C'est fou comme le "corps parfait" a changé en 100 ans

par Nina Bahadur du The Huffington Post
publié le 11/02/2014
online huffingtonpost.fr

Une femme au corps parfait en 1930 obtiendrait aujourd’hui à peine un regard d’un producteur hollywoodien ou d’un agent de mannequins.

Le site Rehabs.com (consacré à la guérison de la dépendance et des troubles alimentaires) a travaillé avec l’agence Fractl sur un projet observant les origines de l’Indice de masse corporelle (IMC) et la façon dont le corps de la femme idéale avait changé avec le temps, comparé à la moyenne nationale. Et leurs résultats ont montré que les mannequins et les stars de cinéma deviennent de plus en plus minces, comparées à la femme américaine moyenne.

Bien que les mesures de l’IMC ne fassent pas la distinction entre graisses et muscles, ce qui ne les rend donc pas vraiment fiables pour établir si quelqu’un est obèse ou non, les données IMC par le passé donnent d’intéressants points de comparaison. Selon le Centre pour le contrôle et la prévention des maladies (CDC), l’IMC moyen des Américaines a régulièrement augmenté ces cinquante dernières années, passant de 24,9 en 1960 à 26,5 aujourd’hui.

De son côté, Rehabs.com a constaté que la différence entre le poids des mannequins et le poids moyen des Américaines est passée de 8 % en 1975 à plus de 23 % aujourd’hui. En bref, l’écart entre le corps de la femme idéale et de celle de tous les jours se creuse.

Tenant compte de cette disparité, des marques comme Dove, Debenhams et H&M se sont efforcées d’inclure des types corporels différents dans leurs catalogues et leurs publicités. Des organisations comme The Representation Project sont par ailleurs en train de sensibiliser les femmes et les jeunes filles aux médias et sur la façon dont elles doivent appréhender l’image sexualisée des femmes à la télévision, sur les panneaux d’affichage et sur Internet (il reste bien sûr encore beaucoup à faire).

En plus des efforts des enseignes et des organisations, revoir la femme "idéale" à travers le siècle dernier nous apprend combien la vision du "corps parfait" est subjective. Les sex-symbols ont varié en termes de silhouette, de taille, de poids et de musculature , de la taille de guêpe de Mae West à la Brindille Kate Moss. Même si la diversité de ces icônes est limitée – elles sont toutes blanches et aucune ne pourrait être qualifiée de mannequin grande taille – cela fait du bien de voir que différents types corporels ont été considérés sexy par le passé, et le seront probablement de nouveau un jour. Voici donc l’évolution du "corps idéal" depuis plus de 100 ans.

La Gibson Girl, 1900-1910

La "Gibson girl" est une création de l’illustrateur Charles Dana Gibson, une femme qui symbolisa l’idéal féminin au tournant du siècle. Gibson a décrit cette représentation – qui était grande avec une forte poitrine et de larges hanches, mais à la taille fine – comme un composite des jeunes femmes qu’il avait observées.

En 1910, il confia à un reporter du Sunday Times Magazine : "Je vais vous raconter comment j’ai obtenu ce que vous avez appelé la 'Gibson Girl.' Je l’ai vue dans les rues, je l’ai vue dans les théâtres, je l’ai vue dans les églises. Je l’ai vue partout et faisant tout. Je l’ai vue oisive sur la 5ème Ave, et active derrière les comptoirs des magasins."

 La Garçonne, années 1920
 

Les garçonnes étaient connues pour leurs cheveux au carré, leurs robes courtes et leur comportement "scandaleux" comme fumer en public et conduire des voitures. Les garçonnes portaient rarement le corset, effaçant leurs poitrines et leur taille, et montraient souvent leurs chevilles ou genoux.

En 1920, un maître de conférence nommé R. Murray-Leslie a décrit les garçonnes comme : "Le type du papillon social… La garçonne frivole, légère et court-vêtue, joyeuse, irresponsable et indisciplinée, pour qui une danse, un nouveau chapeau ou un homme doté d’une voiture a plus d’importance que le sort de l’humanité."

 Mae West, années 1930
 

La star d’Hollywood Mae West n’aurait pas pu être plus différente que les garçonnes. Elle soulignait sa taille et ses hanches, mettant en avant sa silhouette grâce à des vêtements moulants.

West aurait un jour dit : "Cultivez vos courbes – elles peuvent être dangereuses mais elles ne peuvent pas être ignorées."

