Showing posts with label
Elizabeth Taylor Film Festival.
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Showing posts with label
Elizabeth Taylor Film Festival.
Show all posts
For a performer of her magnitude, Taylor made some daring choices from the latter part of the 1960s onward, including a bickering, less-than glamorous housewife in Mike Nichols’ Who’s Afraid of Virigina Woolf (starring alongside her equally famous husband, Richard Burton) to eyebrow-raising performances in a couple of Joseph Losey movies (Boom, Secret Ceremony).
Many of Taylor-s die-hard fans were less than enthusiastic about much of her later work, films they that considered beneath her talents. Even sleazy.
Identikit, a 1974 Italian film directed by Giuseppe Petroni Griffi, may, on the surface, seem like one of these “sleazy” entries in Taylor’s filmography. And it is an odd movie, to be sure. But it is also fascinating as hell.
Lise (Taylor) is slowly unraveling. A middle-aged American living in Copenhagen, she boards a plane bound for Rome, for what she tells friends will be a much-needed holiday. She arrives in the city during a tumultuous time; radicals are chased through the airport and there’s even a terrorist bombing.
On top of that, local detectives and Interpol agents are circulating pictures of Lise, asking questions of anyone and everyone who came into contact with her recently. Through it all, the emotionally unstable Lise continues to meet people, including Bill (Ian Bannen), an oversexed Brit who swears that the macrobiotic diet has changed his life; a member of the English aristocracy (played by none other than Andy Warhol); and Helen Fiedke (Mona Washbourne), a kindly elderly woman with whom Lise goes shopping one afternoon.
But Lise is looking for more than a good deal at the mall. She wants to form a connection with the “right person”, someone she hopes will be willing to help her carry out a very specific task.
Taylor holds nothing back in her performance, taking Lise from excessively arrogant one moment (she is condescending to sales clerks and maids) to confused and out-of-touch the next (while shopping with Mrs. Liedke, the two head into the bathroom. When Mrs. Liedke goes into a stall and does not respond to Lise, Lise walks out, saying nothing to the bathroom attendant except that the woman in the stall might need help).
When it comes to men, Lise seems equally bewildered. She does not like Bill, yet meets with him on two separate occasions; and once even finds herself alone with seemingly Good Samaritan Carlo (Guido Mannari), who offers her a lift, then drives her to a secluded spot and attempts to rape her. Taylor handles the characters odd mannerisms perfectly, and while we do not always like her, we are captivated by Lise, and on the edge of our seats as her story unfolds.
Director Petroni Griffi expertly builds the mystery surrounding Lise, intercutting flashbacks, flash-forwards, and even a few shocking moments (like a rebel tossing a grenade at a moving vehicle).
Throughout the film, the police interview those who have had run-ins with Lise, some of whom are questioned more intensely than others. Carlo is subjected to a particularly grueling interrogation, a flash-forward that occurs before we the audience even see what transpired between he and Lise.
All the while, we’re wondering what it is that the authorities are after? Did Lise commit a crime? Did she fly to Rome to hide out? Or is it something else?
All questions are answered in the film’s final 10 minutes, and I admit I was surprised by a lot of what transpired towards the end.
Based on the Muriel Spark novel “The Drivers Seat” (which was the film’s title in North America), Identikit is, along with its more bizarre elements, a beautifully shot motion picture. Cinematographer Vittorio Storaro occasionally interjects moments of natural beauty, which momentarily break the story’s tension. This plus the soft piano score by Franco Mannino make Identikit a movie of contradictions, where art occasionally eclipses the chaos.
Thanks to Liz Taylor, and an intriguing storyline that seems fractured at first only to be expertly assembled over time, Identikit is incredibly engaging.
Rating: 9 out of 10
Directed By: Joseph L. Mankiewicz
Starring: Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, Rex Harrison
Tagline: "The motion picture the world has been waiting for!"
Trivia: Joan Collins was cast in the title role in 1958, but after several delays she became unavailable
20th Century Fox’s Cleopatra took years to complete, and a series of calamities caused its budget to skyrocket. Actors came and went (which led to a multitude of reshoots). Lavish sets were built at Pinewood Studios in London, then demolished when the production shifted to Italy. Finely-detailed props were constructed at great expense, only to be tossed aside and never used. And more often than not, the cast and crew sat around waiting for director Joseph L. Mankiewicz (brought in after the initial director Rouben Mamoulian resigned) to re-write the script, which wasn’t even halfway finished when shooting began.
