The BFI Southbank Announces Marilyn Monroe: Self Made Star Centenary Season

The BFI Southbank announces a Marilyn Monroe: Self Made Star season celebrating the icon’s centenary, including a UK-wide cinema re-release of The Misfits.

The BFI Southbank announces program details for a major two-month season this summer, celebrating the centenary of the birth of cinema’s most enduring film star, Marilyn Monroe. MARILYN MONROE: SELF-MADE STAR, curated by the BFI’s Lead Programmer Kim Sheehan, opens on 1 June, coinciding with Monroe’s 100th birthday, and runs throughout June and July, including a BFI Distribution rerelease of The Misfits. John Huston’s elegiac anti-Western, Monroe’s poignant final film, will be released in cinemas in the UK and Ireland on 5 June.

Marilyn Monroe’s cultural legacy continues to resonate across generations, but many focus solely on her as a timeless sex symbol or a tragic figure shaped by her scandals, marriages, and personal struggles. But Monroe’s achievements, legacy, and contribution to cinema stretch so far beyond this reductive view. She was a dynamic and intuitive performer who knew how to use her intelligence and physicality as well as her style and carefully crafted image as expressive instruments. She was also a determined and ambitious creative who revolutionised the promotion machine, challenged the studio system by striking to protest poor-quality scripts and became the first woman since the silent era to set up her own production company.

MARILYN MONROE: SELF-MADE STAR

MARILYN MONROE: SELF-MADE STAR brings together Monroe’s most memorable and iconic performances and is arranged under three loose themes: Star Attractions, musicals and comedies showcasing Marilyn Monroe at her triple threat best, Dramatic Turns, showing Monroe’s depth as a serious performer, and Scene Stealers, small roles which made a big impact on her career. From her first major role in Ladies of the Chorus (1948) to her final unfinished project, Something’s Got To Give (1962), Marilyn Monroe worked with Hollywood’s biggest directors, including, Billy Wilder (Some Like It Hot, The Seven Year Itch), Fritz Lang (Clash By Night), Georges Cukor (Let’s Make Love, Something’s Got To Give), Howard Hawks (Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Monkey Business).

John Huston (The Misfits), Joseph L. Mankiewicz (All About Eve), Laurence Olivier (The Prince and The Showgirl), Otto Preminger (River of No Return), and with onscreen film talent including Barbara Stanwyck, Bette Davis, Betty Grable, Cary Grant, Clark Gable, Cyd Charisse, Dean Martin, Ginger Rogers, Jack Lemmon, Jane Russell, Joseph Cotton, Lauren Bacall, Laurence Olivier, Montgomery Clift, Robert Mitchum, Tom Ewell, Tony Curtis, Yves Montand and more.

THE MISFITS

Central to the BFI’s centenary celebration is BFI Distribution’s rerelease of The Misfits (1961), Monroe’s poignant final film, returning to cinemas in the UK and Ireland on 5 June. John Huston’s tragic swan song to the Western, written by Monroe’s then-husband Arthur Miller, is a touching and off-beat drama of broken-hearted cowboys and broken-down marriages, co-starring Clark Gable and Montgomery Clift as an aging cowboy and a rodeo-rocked bull rider, both with bittersweet memories of a west that’s no longer wild.

Monroe captivates her audience with a powerful performance, showcasing her raw vulnerability and genuine sentimentality as Roslyn, a delicate divorcee who ventures into the Nevada desert. This gathering ground for misfits, burnouts, and empty bottles becomes a backdrop for her emotional journey, where she unexpectedly falls for a lost cowboy just like herself. If she had been given more time to hone her dramatic skills, the world would have witnessed even more of her immense talent.

In the century since the birth of Norma Jeane, BFI Southbank invites audiences to look more deeply into the cinema of Marilyn Monroe, to appreciate her craft, charisma and ebullience and celebrate the fiercely talented woman behind the silver screen legend, who was truly ahead of her time.

KIM SHEEHAN

Kim Sheehan, BFI Lead Programmer and Marilyn Monroe: Self-Made Star season curator, said,

“Marilyn Monroe was quite possibly the biggest star cinema ever saw and will ever see. She was the original triple threat and deserves much credit for crafting her own image and stardom. In so many ways, she was a woman ahead of her time. I hope audiences come to the season to discover or rediscover the dynamite presence she brings to films like Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and How to Marry a Millionaire, as well as the heartbreaking depth of her work in The Misfits. Even her smaller roles, with scene‑stealing turns in Clash by Night and All About Eve, reveal the range and nuance she possessed. This season showcases the many qualities that made Monroe a singular and enduring force in cinema history. There is no better place to experience them than communally on the big screen.”

