Marilyn Monroe centenary celebrated with BFI Southbank season and UK-wide re-release of The Misfits

BFI Southbank today announces programme details for a major two month season this summer celebrating the centenary of the birth of cinema’s most enduring film star. Marilyn Monroe: Self Made Star, curated by the BFI’s lead programmer Kim Sheehan, opens on 1 June, coinciding with Monroe’s 100th birthday, and runs throughout June and July, including a BFI Distribution rerelease of The Misfits. John Huston’s elegiac anti-western, Monroe’s poignant final film, will be released in cinemas in the UK and Ireland on 5 June. 

The cultural phenomenon of Marilyn Monroe has endured for generations, though she is often reduced to a sex symbol frozen in time, or a tragic figure with a focus on the scandals, marriages and troubles that punctuated her personal life. But Monroe’s achievements, legacy and contribution to cinema stretches so far beyond this reductive view. She was a dynamic and intuitive performer who knew how to use her intelligence and physicality as well as her style and carefully crafted image, as expressive instruments. She was also a determined and ambitious creative who revolutionised the promotion machine, challenged the studio system by striking to protest poor-quality scripts and became the first woman since the silent era to set up her own production company.  

Marilyn Monroe: Self Made Star brings together Monroe’s most memorable and iconic performances and is arranged under three loose themes; Star Attractions, musicals and comedies showcasing Marilyn Monroe at her triple threat best; Dramatic Turns, showing Monroe’s depth as a serious performer; and Scene Stealers, small roles which made a big impact on her career. 

From her first major role in Ladies of the Chorus (1948) to her final unfinished project, Something’s Got to Give (1962), Monroe worked with Hollywood’s biggest directors, including Billy Wilder (Some Like It Hot, The Seven Year Itch), Fritz Lang (Clash by Night), Georges Cukor (Let’s Make Love, Something’s Got to Give), Howard Hawks (Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Monkey Business), John Huston (The Misfits), Joseph L. Mankiewicz (All About Eve), Laurence Olivier (The Prince and the Showgirl), Otto Preminger (River of No Return), and with onscreen film talent including Barbara Stanwyck, Bette Davis, Betty Grable, Cary Grant, Clark Gable, Cyd Charisse, Dean Martin, Ginger Rogers, Jack Lemmon, Jane Russell, Joseph Cotton, Lauren Bacall, Laurence Olivier, Montgomery Clift, Robert Mitchum, Tom Ewell, Tony Curtis, Yves Montand and more.

Central to the BFI’s centenary celebration is BFI Distribution’s re-release of The Misfits (1961), Monroe’s poignant final film, returning to cinemas in the UK and Ireland on 5 June. John Huston’s tragic swan song to the western, written by Monroe’s then-husband Arthur Miller, is a touching and off-beat drama of broken-hearted cowboys and broken-down marriages, co-starring Clark Gable and Montgomery Clift as an aging cowboy and a rodeo-rocked bull rider, both with bittersweet memories of a west that’s no longer wild. Infused with the promises of what could have been if she had been given more time to explore her skills as a dramatic performer, Monroe delivers one of her very best performances, pouring a devastatingly raw vulnerability and a sincere sentimentality into Roslyn, a delicate divorcee who moves out to the Nevada desert, a gathering ground for misfits, burnouts and empty bottles, and who finds herself falling for a similarly lost cowboy.

In the century since the birth of Norma Jeane, BFI Southbank invites audiences to look more deeply into the cinema of Marilyn Monroe, to appreciate her craft, charisma and ebullience and celebrate the fiercely talented woman behind the silver screen legend, who was truly ahead of her time.  

“Marilyn Monroe was quite possibly the biggest star cinema ever saw and will ever see,” says Sheehan. “She was the original triple threat and deserves much credit for crafting her own image and stardom. In so many ways she was a woman ahead of her time. I hope audiences come to the season to discover or rediscover the dynamite presence she brings to films like Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and How to Marry a Millionaire, as well as the heartbreaking depth of her work in The Misfits. Even her smaller roles, with scene‑stealing turns in Clash by Night and All About Eve, reveal the range and nuance she possessed. This season showcases the many qualities that made Monroe a singular and enduring force in cinema history. There is no better place to experience them than communally on the big screen.”   

Contextual events unpacking Marilyn Monroe: Self Made Star kick off with a season introduction featuring an illustrated panel discussion. Special guests will share clips and reflect on the actor’s life, career and enduring legacy 100 years on, delving deep into what made her such a remarkable talent and examining how she developed her star image and status. Marilyn Monroe 25 and Under Intro offers a beginner’s guide to Monroe, tracing her path to Hollywood and her phenomenal stardom, as well as looking at her artistic maturity and lasting impact on pop culture.

Something’s Got to Give (1962), the final film production Monroe worked on was marred with drama. The shooting was delayed on several occasions due to Monroe’s health and Monroe upset studio executives when she left the production to sing at President John F. Kennedy’s birthday gala. In the talk, What Could Have Been: Something’s Got to Give, we’ll dive into the different stories behind the film that never came to be and look at the footage that survives from the unfinished project. In addition, a contextual deep dive into Monroe is being planned with a dedicated Marilyn Monroe Study Day of talks, panel discussions and screenings analysing her stardom, her evolution as a performer and how artists have continued to respond to her image. Full event schedule for the study day to follow. 

The BFI Reuben Library also celebrates Monroe’s centenary with a collection focus, featuring a curated selection of rare and unusual material about the star, including original magazines from the 1950s, as well as author talks. Further season events and guests with full details and programme dates will be announced separately at the end of April.

Coinciding with Marilyn Monroe: Self Made Star, as part of the centenary celebrations, the National Portrait Gallery are presenting an exhibition Marilyn Monroe: A Portrait, running from 4 June to 6 September.

Tickets for BFI Southbank screenings are on sale to BFI Patrons on 5 May, BFI Members on 6 May, and to the general public on 8 May.