Colin Clark, an employee of Sir Laurence Olivier, documents the tense interaction between Olivier and Marilyn Monroe during the production of The Prince and the Showgirl (1957).
Director: Simon Curtis
Stars: Michelle Williams, Eddie Redmayne, Kenneth Branagh.
Denise Faye ... choreographer: "Heatwave" and "That Old Black Magic"
Jane Gibson ... choreographer / movement coach: Michelle Williams
Audrey Hamm ... assistant choreographer
Kathleen Marshall ... choreographer: "Heatwave" and "That Old Black Magic"
disc just arrived
10 songs in the Soundtracks, 4 Performed by Michelle Williams as MM.
MW is amazingly brave to attempt this role. She does a decent job of capturing her vulnerability/fragility, and they've given her makeup to remind you of MM, but when she's recreating the acting in the fwtf, she doesn't sound like MM. The poster makes her look more like MM than most angles provide in the film.
The staging of the choreographed musical numbers wisely avoids trying to duplicate any moves or costumes from the antecedent films (There's No Business Like Show Business ('54) and Bus Stop ('56)), but still provides MM-esque movement and phrasing.
I watched The Prince and the Showgirl (1957), 7+ Color, fs, {nm} on July 28, 2018, and was surprised at how enjoyable it was; I think of it as a minor MM film, but she shines. This film, MWWM, makes me think about how consistent MM was in her performances. I'd be curious to know how different her persona was from her self; her early films indicate the answer "a lot". Perhaps that's part of why it took so much effort/time to get onto the set and get the lines right. (I'm speculating.)
You'll see MW again in The Greatest Showman ('17) as Mrs. Barnum.
The author of the books on which MWWM was based, and character played by ER, is Colin Clark, whose father was Sir Kenneth Clark, art historian of Civilisation (1969), TV.
Rated 7.0 (78,704)
Weinstein & more, dir. Curtis; 6