Rita Hayworth, années 1940
  

Durant la Seconde Guerre mondiale, l’idéal s’est éloigné des courbes inaccessibles de Mae West et de l’attitude désinvolte de la Garçonne. Des stars comme Rita Hayworth affichaient une peau sans défaut et des corps minces, éclatants de santé, assez proches finalement de l’Américaine moyenne.

Marilyn Monroe, années 1950
 

Les sex-symbols des années 1950, comprenant Marilyn Monroe, Jayne Mansfield et Betty Page, étaient connues pour leurs jambes longues, et leur silhouette à la taille de guêpe mais au buste généreux. Des pin-up comme Sophia Loren et Brigitte Bardot transpiraient le glamour.

"Le corps est fait pour être vu, pas caché," a déclaré Marylin Monroe.

 Twiggy, années 1960

Avec la révolution sexuelle, les années 1960 ont aussi marqué l’événement d’un nouvel idéal de beauté – mince et doté de longues jambes. Le mannequin de luxe Twiggy Lawson est ainsi devenue célèbre pour sa silhouette gracile et son look "androgyne" – un clin d’œil à l’idéal des garçonnes.

Twiggy s’est prononcée contre l’idéal de minceur tout en reconnaissant son propre rôle dans sa perpétuation. "J’étais un mannequin très très mince durant les années 1960, mais c’était naturel… C’est ce à quoi je ressemblais," a-t-elle expliqué au Huffington post en 2010. "Je mangeais normalement. J’ai toujours dit que je mangeais, et je ressemblais beaucoup à mon père qui était très maigre. Je pense donc que c’était génétique… Si, à 17 ans, vous faites 1 m 80, vous avez de grandes chances d’être mince."

Farrah Fawcett, années 1970
 

La femme idéale des années 1970 était bronzée, les cheveux libres et un corps svelte et musclé – un look athlétique avec un maquillage minimal ou "naturel". L’actrice Farrah Fawcett était considérée comme l’une des plus belles femmes de cette décennie.

Les années 1970 ont aussi vu l’apparition de l’anorexie chez un grand nombre de femmes s’efforçant de maigrir à tout prix.

Jane Fonda, années 1980
 

Alors que le type du corps athlétique gagnait en popularité, les "hardbodies" – des femmes minces très musclées – étaient considérées comme particulièrement attirantes. Etre maigre était idéal ; être mince et musclée était encore mieux. Selon Rehabs.com, 60 % des mannequins de Playboy dans les années 1980 pesaient 15 % de moins que le poids moyen recommandé pour leur taille.

L’actrice Jane Fonda a incarné cette folie pour le fitness et fut le symbole du "hardbody"- ses vidéos d’exercices d’aérobic se sont vendues à des millions d’exemplaires.

Les top-models ont aussi fait leurs débuts dans les années 1980, comme Naomi Campbell et Claudia Schiffer, dont les corps élancés et minces étaient loin de représenter le type corporel moyen de la femme américaine.

Kate Moss, années 1990
 

Dans les années 1990, les mannequins ont terriblement minci. Kate Moss et sa silhouette de brindille dans la campagne Calvin Klein de 1993 ont été l’origine de l’expression : "héroïne chic" – peau pâle, structure osseuse angulaire et membres très fins étaient désormais à la mode.
La déclaration de Moss est restée célèbre : "On ne se sent jamais aussi bien que mince."

Adriana Lima, début des années 2000
 

Les années 2000 nous ont amené le règne des Anges de Victoria Secret – des mannequins grandes, fines et élancées, dotées de fortes poitrines, aux cheveux fluides et aux corps sculptés. Le mannequin brésilien Adriana Lima est un Ange VS depuis l’an 2000.

Pour en apprendre plus sur le sujet, lisez l’étude complète sur Rehabs.com.

A surveiller: bientôt une nouvelle et dernière enchère de la collection cinéma appartenant à l'actrice Debbie Reynolds sera organisée les 17 et 18 mai 2014 aux Etats-Unis; intitulée "Debbie Reynolds - The Auction Finale", ces enchères contiendront 800 lots, dont peut-être encore, certains se rapportant à la carrière de Marilyn Monroe. RDV sur le site Profiles In History pour précommander le catalogue.

