Does Netflix regret Blonde’s NC-17 rating or the whole movie?
Prior to its release this week, the controversy surrounding Netflix’s Marilyn Monroe film Blonde centered on its NC-17 rating. According to reports, the film was delayed by a year as Netflix wrangled with director Andrew Dominik over the final cut, apparently hoping to avoid the rating. Rumors swirled about the extreme sexual content that might have earned it.
The true mystery, however, was why the streamer would care. An NC-17 rating greatly limits theatrical distribution and marketing, making it a commercial disaster for a traditional studio. But this should not trouble Netflix, which typically gives its prestige films like Blonde a very limited theatrical run in order to qualify them for awards. Nor has Netflix shied away from hosting extreme, unrated content (like Gaspar Noé’s sex-forward drama Love) on its platform before.
Viewing the finished film, it’s unclear if Netflix won any concessions at all from the uncompromising Dominik, who told Screen Daily it had recruited editor Jennifer Lame in 2021 “to curb the excesses of the movie.” Blonde, which features an extraordinary performance from Ana de Armas as Monroe, is still plenty excessive. It runs nearly three hours long, contains numerous shocking and degrading scenes, and has an unremittingly bleak tone.
The MPA ascribes Blonde’s NC-17 rating to “some sexual content.” There are a couple of scenes in particular that this might refer to. [Ed. note: Descriptions of these moments involve sexual assault and violence.] The first occurs early in the film, and depicts Monroe, at the start of her acting career, being raped by a studio executive in his office. It’s very unpleasant, but not particularly graphic. This scene is revisited in a later flashback which is more
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