The Seven Year Itch
What if Marilyn Monroe had made it to the new millennium?
In her book Pose (2023), critic and essayist Basje Boer imagines what kind of roles modern directors like Quentin Tarantino might have written for Monroe. Her prediction? Complex, layered meta-roles packed with clever winks to her iconic persona, which so often relied on her sex appeal and platinum blonde hair. It’s not such a stretch of a thought experiment. After all, Billy Wilder was already playing with that very idea in his rom-com THE SEVEN YEAR ITCH (1955): a subtle joke where the protagonist casually pretends that the mysterious blonde beauty living above him might just be Marilyn Monroe herself.
That playful meta-touch is only one of many reasons THE SEVEN YEAR ITCH became a classic. The notion that monogamous relationships hit a slump after seven years is another. Especially when you set that premise in a 1950s New York summer, centered on a publisher trying to work in peace while his family is away on vacation. There’s just one catch: when he meets his upstairs neighbor – the real Marilyn Monroe playing her own look-alike – his imagination runs wild. Who could blame him? Try keeping your cool when your charming neighbor’s white dress suddenly billows up over a subway grate.
Featuring an introduction by Dutch writer and culture critic Basje Boer. Using one of her favorite Marilyn Monroe films as a touchstone, she guides us through the world of this unforgettable icon. How has our perspective on Monroe evolved, and how do we view her films and persona today?
She also recently published Drama (2026), a collection of essays in which she searches for an answer to the fundamental question: what makes a story?