Marilyn Monroe’s Long Island Affair

By Spencer Rumsey
published on January 1, 2013
online longislandpress.com

 
Marilyn Monroe was already one of the most famous women in America when she posed for Eve Arnold, herself a pioneering photographer, at a Mt. Sinai playground and in a nearby marsh in 1955.  (Eve Arnold/Magnum Photos)

 When Marilyn Monroe came out to Fire Island in 1955 to spend the weekend with Lee and Paula Strasberg, who were mentoring her at their famed Actors Studio in Manhattan, she famously remarked, “What a lovely place this is—it’s got water all around it.”

But that wasn’t her first time on Long Island. In 1949 Monroe had visited the Town of Oyster Bay’s Tobay Beach with Andre de Dienes, a photographer friend who’d once been her lover in California when she was still using her real name, Norma Jeane, and struggling to get her footing in Hollywood as a model.

Then she was a budding starlet and she’d come east to promote the Marx Brothers’ forgettable last film, Love Happy, in which she tells Groucho that she needs his help because “some men are following me” and he lasciviously replies, “Really. I can’t imagine why.”

In de Dienes’ pin-up photograph, Monroe was 23 and full of promise. Her troubled childhood in orphanages and foster homes were long behind her. A bright future lay still ahead.

By the summer of 1955 Monroe had become one of the most famous women in America. Her marriage to Joe DiMaggio, the Yankee Clipper, was over, and she’d left Hollywood in a contract fight with 20th Century Fox. Her studio bosses had wanted her to do The Girl in Pink Tights. She balked and formed Marilyn Monroe Productions in New York.

The image of her skirt billowing in the breeze from the Lexington Avenue subway—a still from the 1954 movie The Seven Year Itch—had become “the shot seen ’round the world.” Adding to the attraction was her 1953 appearance as the nude centerfold in the first issue of Playboy magazine, because the enterprising publisher Hugh Hefner had paid $500 for the rights to Tom Kelley’s nude photos that he’d taken of her in 1949, paying her $50 to pose on a swath of crushed red velvet.

The news that the Hollywood star had been fully exposed broke in 1952 when Kelley’s photos turned up in a calendar illustration. Monroe showed her genius for self-publicity—and earned even more money for 20th Century Fox—by owning up to it. In answer to reporters’ breathless queries about what she’d been wearing during the shoot, she said she only had on “the radio.”

At the Strasberg’s place on Ocean Beach, Monroe was sharing a bedroom with their teenage daughter Susan, who was about to appear on Broadway in The Diary of Anne Frank. There were “a lot of theater people” at that part of the island, Susan Strasberg recalled. “They were sophisticates, which meant they stared at Marilyn Monroe from a distance instead of staring up close.”

Over the Labor Day weekend in 1955 Monroe was on the North Shore, staying at Norman and Hedda Rosten’s cottage in Port Jefferson. They were artistic college friends of Arthur Miller’s, who’d Monroe had been seeing since she moved to Manhattan even though they were both still married at the time. Late that September afternoon she left to do a photo shoot with famed photographer Eve Arnold, the second woman to join Magnum Photos, the world-renowned agency founded by Robert Capa and Henri Cartier-Bresson.

Arnold, who was then living in Miller Place, took Monroe to a playground in Mt. Sinai. Monroe brought along three bathing suits and a copy of James Joyce’s Ulysses, which she kept in her car.

“She said she loved the sound of it and would read it aloud to herself to try to make sense of it,” Arnold recalled, “but she found it hard going.”

Monroe had performed Molly Bloom’s sensual soliloquy to much acclaim at a small workshop at the Actors Studio. While Arnold was changing film, Monroe got the book out to read.

“So, of course, I photographed her,” Arnold explained. Soon it was 5 o’ clock, the golden hour, photographers say. “The timing for the marshes was just right,” Arnold wrote, “the light soft and shadowless and ranging from pale yellow through deep saffron.”

Monroe changed into a one-piece bathing suit with a leopard-skin print and waded in.

“She was intrepid,” Arnold enthused later. “She stood in [it], sat in it, lay in it until the light started to go and I called a halt. She climbed out, covered in mud, but she was exhilarated—and giggling.” Later, Arnold would insist that Monroe told her “she had loved the day and kept repeating that these were the best circumstances under which she had ever worked.”