As if all this wasn’t bad enough, star Elizabeth Taylor, whose $1 million salary was a record at the time, suffered a number of health scares early on (almost dying at one point when she contracted pneumonia in England), resulting in additional delays.
Then, of course, there’s the scandal that plagued Taylor and co-star Richard Burton, whose torrid affair made headlines the world over (they fell in love while making the film, despite the fact both were married to other people at the time).
It's as if the Gods of both Egypt and Rome were conspiring against the film. When all was said and done, Cleopatra cost the studio over $31 million (according to the U.S. Inflation Calculator, that’s equivalent to $247 million today), and it is still considered one of the biggest financial flops in cinematic history.
But Cleopatra is something else as well: it’s an extraordinary motion picture, a Hollywood epic of the highest order. It may have taken lots of blood, sweat, and tears to bring it to the screen, but as far as I’m concerned, Cleopatra was worth every single penny Fox spent on it!
48 B.C. Julius Caesar (Rex Harrison) has just defeated the armies of his former colleague, Pompey the Great. When told that Pompey, who escaped during the fighting, was on his way to Alexandria to seek asylum, Caesar and his armies give chase.
Once in Egypt, Caesar discovers that Pompey is already dead, yet decides to stick around and settle a dispute between that country’s co-rulers, the boy-king Ptolemy (Richard O’Sullivan) and his sister Cleopatra (Taylor), whose followers are locked in a civil war.
But fate intervenes; Caesar falls in love with Cleopatra, and, after naming her sole ruler of Egypt he remains in Alexandria long enough to see the feisty queen bear him a son. Caesar does eventually return to Rome, and after some time sends for Cleopatra and the boy to join him.
Alas, Caesar is soon after assassinated, on the Ides of March, by several senators, including Brutus (Kenneth Haigh), Cassius (John Hoyt), and Casca (Carroll O’Connor), who feared that Caesar’s most recent title, dictator for life, was turning him into a tyrant.
With the help of Caesar’s close friend Marc Antony (Richard Burton), Cleopatra and her entourage slip out of Rome and return to Alexandria, and even though Caesar’s will named his grand-nephew Octavian (Roddy Mcdowall) as his heir, Cleopatra still dreams of the day when her son will rule over both Egypt and the Roman Empire.
Several years pass. Though they worked together to track down and kill Caesar’s assassins, the alliance between Octavian and Marc Antony is beginning to falter. The two eventually agree to split the empire in half, with Octavian ruling in Rome and Antony given authority over the eastern provinces, including Egypt.
Once in Alexandria, Antony meets with Cleopatra, and like Caesar before him he falls instantly in love with the beautiful queen. With Antony at her side, Cleopatra hopes to conquer the Roman Empire for her son, and she encourages Antony to defy Octavian at every turn, a tactic that is certain to result in yet another civil war.
Above all else, 1963’s Cleopatra is a gorgeous motion picture, with lavish set pieces and well-realized costumes that bring this tumultuous era of human history vibrantly to life. And like most epic films, the movie boasts a number of elaborate sequences, including an early skirmish in Alexandria between Caesar’s legions and those loyal to Ptolemy; as well as the impressive re-creation of the battle in the harbor of Actium, where Antony and Cleopatra took on Octavian’s navy, which was under the command of his good friend Agrippa (Andrew Kier). Topping them all, though, is Cleopatra’s grand entrance into Rome, a sequence so extravagant that it must be seen to be believed.
Elizabeth Taylor shines as the stubborn queen whose feminine guile won the hearts of two of history’s greatest men, and her on-screen chemistry with co-star Richard Burton is positively electric (which, I’m sure, had just as much to do with their off-screen antics as their acting ability).
