Andrew Dominik’s Blonde explores the less celebrated side of Marilyn Monroe

Chopper director Andrew Dominik delves deeper into the life of an icon with his new feature, Blonde.

Ana de Armas as Marilyn Monroe in Blonde. Picture: Netflix

Andrew Dominik is having a moment. The garrulous, opinionated 54-year-old Los Angeles-based Australian filmmaker who blazed onto screens at the turn of the millenium with the cult classic film, Chopper, today counts some of the entertainment industry’s heavyweights, including Nick Cave and Brad Pitt as friends and collaborators.

He’s also the man behind one of the most hotly anticipated films of the year, the Marilyn Monroe Netflix movie, Blonde (you’ll have seen the images which the streamer is dripfeeding into social media with increasing frequency). The project has been in gestation for twelve years - it will be Dominik’s third film produced by Pitt, after 2007’s The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford and 2012’s Killing Them Softly - and it stands aloft even among the star-studded line up for the upcoming Venice Film Festival, where it will premiere.

Back home, where he is also due some recognition, Dominik’s two recent films with Cave, One More Time with Feeling, and This Much I Know to Be True, will screen at the Melbourne International Film Festival in the coming weeks, as will a tribute to his debut Chopper.

I met up with Dominik earlier this year at the Berlin Film Festival for This Much I Know to Be True, a beautifully realised film where Dominik examines Cave and Warren Ellis’s creative relationship as they perform songs from their last two studio albums, Ghosteen (with The Bad Seeds) and Carnage (with Ellis). But conversation at the time was dominated by another topic - the movie trade press were mostly concerned with the reason behind Blonde being given a restrictive NC-17 rating for the US.

Los Angeles-based Australian filmmaker Andrew Dominik.

“I thought the NC-17 rating was undeserved,” Dominik says. “It was more about who was in the scene than what the scene was. If I look at an episode of Euphoria or The Deuce, it’s way more graphic than my movie. So I don’t know what the ratings board were doing. It doesn’t seem to me to reflect community standards, not when the biggest song of the year is, like, Wet Ass Pussy.”

The scene he’s talking about is believed to be a rape, but Dominik has said he feels the film has come under scrutiny for taking on American “sacred cows”, rather than for its graphic violence.

The film, which Dominik adapted from the novel by Joyce Carol Oates – who reportedly approves of his interpretation – is about Monroe’s “inner life”. “She was an unwanted child whose mother tried to kill her,” Dominik explains. “And she becomes the most desired woman of her time. I think she is not able to cope with what’s projected at her and she ends up killing herself. So it’s a brutal movie and it’s beautiful. It sort of swims in those waters that are very dicey these days, like anything about women and sexuality, particularly in America – they freak out about all that stuff. So it’s got the potential to be controversial. It’s not controversial to me, but it’s tough for some people to swallow.”

In a casting coup, Monroe is played by Cuban actor Ana de Armas, who stole the show from Daniel Craig in Knives Out and worked with him on the final Bond movie. “Ana is one of the greatest actors I’ve ever seen,” Dominik says. “When people see her in this movie, she is going to be the most desired woman on the planet.”

Pitt has been behind him all the way - the A-lister’s support for Dominik cemented him in Hollywood. The back story is that Pitt, reportedly a fan of Chopper (the film), had championed Dominik’s Jesse James project. “Brad’s unbelievable. He’s been the best friend a boy could have. He’s very even keeled. He’s very good at bringing disparate parties to the table and seeing both points of view. And he keeps his eye on the prize. I mean, Brad is the kind of person who brings beauty into the world – and not just in filmmaking. You go to one of his houses and it’s stunning. He wants to protect the film. He cares about the film and has a very generous attitude towards everything and has a very faithful attitude, which people respond to. He’s become a friend and it’s taken a while, but I love him.”

The level of celebrity Pitt endures might be compared to that of Monroe and Cave. “People have a relationship to a fantasy that they’re projecting on to you and I think that’s pretty hard to deal with,” says Dominik. “Brad’s a tougher person to be close to than Nick.”

Pitt has said Dominik has an ability to plumb the human psyche. He does that too with Cave.

Dominik’s debut film, Chopper.

“On the one hand Nick’s always surprising me, and on the other I’m not surprised. He really has transformed from the person I first met 35 years ago, who was a terrifying human being.”

Cave has evolved into a dedicated family man. He was devastated by the death of son Arthur, and One More Time with Feeling dealt with that. This Much I Know to Be True shows he has recovered. “Nick is living a life that’s incredibly meaningful and kind of beautiful for him. In the previous movie he was somebody taking tentative steps away from trauma and I don’t think the Nick in that movie could have even imagined the Nick in this one. I think he’s realised that honouring his son means caring for everyone who remains, even if obviously the pain is still there. But the suffering’s gone, the unnecessary sort of stuff. He’s got a lot to worry about. Like in 80 per cent of marriages where a child dies, the parents break up. Nick loves (his wife) Susie and he really does not want to break up with her, so he’s trying hard. It’s a beautiful thing to see.”

In Balcony Man, a track from Carnage, Cave sings “What doesn’t kill you makes you crazier”.

“I don’t necessarily think Nick believes that what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger,” says Dominik. “But I think in his case, it has made him stronger.”

I note how the singer looks healthy and doesn’t seem to have aged at all. “Nick’s in really good shape. He’s in really good psychological shape. I think everything he says in the film is pure sanity. You know, he’s incredibly responsible. He’s a much nicer person than he used to be,” Dominik chuckles. “He’s a beautiful guy. I love Nick and it’s great to be loved by Nick. He’s a wonderful friend.”

Nick Cave.

Still, Dominik’s interest in making This Much I Know to Be True wasn’t to make a documentary about Cave, but about Ghosteen. “I was around when they made the album and I was not in a great place myself, so it was incredibly emotional for me. I love it; it got me through. I really wanted to come up with a way to represent it visually, so the way it was lit and the way the camera moved really was musical and drew you inside a song.”

Blonde premieres at the Venice Film Festival before its Australian release on September 23. MIFF Ambassador Screening and special Hear My Eyes: Chopper event takes place in Sydney on 27 August