An effervescent Marilyn Monroe manages to get a laugh out of her serious husband, Arthur Miller,
in this series of candid black and white photographs taken in July 1956 when they were the most curious couple in the country. (AP Photo/Julien’s Auctions)

Monroe’s career was nearing its apogee. In the summer of 1957 Monroe was married to Miller, who’d won a 1949 Pulitzer for his tragic play Death of a Salesman. They were living in a weather-worn farmhouse in Amagansett near the Rostens, who were renting a cottage in Springs. Also nearby was the abstract expressionist painter Willem de Kooning, who painted Monroe for his series Women. The image, which Monroe biographer Lois Banner likened to “a cross between a grinning child and a screaming fury,” did not appeal to Monroe’s playwright husband but she didn’t mind. The married couple was in a hopeful phase: He was writing in his studio near the main house and she was cooking and tending her garden. And she was pregnant.

But on Aug. 1, 1957 she cried out in pain. An ambulance rushed her to Manhattan where Monroe hoped that her own doctor could save her baby. He could not. Suffering from a painful uterine condition called endometriosis, she had an ectopic pregnancy, and it had to be terminated. She spent 10 days in the hospital, Miller by her side.

The loss was devastating. When the season was over, they moved back to Manhattan, he ensconced himself in a book-lined study at one end of the apartment struggling over a screenplay that would eventually become The Misfits while she was at the other end, strumming a ukulele and crooning, “I Wanna Be Loved By You.”

The next year they moved to a new house they had built in Connecticut, but they never could recreate the idyllic summer they’d shared on the South Fork. And Monroe’s happy times on Long Island faded into memory.

Derrière Marylin Monroe, toutes les cicatrices de Norma Jeane

publié le 5/02/2014
en ligne sur atlantico.fr

Toutes les semaines, le journal Service Littéraire vous éclaire sur l'actualité romanesque. Aujourd’hui, Claude Delay nous explique que Marilyn était attirée par la lettre M (aime !) comme un aimant (et comme l'indique son pseudo de star).

Les initiales ont un pouvoir. Alors que les initiales BB annonçaient la moue de Brigitte Bardot et titraient son autobiographie, la lettre M attire, aimante, tout ce qui touche à Marilyn Monroe. Mmm, murmurait-t-elle en attaquant (mal) ses phrases. Ce reliquat d’un bégaiement d’enfance va colorer sa vie. Miss Mmm devenue Monroe garde sa relation démesurée avec le M, comme le souligne Claude Delay dans “Marilyn Monroe, la cicatrice”. C’est un livre blond-blanc-rose au-dehors, noir au-dedans. Sur la couverture, une Marilyn souriante et nue ne cache pas l’énorme cicatrice que lui a laissée une opération de la vésicule. Claude Delay explore des blessures plus anciennes, jamais cicatrisées. Rassemblées sous la bannière du M, voici les plus flagrantes :

M comme Mother, Maman. Cette mère, qui se révèle folle à enfermer, était sans tendresse pour la petite Norma Jeane. Plus tard, Marilyn va collectionner les mères de remplacement : tante, tutrice, psys, coaches ou gourous, la plupart ont compris quel ascendant elles pouvaient prendre sur elle. Et souvent, quel profit elles pouvaient en tirer. Mauvaises mères pour Marilyn, la femme enfant sans enfants. Et sans père. L’absence paternelle est si lourde qu’elle appellera ses maris « Papa », ou « Pa ».

M comme Maquillage, Make-up. A son maquilleur, Whitey, elle fait jurer de la maquiller sur son lit de mort (ce qu’il fera). Elle lui doit ce visage lumineux qui crève l’écran, et qui demande plus de cinq heures de travail. Le maquillage comme un Masque ? Plutôt la version photogénique du Mentir vrai d’Aragon.

M comme Miroir. Le miroir est devenu « son partenaire de chaque instant ». Elle y contemple celle qu’elle est devenue, et qu’elle a fabriquée de A à Z. Si loin de Norma Jeane... Un jour, Truman Capote la découvre immobile devant une glace, et lui demande ce qu’elle fait là. « Je La regarde », répond-elle.

Jamais elle ne pourra relier Marilyn et Norma Jeane. Elle est l’une et l’autre, et ne trahira jamais l’une pour l’autre. Ce dédoublement lui procure un tel sentiment d’étrangeté qu’elle se demande souvent qui vit à sa place. Aucune psychanalyse ne pourra l’aider à réunir ses deux moi. Claude Delay a plongé dans la vie de Marilyn Monroe avec une intelligence et une sensibilité peu communes. Son récit sonne juste. « Because it’s the truth », comme le dirait l’actrice elle-même... Cette empathie culmine dans la cérémonie solaire et funèbre qu’est le tournage des “Misfits”, dans le désert du Nevada. Et qui précède de peu sa mort à elle, dans des circonstances restées mystérieuses. Dieu merci, elle rayonne lorsqu’on lui dit que M, en français, se prononce comme « aime » à l’impératif. « Aime » ! Un conseil qu’elle a suivi toute sa vie au pied de la lettre.  
 
