Les noces de cendres

Ash Wednesday (1973) Costarring Henry Fonda, Taylor plays your typical depressed, run-of-the-mill, middle-aged housewife who in an attempt to win back her divorce-seeking husband, goes to a Swiss spa to undergo plastic surgery and regain her youthful beauty. Well, not only is the operation a success, she comes out of it looking like, well Elizabeth Taylor. Dominick Dunne produced this movie before he went on to novel writing fame and fortune. It's considered a really bad movie. I consider it high seventies camp at its best. Most definitely a thumbs up. Watch it in college with your friends over vodka tonics.

Apparently, Elizabeth Taylor hated being called "Liz" but that didn't stop Mike Todd from naming his plane "The Lucky Liz", the plane that crashed and killed him. After his death Elizabeth leased a home in Tucson a few blocks from where I lived but she never stayed there the crowds were so bad. A girl I was dating happened to see Elizabeth at her girlfriend's home in Tucson and said she was more beautiful than you could imagine. The girlfriend's parents were Loews - the people who owned MGM and Elizabeth hid out at their home until she was able to leave Tucson. The house Elizabeth rented was owned by a customer of my dad's company, a TV sales and service concern, and it was quite posh but nothing compared to what Elizabeth was used to. Years later when I was working in the industry I would meet Elizabeth and her husband, Richard Burton, in Mexico. It was quite an experience. Rumor has it that Burton did not want Elizabeth to make this film but I am glad she did. In one scene after another she never looked so beautiful and that's really what this film is about - looking at the most beautiful woman in the world.

The start of Ash Wednesday might put some people off, but do what I did and just fast-forward about ten minutes. There's an actual filmed procedure of massive plastic surgery, to show what Elizabeth Taylor's character goes through. We first see her with gray hair, jowls, bags, sags, and extra fat. Next, she's bandaged up and recovering in a European hospital, until finally she's revealed to be the beautiful star we all know her to be.

Why does she have such extensive surgery? Because, as we see through a series of photographs in the opening credits, she has grown old with her husband, Henry Fonda. In order to please him and rekindle their love, she thinks turning back time will help. While recuperating and waiting for him to see her anew, she spends time in a beautiful Swiss ski lodge and meets new people - including the much younger, handsome Helmut Berger (who thinks they're the same age). One of my favorite scenes in when she rebuffs his initial advances. He encroaches on her solitary dinner at their hotel, and at the end of the meal he doesn't object when she is brought the bill. She leans in close and seductively asks for his room number. Then, she triumphantly writes the number down on the bill to force him to act like a gentleman!

You might not have heard of this 1970s drama, but if you're a Liz fan, try and find a copy. You'll find a very endearing performance from Ms. Taylor. This isn't her usual role, for even though she looks exquisitely gorgeous, she doesn't feel that way on the inside. She feels old, frumpy, and afraid of not being good enough. When she's confronted by her deepest fears and Henry Fonda is as cold as he usually is on the screen, she crumbles to pieces. It's a very strong piece of acting, and Liz, her costumes, and her snowy surroundings are lovely to look at.

Kiddy Warning: Obviously, you have control over your own children. However, due to due to a graphic plastic surgery sequence, I wouldn't let my kids watch the beginning portion.

So I see Richard Burton hated this film. Well wouldn't go so far as to say I hated it. Still Ash Wednesday wil never rank as one of Elizabeth Taylor's best films.

It plays a lot like The Roman Spring Of Mrs. Stone. Maybe if someone like Tennessee Williams had written this it would have been better known and acclaimed.

Liz is in Switzerland for a little plastic surgery. A nip here, a tuck there and maybe some of that spark in her marriage to Henry Fonda will have some of that old time zip in it. She amuses herself in the meantime with both Keith Baxter and Helmut Berger.

The results just aren't what she hoped for,

Try as I may I just could not get interested in these rich people and their problems. Henry Fonda looked as bored as I was. At least he got a European vacation for his time.

For fans of the sars only.

Obviously, this sight recommends "Breast Men" as a suitable companion piece to this because of the cosmetic surgery angle. (I don't watch similar films together anyway.) To me, it is much more akin in spirit to "Shirley Valentine." Woman estranged from her husband in foreign country amidst beautiful scenery, a change of life, etc. For once, a woman having a co-star old enough to be her father actually works with the script! Taylor's acting here is more subtle than it had been in the previous decade, and it works. I could not relate to a woman who goes to such lengths for her husbands affection, but she is playing a woman of a bygone era, and almost twenty years older than she was at the time (the woman playing her daughter could easily have played her sister in another film). This is a very slowly paced film, but by golly you can't help but root for Taylor to find some solace, just like Shirley V. All of this leads up to an inevitable confrontation with her husband, and the movie keeps you guessing to the end what will happen between them. Was it worth it? I won't tell. Knowing what we now know about the kind of father and husband Henry Fonda was in real life can't help but taint the viewing of him in this role. But hey, they could've gotten Bing Crosby. All in all, I saw this movie on video about nine years ago, and as you can see it has stayed with me. So check it out, it beats the heck out of anything on Lifetime.