Television rating|The elegant documentary Elizabeth Taylor: The Lost Tapes succeeds in bringing the movie star close to the viewer.
of the 1960s midway Elizabeth Taylorat the time one of the most famous actors in the world, gave several frank interviews to the editor of Life magazine for his biography.
About sixty years later, the interview recordings form the basis of an elaborate HBO documentary Elizabeth Taylor: The Lost Tapes (2024). The film tells about Taylor’s (1932–2011) life from childhood to the 1960s.
The tapes have not been in the public domain before. Through them, Taylor becomes the narrator of a documentary about himself. The movie star talks about his most famous movies as well as his private life.
A documentary film directed by Nanette Burstein has previously made, among other things, a four-part documentary series About Hillary Clinton. It was seen at Yle in the summer of 2020.
Burstein uses archival footage of Taylor elegantly and intelligently. There is the glamor and glamor of old Hollywood. Attitudes from decades ago have also caught on.
You can still see Taylor’s stardom from the movie clips. She was considered one of the most beautiful and sensual women of her time.
The speech heard from old interview tapes seems intimate and contemplative. It often creates fascinating contrasts with the archival material and the speech patterns found there.
Taylor’s the most famous roles were created in the 1950s and 1960s. The films for which Taylor is remembered are A place in the Sun (1951), Giant (1956), Cat on a hot roof (1958), Suddenly last summer (1959), Cleopatra (1963) and Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966).
However, the first thing some may remember about Taylor is that she was married eight times. Marriages and their endings brought cracks in the public image.
You get a lot of time in the documentary Cleopatraa massive project in which Taylor played the lead role and received a historic high fee.
Cleopatra’s on the set Elizabeth Taylor met by Richard Burton. Burton became the Fifth and longest husband. The two acted together in several films, the most famous of which seems to be by Mike Nichols guided by Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Movie meant an increase in prestige for Taylor. Before that, she had often been viewed only as an exceptionally beautiful movie star. Now critics praised the acting, and Taylor received an Oscar.
Taylor was 33 years old at the time of filming, but played a character in her fifties, the embittered wife of a professor. Maybe that’s why Helsingin Sanomat was written about role work in 1970that “[Elizabeth] Even in his old days, Taylor shows that he can act”.
Taylor and Burton were perhaps the most famous and most famous artist couple of their time. They were hunted by paparazzi when paparazzi were still a new phenomenon. The couple was married between 1964 and 1974 and briefly again in 1975.
Interview tapes the period after, from the end of the 1960s until Taylor’s death, is covered only briefly in the documentary. The career soon began to decline, and Taylor rarely appeared in films after 1977.
The media continued to follow Taylor and often reported on, for example, her weight change. Alcohol and drug abuse caused problems. Taylor did valuable work in AIDS activism.
A huge number of documentaries have been made about the greats of the film industry. Elizabeth Taylor: The Lost Tapes stands out for its well-executed narration and how it manages to bring its mythical subject close to the viewer.
Elizabeth Taylor: The Lost Tapes, Max.
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