A lire : Marylin Monroe la cicatrice, Claude Delay, aux éditions Fayard.

Marilyn and Me, John Stephens on filming Bus Stop in Sun Valley

by Jennifer Tuohy
online blog.sunvalley.com

The Valley Sun introduces a new series from guest blogger Jennifer Tuohy. In Stories from the Staff, she highlights the stories of former employees, talking about their time at Sun Valley and where their Sun Valley experience has led them. In this two-part opener she profiles John M. Stephens, a famed cinematographer who worked as a photographer for Sun Valley from 1955 to 1959. His groundbreaking career included such movie classics as Grand Prix, South Pacific, Titanic, ET, Field of Dreams and Indiana Jones.

John M. Stephens, the famed cinematographer who got his start in Sun Valley. 

One evening in 1956 a 24 year-old kid found himself sitting in The Ram drinking with the cast and crew of a big Hollywood motion picture. One of his companions, chatting and laughing along with the grips, gaffers and cameramen of Bus Stop, was Marilyn Monroe.

Since the moment The Lodge opened its doors in 1936, Sun Valley has welcomed countless Hollywood stars. But stories of the ski resort launching Hollywood careers are few and far between. For the young John M. Stephens, sitting in The Ram that night was not only a dream come true, it was the start of a long, glittering and hugely successful career as a celebrated cinematographer. And it all began in Sun Valley.

A few months earlier, Stephens had been just another kid fresh off a Navy ship looking for a job. He knew what he wanted to do, he wanted to shoot pictures. The Navy had given him a valuable skill, the ability to shoot pictures in extreme, hair-raising conditions. So far, he had been able to apply that skill to the sport of skiing – photographing his pal Doug Pfeiffer at the ski resort he founded in Southern California, Snow Summit. But it wasn’t Hollywood.

After being unceremoniously booted out of the Motion Picture Cameraman Union office, with the words “You’ll never work in this town” ringing in his ears, he joined Pfeiffer on a trip to Sun Valley, Idaho, where the skiing legend wanted to shoot pictures for his new book Skiing With Pfeiffer.

“I went up there with him,” said Stephens, now 80, from his home in Laguna Niguel. “And while Doug went off skiing I went to the publicity department.” He met with Sun Valley’s publicity guru Dorice Taylor and showed her his book of ski action photography. Within hours he was hired.

“They gave me a room in the basement of The Lodge and tried me out that winter.” he said. “I took a lot of  publicity pictures of the socialites that came up, Hollywood people, shooting pictures to send to hometown papers. I’d follow guests around and do a ski action book for them of their vacation. Skiing all the time with a camera.”

Stephens spent a spell in the Sun Valley hospital after breaking his leg during one of the 3 winters he spent photographing for the resort.

After a few weeks of shooting the likes of Gary Cooper, Leif Odmark and Sigi Engl on skis, opportunity came barreling over the mountain. “When the production crew for Bus Stop came up to Sun Valley to shoot, I was sent up to North Fork to take publicity shots of the production,” Stephens said. “I took a lot of pictures of Marilyn up there around Galena Summit and at the North Fork gas station. One day an assistant cameraman took sick and they asked me if I’d help them out for a few days. Dorice said it was okay, as long as I could still shoot pictures for Sun Valley, so I ended up working for them as a cameraman, holding the slate.” 

 
Stephens captured this iconic image of Marilyn Monroe while she was shooting Bus Stop in Sun Valley. "We got to be friends on the set," he said. "She'd come up to talk to me, she was very friendly and very nice."

 While the job wasn’t particularly glamorous, it opened up the closed world of the Hollywood studio system to Stephens. The crew took him under their wing, showing him how to operate the equipment and teaching him the basics of a cameraman’s job.

When another production crew rolled into town a few weeks later, Stephens was ready for them. They were looking for someone skilled and fit enough to ski with a new 70mm widescreen camera that weighed 25 lb, to shoot a promotional film for the first widescreen picture of its kind, Oklahoma. The shots of skiing in Sun Valley feature Trail Creek Cabin, Lookout and some excellent slope and tree skiing down Baldy in the 50s, all filmed by Stephens.

