Elizabeth Taylor - RIP

xp As he says there, it parallels Boom! in many ways. Same kind of borderline laughable provocation.

both Ash Wednesday and Secret Ceremony are kinda bad -- even tho Losey is a better filmmaker than Larry Peerce, Mia Farrow is particularly grating in SC, and the dialogue, oy. Still, it has a scene where Liz belches after chowing down on breakfast pastries and sausage.

Kael loved Ash Wednesday for her lurid performance

hmm, not so:

In a few scenes, Elizabeth Taylor is done up like Arletty playing Garance in CHILDREN OF PARADISE, and she's absolutely ravishing, in an unearthly, ageless way. But the film is a long-drawn-out ghoulish commercial for cosmetic surgery-made, apparently, for people who can't think of anything to do with their lives but go backward. Jean-Claude Tramont is credited with the script and Larry Peerce is credited with the direction, but there is no script and there is no direction. With Keith Baxter, Helmut Berger, and Henry Fonda giving a sour, dumb performance.

I disagree about it being a "commercial" and Fonda btw. Keith Baxter plays her gay fashion photographer confidante.

The Sandpiper is worth a look if you can deal with lush, hopelessly miscast turkeys. When the titular bird flies onto Liz's head in the middle of a romantic tete-a-tete with Dick...

Kael:

https://letterboxd.com/notpaulinekael/film/the-sandpiper/

Whenever I see that movie I just wonder about the real-world pricetag of that fabulous beachfront "shack" in Big Sur that Liz is slumming in

Kael:

https://letterboxd.com/notpaulinekael/film/the-sandpiper🕸/

It's Kael -- I remember the Taylor cupping-the-breasts line.

this movie is ridiculous and I have enjoyed it several times

It is the handle of someone on Letterboxd who has transcribed Kael's writing. xxp

Yes, Liz certainly has a nice wardrobe for a struggling artist and single parent. I could read Burton's mind: "Christ, these lines."

Charles Bronson stepped in as Cos the sculptor when Sammy Davis Jr had to bow out.

That link above is weird though, it's sort of cut-and-pasted from Kael's review in Kiss Kiss Bang Bang but jumbled up and with new phrases added, such as "massive-headed Burton"

I think she reworked her old reviews for the mini-reviews that made up the 5001 Nights at the Movies compilation (per the Letterboxd tag).

Aug 12 71 the only time I get testy with E is when she has had a couple & has taken a pink pill..in conjunction with the booze gives her a kind of false euphoria & becomes sentimental & a reminiscent of her mother. Since her mother is the bore of all epochs this can be a bit hard

— Richard Burton (@BurtonDiaries) August 12, 2019

Have been quarantining with Liz Taylor movies I've missed.

Father of the Bride (1950): Spencer Tracy's film really, and I've never seen him better. Something very real about the dad who puts up with all kinds of craziness to make his daughter happy. Witty, satirical script. This and the sequel Father's Little Dividend were Joan Bennett's last big movies before her "scandal," and she is enjoyable as always. Liz was 17 playing 20 in this, which is kind of unusual.

A Place in the Sun (1951): More noir-ish than I expected. Liz really glows. Montgomery Clift's problem is he falls in love too quickly.

Ivanhoe (1952): Not sure why she felt she was miscast in this role because she's fine and convincing playing the Jewish girl Rebecca (years before she converted irl). Robert Taylor perhaps too old to play Ivanhoe, but this is classic old school MGM.

Elephant Walk (1954): Certainly nice to look at. Very 1950s psychology with Peter Finch driven to madness trying to live up to the greatness of his deceased father. Liz wears awesome clothes. The film is generally nutty but it only gets truly laughable at the climax when the elephants take more control of things. This is the Rebecca plot essentially.