Bus Stop

Having appeared in 23 films by 1955, mostly playing the role of the naive beauty, Marilyn Monroe took a break from the limelight for a while. She took acting lessons with Lee Strasberg, founded a production company and returned to Hollywood with *Bus Stop*. This emotional maturity is reflected in the film, whose premise – of a boisterous cowboy falling in love with a nightclub singer – only seems typical at first glance. Although Monroe is once again the ‘blonde’ here, she defies this categorisation with a range of qualities rarely acknowledged: she weaves comedy, vulnerability and defiance into a remarkable portrait – particularly given the studio system of the time – of female self-assertion that insists on respect and autonomy.
(Florian Widegger)