STAR ATTRACTIONS

Musicals and comedies showcasing Marilyn Monroe at her triple-threat best

Monroe delivers a luminous performance in her first major role in the long-forgotten B-movie musical Ladies of the Chorus (1948). The then-22-year-old Monroe performs with her natural voice and lays the foundations of her future star persona with her gift for comedy and music, culminating in the catchy, if questionable, sugar baby anthem Every Baby Needs a Da-Da-Daddy.

Marilyn Monroe and Jane Russell make a magnetic duo in Howard Hawks’ classic comedy musical, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953) as two showgirls looking for love and financial security – but not always in that order. Monroe shines as the jewel-loving Lorelei, injecting a nuanced mixture of sweetness, cunning intelligence, and flirtatious humor to the role. Her iconic performance of Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend is the definition of star power.

HOW TO MARRY A MILLIONAIRE AND THE SEVEN-YEAR ITCH

One of the first films produced in CinemaScope format, How to Marry a Millionaire (1953), Jean Negulesco’s vibrant Technicolor romantic comedy, is a visual feast of fabulous costumes and elegant sets, featuring a dazzling Monroe who teams up with Betty Grable and Lauren Bacall on a mission to marry wealthy suitors. However, it is Monroe’s brilliant physical comedy that makes the film so memorable.

Monroe’s first collaboration with Billy Wilder on The Seven Year Itch (1955) created the most iconic image in her career, but also capitalized on her comedic talents and ability to blend sensual sexuality with naïve sweetness. When his wife and son head off on vacation, a middle-aged publishing executive (Tom Ewell) is left to face a scorching New York summer, his overactive imagination running wild, with Monroe embodying the ultimate middle-aged male fantasy.

THE PRINCE AND THE SHOWGIRL, SOME LIKE IT HOT, AND LET’S MAKE LOVE

Monroe produced The Prince and the Showgirl (1957), a collaboration with Laurence Olivier, after her company, Marilyn Monroe Productions, purchased the rights to Terence Rattigan’s play The Sleeping Prince. Although Olivier made the Prince Regent’s role in the stage version very much his own, here he is outshone by Monroe’s natural charm and ease as the vivacious chorus girl Elsie Marina.

Marilyn Monroe is terrific in one of her most celebrated roles, as Sugar, a singer caught up with some unusual undercover musicians in Billy Wilder’s crime comedy caper, Some Like It Hot (1959). Monroe brings an irresistible charm and vulnerability that gives Wilder’s comedic masterpiece its emotional anchor. Her sharp comedic timing and sparkling chemistry with her co-stars, Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon, helped Monroe land a Golden Globe. The season will premiere a new 35mm print created for the BFI, made with funding from the National Lottery and the additional support of donors to our Keep Film on Film campaign.

Although this was one of Monroe’s least favorite roles and only undertaken to complete a studio contract, George Cukor’s Let’s Make Love (1960) holds up as a showcase for her exquisite command of song and dance. Her seductive rendition of My Heart Belongs to Daddy is an electric highlight.

DRAMATIC TURNS

Serious roles that allowed Marilyn Monroe to demonstrate her depth as an actor

Marilyn Monroe thrills as an unstable babysitter in Roy Ward Baker’s psychological thriller Don’t Bother to Knock (1952), starring alongside Richard Widmark and Anne Bancroft. Monroe is so fun to watch, teetering on the edge of madness, veering between fragile, glamorous, and frightening personalities.

Featuring one of her very best dramatic performances, Monroe is the sultry wife of Joseph Cotton’s unstable army veteran in Henry Hathaway’s Niagara (1953), whose presence and troubled relationship unsettles the honeymoon of another couple at Niagara Falls. Sensual, dazzling, and conniving, Monroe’s hip-swinging femme fatale drives this thrilling noir with a skillful ability to use her body as an instrument.

RIVER OF NO RETURN AND BUS STOP

Monroe excels in Otto Preminger’s River of No Return (1954), starring alongside Robert Mitchum’s released prisoner, in a role that pivoted away from the ‘dumb blonde’ stereotype she had been confined to earlier in her career. She brought grit, resilience, and maternal warmth to her character, Kay, while her dedication to her craft saw Monroe learn to play guitar and perform several of her own stunts.

Bus Stop (1956) was the first film Monroe made under a newly negotiated contract for more serious parts, and her unpolished saloon singer Chérie was a meaty role packed with new challenges: an Ozark accent, singing off-key, an unglamorous costume, and unflattering make-up. Monroe rose to the occasion, and the fruits of her studies at the Actors Studio emerged in Joshua Logan’s romantic comedy-drama.

SCENE STEALERS

Small parts, big impact

Marilyn Monroe steals her scenes in Joseph L. Mankiewicz’s classic All About Eve (1950), starring Bette Davis as an aging Broadway star and Anne Baxter as the young fan who inserts herself into her life. Monroe features as another aspiring actress trying to get ahead, and although she only graces two scenes, she pulls focus and makes them count, glowing with her character’s ambition and superficiality.

