My Week with Marilyn
ActOne Cinema, London, W3 6NA
Wednesday 10th June 2026
My Week with Marilyn
UK/USA 2011
Starring Michelle Williams, Keneth Branagh
Eddie Redmayne and Judi Dench
Director Simon Curtis
100 years ago this month Marilyn Monroe was born Norma Jean Mortenson in Los Angeles, California. She would become known as 'the blonde bombshell' after breaking into Hollywood in a series of high profile comedies and dramas. Her talents both as a comedic and dramatic actress are undoubted but her extraordinary fame and iconic status in popular culture went far beyond cinema and continue to this day - in spite of her untimely and tragic death at only 36 years old. Marilyn's performances in Some Like it Hot, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, The Seven Year Itch and The Misfits are timeless - indeed she lights up any movie in which she appears.
In 1956 she appeared alongside Laurence Olivier in an independent British picture - The Prince and the Showgirl - an adaptation of a comic play by Terence Rattigan which Olivier also produced and directed. This meeting of two very different performers - playing a chorus girl on the London stage and a minor European royal - makes for a curates egg of a film but My Week with Marilyn, which tells of its making, is a delight from start to finish. Michelle Williams is entrancing as Monroe while Branagh plays Olivier as an egotistical stuffed shirt - irritated by his co-star's behaviour on and off set and snobbish about her acting ability. Based on a memoir by Colin Clarke (played by Eddie Redmayne) the result is funny, touching and true - an unlikely and bewitching liaison between two young people who are thrown together by circumstances. A fine British cast, glossy production design and authentic locations complete the picture.
UK/USA 2011
Starring Michelle Williams, Keneth Branagh
Eddie Redmayne and Judi Dench
Director Simon Curtis
100 years ago this month Marilyn Monroe was born Norma Jean Mortenson in Los Angeles, California. She would become known as 'the blonde bombshell' after breaking into Hollywood in a series of high profile comedies and dramas. Her talents both as a comedic and dramatic actress are undoubted but her extraordinary fame and iconic status in popular culture went far beyond cinema and continue to this day - in spite of her untimely and tragic death at only 36 years old. Marilyn's performances in Some Like it Hot, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, The Seven Year Itch and The Misfits are timeless - indeed she lights up any movie in which she appears.
In 1956 she appeared alongside Laurence Olivier in an independent British picture - The Prince and the Showgirl - an adaptation of a comic play by Terence Rattigan which Olivier also produced and directed. This meeting of two very different performers - playing a chorus girl on the London stage and a minor European royal - makes for a curates egg of a film but My Week with Marilyn, which tells of its making, is a delight from start to finish. Michelle Williams is entrancing as Monroe while Branagh plays Olivier as an egotistical stuffed shirt - irritated by his co-star's behaviour on and off set and snobbish about her acting ability. Based on a memoir by Colin Clarke (played by Eddie Redmayne) the result is funny, touching and true - an unlikely and bewitching liaison between two young people who are thrown together by circumstances. A fine British cast, glossy production design and authentic locations complete the picture.
