Remember these photos of Julianne Moore as Bette Davis, Ann-Margret and Marlene Dietrich? I can't remember when they were taken exactly. I want to say 1999?
When did all this start? It's a question for the pop culture historians out there. It's been going on for as long as I can remember. And one of the funniest things about is it people get excited each time like it's a new concept. Remember the hoopla over that Vanity Fair Alfred Hitchcock shoot a couple years back when Jodie Foster did The Birds, Javier Bardem and ScarJo did Rear Window and Marion Cotillard did Psycho and so on and so on and so on?
Often this star-on-star mimicry involves Marilyn Monroe. One might have an easier time listing the people who haven't posed as her than listing the people who have. I'm not even talking about the people who have actually played Her (or thinly veiled interpretations of her) in the movies or on television or stage and that list is even longer.
Here's just a small sampling or Marilyn tributes from Madonna, Lindsay Lohan, Angelina Jolie and Scarlett Johansson.
Yes this has a lot to do with iconic imagery and nostalgia but both iconography and nostalgia predate the birth of Marilyn Monroe. Unless the scientists and the zealots are both wrong and the world began on June 1st, 1926. And if it did why the hell was Marilyn Monroe pretending to be Theda Bara?
But anyway... by the time I was born, Marilyn was already well established as Hollywood's most present ghost and she's never stopped haunting popular culture. [Tangent: The first star that I actually remember the death of was Natalie Wood on November 29th, 1981 since West Side Story, which I watched religiously every time I could find it on tv, was my gateway drug into movie freakdom. Rapid onset Oscar mania was just a few years round the corner. Was I trying to fill the hole that Natalie left by discovering Streep, Close, Hurt & Turner, Bridges & Pfeiffer and all the rest? I was... distraught... to say the least.]
This subject is on my brain since I unpacked that "Life at the Movies" book and saw this photo of Tony Curtis and Natalie Wood doing a silent film Rudolph Valentino & Vilma Bánky thing.
Isn't that cute? But wait there's more. How about Paul Newman as a swashbuckler a la Fairbanks / Power
It's Cary Grant as Charlie Chaplin's Little Tramp and Paul Newman as a swashbuckler. How about that?
Or Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin doing Ben Hur (although I guess that's an instant nostalgia thing... unless they were referencing the silent feature)
{(sorry about the quality of that image. my scanner is busted. must replace)
So let's see...
if the stars of the 50s and 60s (or at least their photographers) were all nostalgic about the silents through the 1930s and the stars of the past few decades have been all nostalgic about the 50s through the 80s... (it does seem to be speeding up. Didn't 80s nostalgia start on January 1st, 1990?). What's next?
When we're all 20 years older in 2031 what are the future movie star portraits going to be referencing. Who and what will people be nostalgic about from this past decade in film? Are people going to posing as Nicole Kidman, Johnny Depp, Michelle Williams & Ryan Gosling, Tilda Swinton or Christian Bale or who exactly? I'm just throwing names out there. Being remembered isn't just about doing strong work. You've got to establish some sense of mythos around your stardom, perfectly embody a type or create a new one, or have enough suitable iconography to live on in distorted visual ways after their stardom recedes.
Jump in those time machines and place your bets.