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Celebrating Marilyn in Derby

Attention, Midlanders: two Monroe movies are to be screened at Derby’s QUAD Centre, with The Seven Year Itch set for tomorrow, March 24, at 3 pm; and Bus Stop at 2:30 pm on Sunday, April 7. It’s a tie-in with Marilyn, a free exhibition based on photographer Emily Berl’s stunning images of Monroe lookalikes (see here), at the nearby Déda Gallery until April 14 as part of the Format Festival. (The gallery is closed on Sundays, however, so you’ll have to see them on different days.)

Thanks to Lorraine at Marilyn Remembered

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Emily Berl’s Multitude of Marilyns

Hanna Nixon, UK (after Earl Baron’s Marilyn)

Los Angeles-based photographer Emily Berl has been working with Marilyn lookalikes in Tinseltown and far beyond for several years (see here.) Her portraits are now collected in a stunning monograph, and Monroe fans will notice many familiar faces striking classic poses in new settings, and a selection of images posted today on The Cut shows that there was a great deal more variety to Marilyn’s style than is generally acknowledged. Marilyn is quite an expensive book ($98) but the quality is well worth the price, for collectors and art-lovers alike.

“One of the things I have had to come to terms with this project is that it kind of dances with a lot of clichés, like the Hollywood dream, but I’ve realized I’m into that. I think even though they’re clichés, they’re kind of important. They’re not necessarily a bad thing.”

Nadine Banville, Canada (soon to appear in a new movie, ‘Reliving Marilyn’)
Debra Bakker, Netherlands (wearing a dress similar to Marilyn’s in ‘There’s No Business Like Show Business’)
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Marilyn Lookalikes Photographed in LA

Over at Feature Shoot, an interesting series of portraits by Emily Berl, documenting several Marilyn lookalikes in her hometown of Los Angeles – including Holly Beavon, Jami Deadly, Gailynn Addis and Monica Shahri.

“My main criteria for photographing these people is that Marilyn has to be a large part of their lives, either as a profession or something they personally draw inspiration from. I’m less concerned about how much they look like Marilyn and more concerned about their motivations for becoming her. The women I have met through this project want to portray the real Marilyn, not the overly sexualized, overly simplified version of her.” —Emily Berl