Andrew Dominik Says NC-17 ‘Blonde’ Is Like ‘Citizen Kane’ and ‘Raging Bull’ ‘Had a Baby Daughter’
“Blonde,” Andrew Dominik‘s Ana de Armas–led reimagining of Marilyn Monroe’s legendary rise to fame, has already made history as Netflix’s first NC-17-rated original film.
Now, Dominik revealed his aims to have “Blonde” premiere at this year’s Venice International Film Festival after taking a “while to cut” the film with Netflix and coming to terms with the streamer.
“Netflix [is] letting me release the movie I wanted to make,” Dominik told Collider, “and even with the NC-17 rating, I think that’s pretty good.”
Dominik, mincing no words, also described “Blonde” as “a movie for all the unloved children of the world. It’s like ‘Citizen Kane’ and ‘Raging Bull’ had a baby daughter.”
Dominik previously told the outlet that he thinks “Blonde” will be “one of the 10 best movies ever made.” Just don’t ask the director about the epic film’s runtime: “Mate, that’s like asking a woman her age,” he joked.
Based on Joyce Carol Oates’ novel of the same name, “Blonde” charts Norma Jean Baker’s transformation into screen icon Monroe, culminating in her death.
“The whole idea of ‘Blonde’ was to detail a childhood drama and then show the way in which that drama splits the adults into a public and private self,” Dominik continued. “And how the adult sees the world through the lens of that childhood drama, and it’s sort of a story of a person whose rational picture of the world as being overwhelmed by her unconscious, and it uses the iconography of Marilyn Monroe.”
The “Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford” director explained that “Blonde” uses images of Monroe throughout her public persona but re-frames those photographs and film clips by placing them alongside her “internal drama.”
“It’s sort of a movie about the unconscious, in a way,” Dominik said. “And it’s a tragedy. It’s sort of like an unwanted child who becomes the most wanted woman in the world and has to deal with all of the desire that is directed at her, and how confusing that is. It’s kind of a nightmare. It’s about being in a car with no brakes. It’s just going faster and faster and faster.”
Dominik added that he was “obsessed” with telling the story of “Blonde” for years prior to writing the script in 2018.
“It’s just some ideas just keep on giving. Some ideas just have ideas, like I always just have ideas for ‘Blonde,'” Dominik said. “I just think about ‘Blonde’ all the time. I mean, there’s other shit that you can do and you just can’t be fucked thinking about it. It’s boring. Or you think about it for a while, ‘Wow, this is good,’ and then you get bored with it, but ‘Blonde’ never did.”
Dominik mused, “It’s probably because the story is connected somehow to how I’m personally wounded, do you know what I mean? And I think the wound is kind of the source of all that stuff. It’s the source of what moves you creatively. So I don’t know, mate, I mean, I’ve just been obsessed with it for years.”
For all the details on “Blonde,” click here.