With two Hollywood flicks under his belt, he headed back to the union office and walked out with his coveted card. His next stop was to look up his Bus Stop friends at 20th Century Fox. They introduced him to the head cameraman who hired Stephens as 2nd assistant cameraman on South Pacific.

He went back to Sun Valley for two more winters following his Hollywood breakthrough, and today he says he owes it all to the little mountain town. “It was in Sun Valley that it all got going, Got me into the union and started a career that has been spectacular,” Stephens said.

“John Stephens has gone where the action is,” said the Society of Operating Cameramen in 1994 when it gave him the Technical Achievement Award for developing the first remotely controlled pan and tilt head camera on the Oscar-winning Grand Prix. “A top second unit cameraman and director he has photographed some of the most exciting images ever recorded on film. From breaking new ground on Grand Prix to the exciting bicycle chase in Steven Spielberg’s ET, John has photographed the action from virtually every kind of vehicle, from lear jets to helicopters. (He has survived three helicopter crashes).”

The summer after his final Sun Valley ski season, he was hired to work on Lets Make Love. On his first day on set he was standing behind the camera when a pair of hands slipped over his eyes. “Well, well,” an unmistakable voice said into his ear. “Now what are you doing here?” It was Marilyn.

15 séductrices qui nous inspirent

en ligne sur aufeminin.com

Nous sommes toutes différentes, mais avons toutes une séductrice qui sommeille en chacune de nous. Il suffit de savoir la révéler !
Et pour cela, on n'hésite pas à piquer les astuces des autres. Chantal Thomas en personne et experte èn séduction nous a livré une petite leçon de charme et révélé les secrets de séduction des plus grands stars.

Marilyn Monroe

Actrice emblématique des années 60, Marilyn Monroe crève l’écran dans Les Hommes préfèrent les blondes, Sept ans de réflexion ou encore Certains l’aiment chaud. Des films qu’on adore voir et revoir.

  
The photographer who knew her best tell the stories behind the iconic images
Milton H. Greene, Joshua Green

  Marilyn Monroe's looks and allure made her a desirable subject for photographers around the world, and several photographers built their careers by documenting hers. The only thing more fascinating than the unforgettable images of Marilyn they captured are the memories many of them took home when the sessions were over. For the first time in one place, the photographers responsible for some of Marilyn's most beloved pictures pick their personal favorites.

The Black Sitting - Milton Greene

When Milton first met Marilyn, she said, "You're just a boy." He famously replied, "Well, you're just a girl." Thus began a friendship that grew into a business partnership through Marilyn Monroe Productions. Milton's son and the steward of his archives, Joshua Greene, describes the photos he believes best exhibit his father's work:

To me, the most powerful, important pictures of their collaboration are the Black Sitting. It was never done for publication; it was done completely for their own self-serving needs. Milton was one of those guys who would shoot a roll or two. He didn't overshoot. The thing about the Black Sitting that was so amazing is, it lasted four hours and he shot 28 rolls... 12 frames per roll.

Milton, Joe Eula - my father's friend who was there as a stylist - and Marilyn drank a bunch of red wine, listened to some great music and did this fantastic, amazing series of pictures using essentially a black velvet background over a daybed. The photos are very personal, and they show the sense of humor and sensibility that they shared and enjoyed together. It was just a bunch of kids playing in a playpen.

Also, you don't see any nudity. Nowhere in the photos were there ever straight naked photos. He just didn't do that. Milton did that on purpose so Marilyn wouldn't feel betrayed or inappropriate, and this is a woman who liked being naked and didn't mind shooting naked. But Milton was a classy guy, and it wasn't necessary. To him, it was more the suggestion of nudity than the nudity. And that's what makes them so sexy. This is a timeless picture of a woman looking beautiful, and that's why it holds up. -Joshua Greene

The Actor Photo - Zinn Arthur

A former big-band leader and celebrity in his own right, Arthur found a second career as a photographer to the stars and captured some of the most memorable images of Marilyn at work in Hollywood. He first photographed her on the set of 1956's Bus Stop. Arthur's friend Frank Whitney and Katherine Van Acker, curator of Arthur's archive at the Image Works, Inc., share their thoughts on his favorite photo:

