Some Like It Hot Movie Analysis

In the two movies of the week Some Like it Hot by Billy Wilder and My Week with Marilyn by Simon Curtis The idea of the gaze was presented heavily in many scenes in both movies. Marilyn Monroe is well known for playing the role of the sexy, erotic goddess that attract both the attention of men and women, audience and cast. Marilyn Monroe was portrayed in both movies as a character that directors apply the idea of selective use on, In other words she was selected to play certain characters and personas and had to hide the other traits and not show them on camera. To clarify Marilyn was selected to play the role of the girl that is searching for the millionaire who she will marry and will change her life forever, which is also related to the idea of the american dream.In addition she was selected as a star in many movies for
looking sexy and attractive and for her impressive dancing and singing skills. However these great traits are what attracted people to her and therefore men had to stare and gaze at her from the idea of the male gaze.
The male gaze happens when the character is at the centre specially women, sometimes unaware of being looked at, but it signifies sexuality and and pleasure. In Both movies Marilyn was the biggest star and the centre of attention so the gaze was from men and women, men as a sexual object for pleasure, women gazed because of her impressive beauty and performances skills. The gaze was seen in many scenes for example when she took off all her clothes and she was going in the lake in the movie My week with Marilyn, the cameraman made great shot by showing how she was displayed as a pleasure object and was never understood as a human, with feelings and emotions that needs love for her personality too. However the Selective use of Marilyn showed her other traits that were always repressed in her, for example that she never had a father figure to love her and care for her. In addition that all her marriages and relationships were fails because her husbands married her only for her beauty and fame not
personality. However this explains the reason why the second film’s genre is drama, it clearly shows that the misunderstood of Marilyn made her job even harder and her life a mess that she was an addict to pills and alcohol. Both the male and the female gaze were present, the male gaze as I stated was for male pleasure and the female gaze as in Some Like it Hot by the two men who dressed up like women to display homosexuality and that it was present at this time. The use of the male and the female gaze helped the audience by giving them pleasure as looking at a piece of art,in addition helped people to develop a sense of understanding to her miserable situation and sympathy that she was just seen as a sex object and nothing more than a doll , which was the reason of her misery in both films. In addition also to the idea of class struggle and how in the first movie Marilyn was willing to be sold to any rich man explains the struggle of the poor that needs shelter, after any major disasters. She was viewed as a sexy woman, whom is also rebelling against social norms and wearing whatever she likes obligating people to accept her the way she is. One of the major problems Marilyn was facing and struggling with in both the movies was the schism between her actual self and the star that everybody knew. Marilyn as a great actress she portrayed her role of the sex symbol that is wild and free, besides everybody forgot her inner feelings of lacking security and love, which was left for the audience to be questioned. As was mentioned in the lecture there is a mutual relationship between the role that the character plays and the real persona of the character, however because both didn’t match well in Marilyn's personality her character fell apart and she had to struggle with medications.