Starring roles in blockbuster hit movies like Knives out, You have no choice but to live.And Gray ManAna de Armas will take over the Marilyn Monroe role in Blonde, a dramatized look at the famed actor’s life. Blonde, based on a novel by Joyce Carol Oates, is an adaptation of a fictionalized version of the beloved star’s life, and joins a large collection of films and documentaries that have been made about Monroe.
After a brief theatrical release, it will be available on Netflix September 23rd. Blonde will be the first Netflix original movie to be rated NC-17 due to “some sexual content.” De Armas has said the rating is unwarranted. Here’s everything to know about what Blonde’s NC-17 rating means for the movie.
An NC-17 rating is what it means
Motion Picture Association of America (MPA) is the organization that rates movies. It was originally established in 1922, as Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America. Then MPPDA president Will Hays and the rest of the organization put together a set of strict yet vague rules that came to be known as the “Hays Code,” which set the precedent for the rating system we use today. Movies produced under the “Hays Code” “lower the moral standards of those who see it,” and placed a specific emphasis on “crime, wrong-doing, evil, or sin.”
1968 saw the introduction of the rating system, which classified movies into G, M and R. The first movie to be rated M was in 1968. In turn, M evolved into PG. Steven Spielberg proposed the PG-13 rating for 1984. This is based on what the MPA deemed appropriate for each audience. Until 1990, movies that didn’t allow children under age 17 were rated “X.” But in the 1980s, the pornography industry also began using the rating “X,” because the MPA did not copyright the symbol, leading to X-rated movies being harder to market. Because theaters wouldn’t book them, and video stores would not stock X-rated movies, the rating was later changed to NC-17.
NC-17 films are more common than titles with a digestible R rating. They allow fewer people in the theater to watch the movie, therefore making it more difficult for NC-17 rated films to earn a profit—meaning the rating has earned the nickname the “kiss of death.” The most popular movie with an NC-17 rating was 1995’s ShowgirlsThe movie earned $20.4 Million of the $45,000,000 budget. The last film to receive the rating was 2013’s Blue is the warmest colour
Why? BlondeReceived an NC-17 rating
Blonde’s NC-17 rating generated a lot of buzz—especially about what it means for the film. The MPA cited “some sexual content” in giving the rating.
Februar Blonde director Andrew Dominik told ScreenDaily that the movie will include a “graphic rape scene.” It is also said to feature a vaginal point-of-view shot. Talking with ScreenDaily, Dominik called the rating “a bunch of horsesh-t.” He said, “It’s a demanding movie. “If the audience doesn’t like it, that’s the f-cking audience’s problem. It’s not running for public office.”
When he began to speak, his tune was changed. Vulture, telling the publication that he was “surprised” about the rating. “I thought we’d colored inside the lines,” Dominik said, adding, “It’s just a weird time. It’s not like depictions of happy sexuality. It’s depictions of situations that are ambiguous. And Americans are really strange when it comes to sexual behavior, don’t you think? I don’t know why.”
Ana de Armas: How did she respond to this rating?
De Armas objects to the NC-17 Rating given. Blonde. “I didn’t understand why that happened,” she told L’Officiel magazine. “I can tell you a number of shows or movies that are way more explicit with a lot more sexual content than Blonde.”
She pointed out that moments in the movie are key to the story. BlondeTo understand Monroe’s cultural role. “It needed to be explained,” she said. “Everyone [in the cast]It was obvious that uncomfortable locations were necessary. I wasn’t the only one.”
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