You don’t often see an NC-17 these days but that’s precisely the rating Andrew Dominik’s Marilyn Monroe movie starring Ana de Armas has been given. The Motion Picture Association revealed that Blonde has been rated NC-17 for “some sexual content.“
Based on the novel of the same name by Joyce Carol Oates, Blonde tells a fictionalized take on the life of Marilyn Monroe. Andrew Dominik has been working on the film for well over a decade and has described the film as “a really sprawling, emotional nightmare fairy-tale type movie.” The director had predicted that Blonde would land an NC-17 rating earlier this year, telling ScreenDaily, “It’s a demanding movie. If the audience doesn’t like it, that’s the fucking audience’s problem. It’s not running for public office. It’s an NC-17 movie about Marilyn Monroe, it’s kind of what you want, right? I want to go and see the NC-17 version of the Marilyn Monroe story.” Blonde will be the first NC-17 movie produced by Netflix, but Dominik praised the streaming service for supporting the project.
It’s much easier to support stuff when you like it. It’s much harder when you don’t. I have nothing but gratitude for Netflix.
Joyce Carol Oates saw a rough cut of Blonde almost two years ago and thought it was brilliant. “I have seen the rough cut of Andrew Dominick’s adaptation & it is startling, brilliant, very disturbing & [perhaps most surprisingly] an utterly “feminist” interpretation… not sure that any male director has ever achieved anything this,” Oates wrote on Twitter. ” An NC-17 rating can sometimes be the kiss of death for theatrical films, but as most will be seeing Blonde streaming on Netflix, the rating probably won’t hurt it.
I’ve been a big fan of Andrew Dominik’s past work, particularly The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, and I can’t want to see what he has up his sleeves with Blonde. The film has experienced several delays but is expected to be released on Netflix later this year. Ana de Armas is currently starring alongside Ben Affleck in Adrian Lyne’s erotic thriller Deep Water on Hulu.