She was one of the most beautiful women ever to emerge on the Hollywood scene, the dark hair and violet eyes a stunning combination. She made some fine films (I liked her in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and Suddenly, Last Summer), and she won two best-actress Oscars: one for Butterfield 8 (which I haven’t seen), and one for Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (which I have seen and positively loathe; the incessant, monstrous on-screen fighting between Taylor and Richard Burton might just as easily have come from one of their own home movies).
Elizabeth Taylor led a very messy life, but still…one of the last of the screen giants, unforgettable.
Dead at 79.
Update: Well, now, that's weird.
Butterfield 8 is a pretty good movie. The screenplay is taken from a book of the same name by John O'Hara who should be mentioned with Fitzgerald, Hemingway, and Faulkner as fundamentally reshaping the modern novel as an American concept.
ReplyDeleteWatch her in Taming of the Shrew. Great stuff.
ReplyDeleteRetread
Hopefully her ride up to Big Daddy will be Velvet smooth.
ReplyDeleteI can only think of two others from that era that are still with us. Those would be Mickey Rooney and Maureen O'hara. Love to be proven wrong on that.
Some great memorable films. Have 'Cat' on DVD and Taylor's performance is awesome.
ReplyDeleteCan't imagine Cleopatra looking like anyone else. Can't imagine the past 60 years without Taylor. And isn't National Velvet the greatest growing-up movie ever?
Ever noticed she never did stage drama? Didn't have the voice. On Burton's first day as Marc Antony he said he couldn't hear her, missed the cues.
Well put, Mr. President, er, Paco [I'm getting ahead of myself here].
ReplyDeleteQuoted from and Linked to at:
Elizabeth Taylor RIP
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/8405620/Elizabeth-Taylor-arrives-late-for-her-own-funeral.html
ReplyDelete"The service began 15 minutes after its announced start time in observance of Taylor's parting wish that her funeral start late, her publicist Sally Morrison said."
Elizabeth Taylor was magnetic in her youth.
ReplyDeleteRe: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
I was reading a book of Tennessee Williams short stories and a friend told me to watch Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. So a couple days later I rented it and I was shocked. It was nothing like Williams' other work and apparently Ms. Taylor was such a good actress that I didn't even recognize her anywhere in the movie. The music and the singing was surprising but not as much as the change in Tennessee Williams' themes. I rambled on about it for 10-15 minutes before one of my so-called friends finally pointed out that I had rented Fiddler on the Roof instead of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf
I haven't seen it in a while and when I did I didn't finish it. I don't recall why but there is something about it that is "sigh, a 1960s movie thats trying too hard."