat and in this sentence there is a lot of Marilyn and the world, only apparently golden, of Hollywood. Politics, sports, literature, are the worlds that Marilyn has touched because of her amorous passions. His world was the world.
Marilyn Monroe, the timeless icon. His last trip
She was an intelligent woman, who had a taste for irony, despite everything and everyone. “I'm going to sleep with two drops of Chanel No.5,” he once joked with reporters. But behind the apparent serenity, behind the glossy covers and the famous loves, there was a woman who had not been able to make her dreams come true. Women's. Having her own family, she who practically never had one, not even as a child. Miscarriages, various and desperate, had not allowed her to raise children. "I'd like to be happy. But who is it? Who is happy? ”He said. An ill-concealed despair that found an outlet in drug abuse. From there the beginning of the end.
It was May 19, 1962 when at Madison Square Garden, he attended the birthday celebrations of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy, and sang in front of about 15.000 people Happy Birthday, Mr. President. Less than three months later, no more than 30 people attended his funeral. Marilyn Monroe was born and died in the most beautiful season, where light abounds. In its short earthly existence, darkness and shadows beat the light. Before the inexorable plow of time, which furrows our faces, glued merciless wrinkles to her beautiful face, before this sacrilegious event happened, someone or something fell to earth and took her away.
To accompany her, on her last journey, the wonderful notes of Over the Rainbow (Somewhere, over the rainbow), taken from the film The Wizard of Oz and interpreted by Judy Garland. From a timeless film, a timeless song for a timeless icon. Greetings Marilyn / Norma, the timeless icon.
Somewhere above the rainbow, the skies are blue and the dreams you dare to dream come true for real One fine day I'll make a wish to a star and wake up in a place where I'll have left the clouds far behind me, (a place) where problems melt like lemon drops, (a place) much higher than chimney pots You'll find me there
Article by Stefano Vori