As a collection, Zinn liked the Bus Stop shots because he (and Marilyn) considered it to be her best film, thanks to Joshua Logan's direction. Josh was Zinn's best friend, and Zinn was a great admirer of Josh and his talents as a director. Marilyn loved Josh and how he brought out the best in her, and because Zinn was Josh's friend, she loved Zinn by association. - Frank Whitney

When Zinn was going to show someone, he wanted to be sure it was flattering. He wasn't out to overly sensationalize them or to take an unflattering picture. Zinn genuinely liked Marilyn. He was an entertainer. He understood what it was to be an entertainer and liked shooting them at work. This is a real moment. Marilyn was talking to the director of photography, and Zinn snapped off a few pictures and captured her in a flattering, nice way. - Katherine Van Acker

The Bedsheet Photo - Douglas Kirkland

One of only a handful of living photographers to have shot Marilyn, Kirkland has worked on the sets of more than 100 motion pictures and has shot as many celebrities, from Elizabeth Taylor to Michael Jackson. He photographed Marilyn in 1961 for Look magazine.

This is my favorite photo of Marilyn because it was her favorite. When she saw this photo she said, "That girl is the kind of girl that any man would want to be in that bed with. Even a truck driver."

On the first night of the shoot, she said, "I want a bed and white silk sheet. I won't wear anything but that white silk sheet. And I want Dom Perignon champagne and Frank Sinatra records." You felt like it was the real Marilyn there. The person who was behind "Marilyn." And that was the person I found myself taking pictures with. It was very sensual.

We were flirting like crazy, that's what it really came down to. She asked that everybody leave the room because she "wanted to be alone" with me. The energy was extraordinary, and it went into those pictures. That's why the pictures have been as successful as they have been. She didn't hold back. She gave the camera everything. - Douglas Kirkland

The Misfits Photo - Elliott Erwitt

After serving as a photo assistant in the U.S. Army during the 1950s, Elliott Erwitt went on to become one of the premier photojournalists of his generation, capturing iconic images of

John F. Kennedy, Che Guevara and Marilyn Monroe, among others. He was on the set of The Misfits to take photos of Marilyn hard at work on what ended up being the actress's last film.

My favorite thing about shooting Marilyn was how friendly and cooperative she was. She didn't mind me hanging around and shooting her candidly, even in the more personal pictures I took.

This photograph is my favorite, because it was a monumental task assembling all of these incredibly busy people together for the picture. I was taking publicity stills on the set of The Misfits and wanted to gather all the principal players in one photo. Photographing Marilyn was always easy once she arrived for the shot. The trick was getting her to show up on time. She was always difficult to pin down, which only adds to my pride at gathering her with all these stars for this photo. Now it's a record of the combination of talents present at the time. There was never any secret to get a good picture of Marilyn: Just aim the camera, shoot and let Providence do the rest. - Elliott Erwitt

The Pool Photo - Lawrence Schiller

In 1962, Marilyn was in freefall. She wanted to prove her value to 20th Century Fox and keep her name in the magazines. Lawrence Schiller, a 25-year-old photojournalist whose star was on the rise, was hired by Paris Match magazine to shoot her latest film, which would turn into a stunt of Marilyn's design: In one scene from the film, while swimming, she decided to be photographed nude, and off came her bathing suit. It would be their last collaboration.

A photographer is either a witness to something or he is a collaborator at an event. In this instance, I was both. The exploitation of the pictures was the reason she decided to do the scene nude. She could have done the scene with a flesh-colored bathing suit on and it would have worked perfectly, but she went further because she needed to achieve something else.

This photo became one of my favorites of Marilyn because years later it became my 8-year-old daughter's favorite. I showed her my photos and asked, "What do you think? Which is your favorite?" She chose this one. I said, "Why?" She said, "Because that's a picture that says everything but shows nothing." - Lawrence Schiller

 
"Marilyn Monroe's Lost Scrapbook,"
a Newsweek special issue, is on sale at Walmart, Barnes & Noble
and on newsstands nationwide.

 Marilyn Monroe : ses pensées illuminent les planches
Article publié le 7/01/2014
en ligne sur leparisien.fr

L'actrice française Lolita Chammah ressuscitera l'icône hollywoodienne Marilyn Monroe dans la mise en scène de Fragments par Samuel Doux. Crédits photo : Rue des Archives/© Rue des Archives/DILTZ

Les Fragments de l'icône hollywoodienne, parus en 2010, seront mis en scène par Samuel Doux à Orléans dès le 15 janvier. La fille d'Isabelle Huppert, Lolita Chammah, a été choisie pour donner vie aux précieux mots de la star disparue.

