Netflix has dropped the official trailer from Andrew Dominik’s “Blonde,” an NC-17 biopic starring Ana de Armas as Hollywood icon Marilyn Monroe. The movie, based on the bestselling novel by Joyce Carol Oates, will world premiere in competition at the Venice Film Festival.
“Blonde” reimagines the life of Marilyn Monroe, from her volatile childhood as Norma Jeane through her rise to stardom and romantic entanglements. The supporting cast includes Bobby Cannavale, Adrien Brody, Julianne Nicholson, Xavier Samuel and Evan Williams.
The subversive movie is one of the most anticipated titles set to compete at the Venice Film Festival. Cannes Film Festival’s chief Thierry Fremaux previously said he had been trying to slot it into the 2022 lineup but wasn’t able to reach a compromise with Netflix. The streamer hasn’t returned to Cannes since 2017 due to the festival’s rule that all films competing must have a theatrical release in France.
Described by Oates as a feminist film, “Blonde” aims to strike a chord among contemporary audiences. “The way Kennedy treated Marilyn Monroe was not, and is still not as different from the way many powerful men, especially in Washington DC, treat all women except their wives,” Oates told Vanity Fair France.
New stills from the film were released earlier this week, along with confirmation that Cannavale is starring in the film as baseball icon Joe DiMaggio.
“We worked on this film for hours, every single day for almost a year,” de Armas told Netflix Queue earlier this about the film. “I read Joyce’s novel, studied hundreds of photographs, videos, audio recordings, films — anything I could get my hands on. Every scene is inspired by an existing photograph. We’d pore over every detail in the photo and debate what was happening in it. The first question was always, ‘What was Norma Jeane feeling here?’ We wanted to tell the human side of her story. Fame is what made Marilyn the most visible person in the world, but it also made Norma the most invisible.”
“Blonde” releases globally on Netflix September 28. Watch the trailer below.