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My Week With Marilyn & The Prince, The Showgirl And Me (2011)

by Colin Clark(Favorite Author)
3.33 of 5 Votes: 5
ISBN
1602861498 (ISBN13: 9781602861497)
languge
English
publisher
Weinstein Publishing
review 1: "I feel incredibly lucky to have been able to spend a few days in the company of the most wonderful, brave and beautiful person in the world".As someone who knows very little about Marilyn Monroe, (Apart from about her death and the fact that she was a pain in the ass to work with) this book was a wonderful insight into how hard it must be to be the most famous woman in the world. Overworked, overmedicated, overencouraged and overnervous Marilyn Monroe came to England in 1956 to make a movie with Sir Laurence Olivier in the hopes that it would turn her into a real actress instead of a sex symbol, meanwhile a young third assistant director keeps a diary of the movie making process and unwittingly becomes Marilyns best friend on the set after everyone gets fed up with workin... moreg with her and starts to hate her.I dont usually like books that are in diary form but this was was nice and easy to take, short chapters and wonderfully detailed information about the movie making process and a friendship with Marilyn Monroe and a lowly third assistant. Colin Clark may not be the best writer in the world, but he's wonderfully honest and didn't seem to take sides in the fight for struggle to control Marilyn and get her to work every day. He was just a nice guy who wanted to help a star, and in a lot of ways I think he did help her. Nothing sexual happened between them, it was just friendship, and how refreshing it was to see between a young man and woman. Sure Colin was sexually attracted to her, every man was back then, but everything was completely innocent between them.This book definitely confirmed a few things I already knew about certain stars, like Olivier being quite self important, and Marilyn being very difficult to work with and that Arthur Miller was just an asshole, but the most surprising thing to me in this book is how it changed my opinion of Vivien Leigh. All I know of her is her horrible portrayal of Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the wind, and i really hate that film! But to my delight it seems that Vivien was just a genuinely nice British woman who also wanted a glimpse of the most famous film star in the world.There's a sense of fiction about this book, one could easily read this and believe that Colin Clark made the whole thing up, but you know what, I believed every word he wrote. And even if it is all made up I'm ok with that too. Sometimes it's nicer to live in a fantasy world than it is the real world and i think if you were living in a world of film stars it would be easy to get lost in a place like that. I think one of the greatest tragedies in Marilyns life is that she didn't have more friends like Colin instead of friends who just wanted her to do what they told her and take pills to keep her doped up. Maybe if she had, her life wouldn't have been cut so short.Still, I believe Colin Clark really did spend a week with Marilyn, and I'm glad I even got to read about it.
review 2: "I feel incredibly lucky to have been able to spend a few days in the company of the most wonderful, brave and beautiful person in the world".As someone who knows very little about Marilyn Monroe, (Apart from about her death and the fact that she was a pain in the ass to work with) this book was a wonderful insight into how hard it must be to be the most famous woman in the world. Overworked, overmedicated, overencouraged and overnervous Marilyn Monroe came to England in 1956 to make a movie with Sir Laurence Olivier in the hopes that it would turn her into a real actress instead of a sex symbol, meanwhile a young third assistant director keeps a diary of the movie making process and unwittingly becomes Marilyns best friend on the set after everyone gets fed up with working with her and starts to hate her.I dont usually like books that are in diary form but this was was nice and easy to take, short chapters and wonderfully detailed information about the movie making process and a friendship with Marilyn Monroe and a lowly third assistant. Colin Clark may not be the best writer in the world, but he's wonderfully honest and didn't seem to take sides in the fight for struggle to control Marilyn and get her to work every day. He was just a nice guy who wanted to help a star, and in a lot of ways I think he did help her. Nothing sexual happened between them, it was just friendship, and how refreshing it was to see between a young man and woman. Sure Colin was sexually attracted to her, every man was back then, but everything was completely innocent between them.This book definitely confirmed a few things I already knew about certain stars, like Olivier being quite self important, and Marilyn being very difficult to work with and that Arthur Miller was just an asshole, but the most surprising thing to me in this book is how it changed my opinion of Vivien Leigh. All I know of her is her horrible portrayal of Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the wind, and i really hate that film! But to my delight it seems that Vivien was just a genuinely nice British woman who also wanted a glimpse of the most famous film star in the world.There's a sense of fiction about this book, one could easily read this and believe that Colin Clark made the whole thing up, but you know what, I believed every word he wrote. And even if it is all made up I'm ok with that too. Sometimes it's nicer to live in a fantasy world than it is the real world and i think if you were living in a world of film stars it would be easy to get lost in a place like that. I think one of the greatest tragedies in Marilyns life is that she didn't have more friends like Colin instead of friends who just wanted her to do what they told her and take pills to keep her doped up. Maybe if she had, her life wouldn't have been cut so short.Still, I believe Colin Clark really did spend a week with Marilyn, and I'm glad I even got to read about it. less
Reviews (see all)
amandayoga
​The book “My Week With Marilyn” was an okay read. This book gives a really interesting point of view of the life of Marilyn Monroe. It’s really interesting how the author got to spend the time with her and experience her real life. The only thing that I didn’t really like about the book is that I felt that the author might have been slightly biased. He seemed to be in love with Marilyn which may have swayed the way he wrote about her. On page 91 he says "'You are the future. Now, come on the set and show those old fogies what you fan do." He believed in her so much and I think he wanted everyone else too as well. He put Marilyn in the absolute best light and justified her actions of her somewhat wild life. Despite this, I did enjoy the book.​Another part of the book that I liked was the way it was set up. It was split into sections. One of the sections was information from the actual time, documented in his diary, that Colin Clark, the author, spent with Marilyn. Another section was many years later. The section documented from his diary, in my opinion, was less interesting to read. One part of what the author wrote about what he thought of Marilyn many years later was interesting to read. He talked of how he felt bad for her and he hoped they'd never regain contact. On page 111 when he's talking about when Marilyn didn't answer the phone he says, "I am ashamed to say that I was relieved." I thought it was interesting to see the contrast in his state of mind from one point in the book to the other. ​I would recommend this book to any Marilyn Monroe fan or to anybody who wants to get a deeper look into Marilyn’s life. It his book really takes you down the path of Marilyn's life while she filmed one of her movies. I wouldn't necessarily recommend it to anyone though because at times the book can get boring and kind of be a pain to read. It can get a little boring reading the diary section, it's a little repetive with some abbreviations, such as "SLO" and "MM". But it's still enjoyable.
chill0323
After all the hype about the movie, I found this book strangely disappointing. It was interesting to hear about what it was like to make a movie in that era, but I think this could have been a magazine article instead of a novel. The author frequently repeated a few ideas: Marilyn Monroe wanted to be taken seriously but kept getting cast as a bimbo; She wanted to work with Lawrence Olivier so that she would be seen as a serious actress; Lawrence Olivier wanted to look less old and stodgy so he hired Marilyn; The cast and crew hated Marilyn.Also, despite the author's profession to worship Marilyn as a goddess, he frequently talked to down to her and gave unsolicited advice. On the whole - mediocre.
bonnzai
Some dull parts, but really afterwards and shows what a old holliwood movie set is like
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