Often overlooked but equally as important to the film is Rex Harrison’s Julius Caesar, whose skill as a military tactician proved invaluable when he first arrived in Alexandria (those initial confrontations between Caesar and the impulsive Cleopatra are priceless). Also excellent is Roddy McDowell as the conniving Octavian, while both Martin Landau (as Rufio, a general loyal first to Caesar, then to Antony) and Hume Cronyn (as Cleopatra’s top advisor, Sosigenes) are strong in support.
Despite its 4+ hour runtime, Cleopatra is very well paced, thanks in large part to Mankiewicz’s intelligent script, and while it never had a prayer of making back the money it cost to produce it, the movie did take in more at the the U.S. box office in 1963 than any other film. In addition, Cleopatra netted four Academy Awards (for cinematography, art direction, costume design, and special effects) while also scoring a nomination for Best Picture of the year (which it lost to Tom Jones).
Cleopatra may, indeed, be the film that changed the face of Hollywood forever, trumpeting the end of the studio system, which collapsed in full before the decade was out. But it also ranks alongside Gone with the Wind, Ben-Hur, and Lawrence of Arabia as one of the finest big-budget spectacles ever made, and I never tire of watching it.
Directed By: Richard Brooks
Starring: Elizabeth Taylor, Paul Newman, Burl Ives
Tag line: "Just one pillow on her bed...and just one desire in her heart!"
Trivia: Playwright Tennessee Williams so disliked this adaptation that he told people in the queue "This movie will set the industry back 50 years. Go home!"
Paul Newman and Elizabeth Taylor both rank among my favorite performers of all-time, and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof is the reason why. Throughout their long and impressive careers, each would deliver dozens of solid performances, but their pairing in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof was cinematic gold.
Everyone has gathered to celebrate the 65th birthday of Big Daddy Pollitt (Burl Ives), patriarch of a wealthy southern family. His dutiful son Gooper (Jack Carson) and Gooper's wife Mae (Madeleine Sherwood) are in attendance, as is Big Daddy's better half of the last 40 years, affectionately known to everyone as Big Momma (Judith Anderson). Yet what makes this particular birthday special is the unexpected arrival of Big Daddy's favorite son Brick (Newman) and Brick's wife Maggie (Taylor).
Alas, the reunion will not be a happy one.
A recent physical has revealed that Big Daddy is dying, and doesn't have long to live. To add to the turmoil, Brick, a former star athlete, is now a raging alcoholic who has come to despise his beautiful yet overbearing wife.
The trouble between Brick and Maggie started years earlier, when Brick's closest friend Skipper killed himself. Brick believes Skipper's suicide was caused by the guilt the deceased experienced following a sexual encounter with Maggie. Maggie, however, denies that she cheated on her husband, and, in spite of Brick's harsh treatment of her, is still very much in love with him.
Over the course of the evening, all the suspicions and resentments that have plagued this family for decades will reach a boiling point, causing a rift between father and son, husband and wife, brother and brother that may prove irreparable.
Burl Ives delivers a boisterous performance as the gruff and cynical patriarch. His Big Daddy is never afraid to say what's on his mind; he asks Maggie why she and Brick decided to "honor" them all with a visit. Maggie assures him they came for his birthday, but Big Daddy points out he also had a birthday last year, and the year before that, neither of which Brick attended. “Maybe”, Big Daddy says, “he thought he was coming to a funeral instead”. Despite his character's illness, Ives brings life and vitality to Big Daddy, as well as a commanding presence whenever he is on-screen.
Ives' excellent work aside, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof belongs to Newman and Taylor, whose scenes together are positively explosive. Elizabeth Taylor's Maggie is an outgoing Southern Belle who isn't above a bit of gold-digging from time to time. At one point, she pushes Brick to challenge his brother for control of Big Daddy's business empire. And yet, Maggie genuinely loves her husband, and is deeply wounded every time he rejects her, a rejection that also extends to the bedroom. Maggie does her best to arouse Brick's passion, but Brick has none to give. He looks at her with total apathy, and this drives Maggie to despair. “If I thought you'd never make love to me again”, she says, “I'd find the longest, sharpest knife I could and stick it straight into my heart”. Brick can't even bring himself to respond
With its raw depiction of frustrated sexuality and family strife, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof certainly raised a few eyebrows back in the day. But it's Taylor's raw sensuality and Newman's rugged callousness that also make it a classic.