A man battles against mandatory retirement in director Harmon Jones’ As Young as You Feel (1951). Monroe plays Harriet, a witty secretary. Monroe played several secretaries early in her career, but this turn stands out with her cheeky attitude and a knock-out wardrobe. A woman clearly on her way to stardom.

Cary Grant and Ginger Rogers are in superb comic form in Howard Hawks’ screwball comedy, Monkey Business (1952), with Monroe more than matching them as a scatterbrained secretary caught up in the antics as Grant’s scientist is attempting to develop an elixir of youth. Monroe enjoys a particularly sweet dynamic with Grant and sneaks in some of the film’s best lines.

CLASH BY NIGHT AND THERE’S NO BUSINESS LIKE SHOWBUSINESS

Marilyn Monroe more than holds her own against veteran performers Barbara Stanwyck and Paul Douglas, playing a naïve small-town girl in Fritz Lang’s dark melodrama of sexual tension, Clash by Night (1952). Monroe is startlingly natural as the tom-boyish, gritty, blue-collar Peggy, oscillating with complex emotions, conflicted by 1950s gender expectations and her desire for independence.

Walter Lang’s There’s No Business Like Showbusiness (1954), a glittering ensemble musical structured around the hits of songwriter Irving Berlin, stars Ethel Merman and Donald O’Connor, and follows the adventures of a vaudeville family. Monroe manages to outshine musical comedy legend Ethel Merman with her glorious performances of showstoppers After You Get What (You Want You Don’t Want It) and Heat Wave.

NEEDING ESCAPISM

As a child, cinema provided Monroe with much-needed escapism, but it also nurtured those big dreams for her to become one of the stars she aspired to on the silver screen. Monroe once described being enthralled by Claudette Colbert’s Cleopatra and famously modeled herself on Jean Harlow. Our Marilynspirations Double Bill: Hold Your Man (1933) and Cleopatra (1934) celebrates the stars who influenced her, inviting the audience to view these classic screen icons through the eyes of a young Norma Jeane and experience how they transported her and shaped her own stardom.

In “Marilyn in Her Own Words,” we dive into two powerful documentaries that showcase Marilyn Monroe’s own testimony. These films showcase her intelligence, warmth, and wit, capturing the human side of the iconic star as she tells her story in her own way, just the way she wants it told. Marilyn on Marilyn (2001) is a poetic documentary which uses the audio tapes from two significant interviews conducted with Monroe (by Georges Belmont for Marie Claire France and Richard Meryman for Life Magazine). Monroe’s voice weaves together with visuals from her films and media appearances, along with previously unseen footage from her childhood.

Norma Jean Alias Marilyn Monroe (1987): The audio tapes from Georges Belmont’s interview with Monroe play while actor Catherine Deneuve listens intently and responds to the interview. It is fascinating to hear Monroe in her own words, twinned with the insight and perspective of a contemporary star.

CONTEXTUAL EVENTS

Contextual events unpacking MARILYN MONROE: SELF-MADE STAR kicks off with a season introduction featuring an illustrated panel discussion. Special guests will share clips and reflect on the actor’s life, career, and enduring legacy 100 years on, delving deep into what made her such a remarkable talent and examining how she developed her star image and status. Marilyn Monroe 25 and Under Intro offers a beginner’s guide to Marilyn Monroe, tracing her path to Hollywood and her phenomenal stardom, as well as looking at her artistic maturity and lasting impact on pop culture.

SOMETHING’S GOT TO GIVE

Something’s Got to Give (1962), the final film production Monroe worked on was filled with drama. The shooting faced multiple delays due to Monroe’s health issues, and she frustrated studio executives when she chose to leave the production to perform at President John F. Kennedy’s birthday gala. In the talk, What Could Have Been: Something’s Got to Give, we’ll dive into the different stories behind the film that never came to be and look at the footage that survives from the unfinished project. We are excited to announce a contextual deep dive into Marilyn Monroe, featuring a dedicated Marilyn Monroe Study Day. This event will include engaging talks, dynamic panel discussions, and screenings that explore her stardom, her evolution as a performer, and the ongoing influence of her image on contemporary artists.ists to her iconic image.

The BFI Reuben Library also celebrates Monroe’s centenary with a collection focus, featuring a curated selection of rare and unusual material about the star, including original magazines from the 1950s, as well as author talks. Stay tuned for more information on upcoming season events and guests, including full details and program dates, which we’ll announce at the end of April.

Coinciding with Marilyn Monroe: Self-Made Star, as part of the centenary celebrations, the National Portrait Gallery is presenting an exhibition. Marilyn Monroe: A Portrait, running from 4 June to 6 September

 

 

 

 

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