Elizabeth Taylor: Las cintas perdidas

Elizabeth Taylor was the real deal, a bonafide movie star, a consummate rule breaker, and a striking beauty who made both classic films and unadulterated bombs and led a notorious personal life that was endless fodder for the gossip columnists until her death in 2011. This 2024 documentary offers a new glimpse into her storied life through archival audio from 1964 interview sessions with biographer Richard Meryman never before released. Providing a wealth of film clips and newsreel footage to complement the tapes, documentary filmmaker Nanette Burstein wisely lets the treasure trove of material speak for itself as she tracks the subject's life from preternatural child star to leading AIDS research activist. The mythos and facts about Taylor are well familiar to anyone who has seen her best work and read the tabloids over the years. Burstein reminds us how vibrant she was in her prime.

This documentary is a fascinating and revealing depiction that takes a deeply personal look at a brilliant actress. The film takes a very powerful approach to telling the story in an inventive documentary style.

It's an absorbing and engaging, an extraordinary film that is very insightful, honest and really quite emotional - one of the most powerful documentaries that I've seen in years.

In essence, this film delivers a riveting and all-encompassing testament to Taylor's legacy. By the end, you feel like you really knew her. For fans of Elizabeth Taylor, this is a must-see.

Highly recommended.

"Elizabeth Taylor: The Lost Tapes" is without a doubt a compelling, provocative, and revealing doc that any film buff or movie history fan should see. Elizabeth from an early age shined by getting her start at age 10 in 1943's "Lassie Come Home". Soon Taylor electrified as she became the stuff of legend. On the "HBO" doc it's mostly her voice that we hear which was pulled from over 40 hours of discovered audio recordings with Richard Meryman.

Taylor admits she made mistakes and was not perfect as her love life and many marriages would prove, and like any doc we the viewers are treated to photos, film clips, footage, and headlines, always when she wed and divorced it was front page news.

Highlighted was Elizabeth growing up in front of the camera from her young teen roles to winning an Oscar for "Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf?". She owed much of her success to her parents for helping her get involved in movies learning to act at acting and film school.

Taylor's life was a roller coaster from being swept off her feet by director Mike Todd and dealing with his tragic death in a plane crash. Then Liz romanced Eddie Fisher after he left Debbie Reynolds, only Elizabeth changed again leaving Eddie for Richard Burton whom she meet on the set of "Cleopatra".

Touching was highlighting Taylor's friendships with closeted gay actors such as Roddy McDowall and Rock Hudson, which later lead to her activism for AIDS research. Good look at a legendary actress who's work public and private will never be forgotten.

Those of a certain age might enjoy this trip down memory lane of perhaps the most famous woman In America especially in the 1960's, though I suppose Jackie Kennedy might rival that, but whatever, Elizabeth Taylor led one of the most spectacular lives in the 20th century. She was rarely a great actress, though talent was always there and surfaced strongly now and then particularly in A Place In the Sun, Giant and, of course, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?. She states here that she never had an acting lesson and perhaps she should have. The result might have been something to witness. These tapes make her sound like a down to earth rational woman, but that's not quite how I remember her 50's/60's heydays. She talks quite kindly about all of her ex-husbands, but oddly today in the NY Times there is an article about her and how she and Richard Burton created the paparazzi that we sadly live with now. It also goes into details on how she took everyone of those ex's to the cleaners when they split, sort of a different version than the one we listen to here. It's filled with wonderful photos and candid clips of her personal life and scenes from some of her films and they are a delight to view. I was a bit surprised to also hear vocal comments from Eddie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds and neither seem to be upset with her, though I suppose time heals a lot of things. She was also simply stunning to look at, especially in shots with no makeup, but like all of us it faded, but in her latter years after pretty much quitting films, while seemingly trying to get her hair to be big as possible, she then became a truly great humanitarian and helped so many with AIDS. She became as admirable crusader. It was a remarkable, enviable, bold life from just about the very beginning. Katharine Hepburn once called her the last movie star and that is true in the tradition of the past greats. It doesn't take much to be called a star these days. This is not a great documentary, but it's a good one and hearing her talk about herself after all these years was quite interesting. I'm not sure why, but I really did adore her especially in the 60's, both on and off the screen. I met her once briefly when she did The Little Foxes on Broadway as I worked in the theater industry at that time. She was short, vulgar, funny with immense presence.

The quality that shines through this show biz, bio doc most brightly for me is not the subject's vaunted sexuality, star power or penchant for tabloid scandal but, rather, her likability. Consider the following: Ms. Taylor was married seven times and broke up at least two seemingly happy marriages, including one with the wife being one of her best friends, and yet, far from hating or even disliking her, I found her most engaging. Maybe that is because the three traits that emerge most strongly from the conversations she has with a journalist appropriately named Meryman are honesty (along with a healthy dose of self deprecation), humor, and perceptiveness. She labors under no delusions that she was a brilliant actress, although I do feel she is under rated in that area, even with two Oscars in hand. Big star/good actor is her professional assessment (very good is mine). And I love her anecdotes, insights and one liners that both skilfully analyze and amusingly skewer all her husbands, or at least the five gone into here. And while she can occasionally get catty, especially in her comments about Debby Reynolds, more often she is critical of herself, as in her comment that one must do pennance for one's wrongs in this life, not the one after.

So, taken all in all, a fairly admirable person, especially when you include, as I'm happy to say this film does, her advocacy for the Hollywood gay community during the AIDS scourge when most straight folks were looking or running away. Give it a B plus.

Liz's top five films:

5) Cat

4) Father Of The Bride

3) Place In The Sun

2) Giant

1) Va. Woolf

And yes, "Butterfield 8" sucks!