The Blue Bird (1976) and Violet Links
Wednesday, March 23, 2011 at 4:30PM The news of Liz Taylor's death derailed me this morning as Twitter exploded. Though I am less nostalgic as a person than I appear to be on the web (I think it's that love of Oscar history and "anniversary" post-fetish that makes me seem like a weepy 'they don't make 'em like they used to' type.), this month has been admittedly nostalgia-saturated. We shall return to stuff in theaters very soon.
As I was posting about Liz and sharing reader of the day "first movie" memories I began to wonder when my Liz fandom began? I have no specific recall like I do with some stars. My earliest vivid pop culture memories from childhood are mostly bunched around the axis of The Muppets, Star Wars and Natalie Wood (television airings of her old movies) in the late 70s. So I was looking at Liz's filmography and realized the first time I saw her must have been in the family film The Blue Bird. I remember zero about the movie other than her face... which is weird because Jane Fonda, Cicely Tyson and Ava Gardner are also in it though obvs I didn't yet know who they were... except for maybe Fonda. I'm actually shocked to remember that my parents took us to this because in my house (my parents are right wingers) Jane Fonda was a 'traitorous devil' or some such. In all my years of film fandom I have never heard anyone talk about this movie and I had forgotten its existence myself so maybe it's not on DVD?
My favorite tweet about Liz this morning was this one, from diminutive comedienne Selene Luna. She has a perceptive papa.
Carefully Taylor'ed Memories
The Guardian explains Liz Taylor's Gay Icon status beautifully.
The Guardian Guy Lodge looks back over her career in clips.
Playbill remembers the Dame's stage outings with a photo gallery.
Boy Culture remembers her wild rollercoaster of a career and imagines how, to the generations before us -- particular those who grew up with her growing up alongside them onscreen, she must be even more intimately revered.
Fun Liz-Links To Dry Those Wet Eyes
Movie|Line shares the most memorable Elizabeth Taylor cameos. This is how many younger viewers became familiar with her from the 80s onward.
Movie|Line also has a fun post on Liz's most OTT acting.
Acidemic admires her generosity of spirit and sexuality. And like The Film Experience, Acidemic doesn't just post about her on the day of her death.
Awards Daily Sasha names her 10 favorites
La Dolce Musto Michael Musto names his 5 favorites with a good note on Cleopatra's reputation.
The Star remembers a trip Liz & Dick (Richard Burton) took to Toronto in the 60s... with photos.
The Montreal Gazette has wedding photos from their marriage in Montreal.
My 5 (okay 6) Favorites
Since Sasha and Musto listed their fav Liz performances, I'd feel remiss if I didn't.
- Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
- Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
- Butterfield 8 -(post coming next month for the Oscar anniversary.)
- Giant and Suddenly Last Summer
(Tie. I toggle back and forth. I haven't seen either of them in about 5 years. But I love that she does the same thing for both films in a way as the pivot point between two very different acting styles from two also legendary screen stars in a tense triangle of this-movie-can't-be-real star power.) - A Place in the Sun -here's a previous writeup on this.
Those are the biggies for me but I should note that I have seen neither The VIPs nor Boom, both of which I've wanted to see for some time. There's never enough of it! (Time, that is.)
Liz Taylor, RIP, The Blue Bird
Reader Comments (10)
Holy shit, I never knew Liz and Dick got married in Montreal aka my hometown! That's awesome! Ah, to have been born a few decades earlier...
I most warmly recommend watching 'The VIPs', not only for a truly fine on-screen Burton/Taylor pairing, but also for terrific performances by Margaret Rutherford (a deserved Oscar, even considering this is the kind of part she could do in her sleep) and Maggie Smith (in what I believe to be one of her first major screen appearances).
I want to see them all again! I particularly would like to see the ones that didn't do well in the original opening. Secret Ceremony with Mia Farrow and Robert Mitchum, and X, Y, and Z with Susannnah Yorke and Michael Caine, were apparently offputting for their "lesbain overtones". And The Driver's Seat, about female victimization, was considered too sad.
And I've never seen Taylor's fourth Tennesse Williams performance, Sweet Bird of Youth, a TV production directed by Nicholas Roeg.
Though I'd seen her in other films before, the first time I realized how great she was in film was a college viewing of Doctor Faustus. She is the unspeaking woman of Faustus' desires and she is breath-taking. She did more with a stare and posture in that film than most modern actresses accomplish with all the histrionic tricks of the trade. Without saying a word, she elevates the rather boring adaptation into something worth watching.
Joy Behar did an interview up on CNN.com with Debbie Reynolds(!) - it's crazy! Debbie drops all kinds of gossip about Liz.
Adri -- i almost rented that the other day but i got scared because I love Geraldine's version of that character so much and didn't want to be disappointed in my Liz.
The first MovieLine article mentions her final role being a voice on God, the Devil and Bob...in an episode that aired Saturday. I watched that ep, and knew that I recognized the voice from somewhere, but I wound up turning it off before the credits, so I didn't realize....
for me Liz meant that I got to know Tenneessee Williams. Because where I come from u don't have theatre (I was born in that shitty little northen Québec town)... but I could rent those AMAZING movies &I then got to read William's. Thank's Miss Taylor!
TCM is doing a big marathon on Liz's films on Sunday, April 10th, 2011. They're showing both of her Oscar-winning performances ("Butterfield 8" and "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?"), along with some of her other classics (like "National Velvet," "Giant," and "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof," but no "A Place in the Sun," "Cleopatra," or "Suddenly, Last Summer"). I've never seen either of her two Oscar wins, so I'll be tuning in that day for both of those films. Please don't miss this, guys!
Thank you for including Giant. While I personally felt the movie belonged to Rock Hudson, I thought Taylor was absolutely wonderful in it.