{"id":156718,"date":"2026-03-08T08:11:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-08T08:11:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/156718\/"},"modified":"2026-03-08T08:11:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-08T08:11:08","slug":"marilyn-monroe-fans-can-find-a-feast-of-films-at-moma-retrospective-in-nyc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/156718\/","title":{"rendered":"Marilyn Monroe fans can find a feast of films at MoMA retrospective in NYC"},"content":{"rendered":"

Although her celebrity lasted just a dozen years and it\u2019s been 60-plus years since she died, Marilyn Monroe continues to reign as one of Hollywood\u2019s greatest stars.<\/p>\n

This week New York\u2019s Museum of Modern Art mounts \u201cMarilyn Monroe Celluloid Dream,\u201d a 14-film retrospective, highlighted by her many classics, demonstrating her unique presence and surprisingly expansive range.<\/p>\n

For fans of Marilyn, this is a terrific reason to visit New York.<\/p>\n

The films range from \u201cNiagara,\u201d the thriller that was her star-making breakthrough in 1953, \u201cGentlemen Prefer Blondes\u201d which boasts \u201cDiamonds Are a Girl\u2019s Best Friend,\u201d her most iconic musical sequence, and \u201cSome Like It Hot,\u201d among the greatest comedies ever made.<\/p>\n

\u201cMarilyn is eternal,\u201d assistant curator Francisco Valente said in a phone interview.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we think about moving images \u2014 the bright and dark elements of moving images \u2014 we always go back to Marilyn, because she really embodied our fascination with the contradictions of the industry.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow she was a spectacular comedic performer. How she understood the world she was in, how that world worked. How what she could do in order to receive attention and admiration, something she did not have in her real life.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs you know, she was an orphan basically, moving from family to family. No one really wanted her in real life. She used cinema to receive that recognition and the love that she did not get in her real life. And she understood that perfectly.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe looked at the industry at that time and many of those things are still valid today. How male-dominated it was. Mostly focused on male fantasies.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe industry looked at her and wanted to create a new \u2018dumb blonde\u2019 for a mostly male audience.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe understood that \u2014 and turned it around in her own fashion and created this character called \u2018Marilyn Monroe.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cDespite her own complications and troubles, she managed to embody everything that the industry represented.\u201d<\/p>\n

Valente, 43, emphasized, \u201cThese fantasies are fantasies as filmgoers that we\u2019re looking for when we\u2019re in the darkness looking at a film. Our secret desires. The images we see moving before us? She really knew how to play with it.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you read about her personal interests, you understand she knew exactly what she was doing.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe was not dumb. She was incredibly clever and a great performer. Just terribly insecure, desperate for love and attention, which was something she did not have in real life.\u00a0She found it tragically in moving images.\u201d<\/p>\n

Valente surprisingly includes one non-MM movie but a Marilyn-inspired entry: David Lynch\u2019s surreal 2001 \u201cMullholand Drive.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIn her myth especially Marilyn will continue to spark interest,\u201d Valente concluded. \u201cIt\u2019s our job to suggest there was something behind that myth and help people understand how it worked, how it existed, and why it will still live.\u201d<\/p>\n

The \u201cMarilyn Monroe Celluloid Dream\u201d series opens at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City March 12\/moma.org<\/p>\n

\""Bus“Bus Stop,”1956. Directed by Joshua Logan. (Courtesy Anuvu\/Criterion Pictures)
\n\""All“All About Eve” with Ann Baxter, Bette Davis, Marilyn Monroe and George Sanders, 1950.”(Photo Allstar Picture Library Ltd \/ Alamy Stock Photo)
\n\"MarilynMarilyn Monroe and Jane Russell in “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes,” 1953. Director: Howard Hawks. (cineclassico \/ Alamy Stock Photo)
\n\"NEWThe Museum of Modern Art in New York mounts \u201cMarilyn Monroe Celluloid Dream,\u201d a 14-film retrospective this week. (Photo by Cindy Ord\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

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