Depuis quelques mois, elle est l'héroïne de la nouvelle campagne de publicité pour le parfum N°5 de Chanel. La robe blanche qu'elle a portée dans Sept Ans de réflexion, de Billy Wilder, vient d'être désignée comme «le costume le plus culte d'Hollywood» par la British Heart Foundation. Le théâtre rend à son tour hommage à Marilyn Monroe... le strass en moins.

C'est l'écrivain, réalisateur et scénariste français Samuel Doux qui a eu à cœur de mener à bien ce projet, rapporte le webzine Écran noir. Pas de comédie musicale façon Smash , mais la mise en scène de Fragments , un recueil paru aux éditions du Seuil en octobre 2010, composé de 104 fac-similés des manuscrits de Marilyn Monroe. Des poèmes, écrits intimes, lettres teintés de désespoir, accompagnés de leurs transcriptions et de leurs traductions. Ces textes inédits, assortis de 33 photos qui présentent Marilyn en lectrice ou en compagnie d'écrivains, éclairent la relation singulière que l'actrice entretenait avec la littérature... et prouvent que sa personnalité ne se limitait pas à son décolleté plongeant et à sa sensualité débordante.

Pour donner vie à ces précieux mots, témoins d'une existence aussi lumineuse que chaotique, le metteur en scène a choisi une autre blonde: Lolita Chammah, vue aux côtés de sa mère Isabelle Huppert dans Copacabana de Marc Fitoussi, qui connaît bien, dit-elle, cet écartèlement entre le désir du regard et celui de la reconnaissance. «Enfant, je jouais à être Marilyn. Aujourd'hui ce qui rend imaginable ce projet, c'est justement de ne pas tenter de l'interpréter, de ne pas chercher l'incarnation, mais plutôt de la retrouver au travers de ses textes d'abord et de mon enfance aussi.»

Un cadre simple, un jeu de lumière

Sur un plateau obscur, où clignotent au néon les noms d'Arthur Miller, John Huston et Lee Strasberg, la jeune actrice donnera corps aux doutes qui tourmentaient Norma Jean. Une mise en scène que Samuel Doux décrit: «Sur la scène la lumière fait apparaître et disparaître la jeune comédienne. Cadre simple, architecture des années 1950, une ouverture, un format long, un écran, une baie vitrée, un ciel ou le vide. Une coursive qui entoure un salon ou une piscine ou la scène elle-même. Nous travaillons [avec le scénographe Éric Soyer] à la fois dans la profondeur et jusque très près des spectateurs. Sans frontières. Est-il possible, dans l'espace, grâce à la lumière, à la distance et au corps, de traduire le flou et le net?»

Samuel Doux a déjà prouvé son engouement pour la face sombre de la belle en mars dernier, avec une mise en lecture de La Fin du film, d'Arthur Miller, qui raconte le tournage dramatique du long métrage de John Houston: Les Misfits (Les Désaxés). Fragments avait, par ailleurs, inspiré la chaîne américaine HBO pour le documentaire Love, Marilyn présenté au Festival de Toronto l'an passé et diffusé pour la première fois à la télévision en juin dernier. La première théâtrale de l'ouvrage, d'une durée d'une heure trente, aura lieu le 15 janvier au Centre Dramatique National d'Orléans/Loiret/Centre pour une dernière représentation le 23 janvier.

De Tokyo à Paris, en passant par New York et Hollywood, enquête sur les traces d'une malle au contenu secret, qui aurait appartenu à l'actrice américaine Marilyn Monroe. L'occasion d'évoquer la vie intime de la blonde la plus sulfureuse de l'histoire du cinéma : des secrets de la star auraient été enfermés dans cette vieille valise. Mais lui appartenait-elle vraiment et comment en a-t-elle pris possession ? En retraçant l'histoire de cette malle, ce sont les étapes importantes de la vie de l'actrice que les téléspectateurs redécouvrent : sa carrière, bien sûr, mais aussi ses amours et sa fin tragique.  
   Pour les besoins du programme, Martin Nolan, commissaire priseur à la Julien’s Auctions, Lois Banner, historienne, David Garrard Lowe, historien, James Haspiel, ancien ami de Marilyn, ou encore Anthony Summers, biographe, ont accepté d’apporter leur expertise à l’écran.