THE STORY – A documentary spanning Elizabeth Taylor’s drama-filled life and career, told through previously unheard interview footage of Taylor herself.
THE CAST – Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton & Rock Hudson
THE TEAM – Nanette Burstein (Director/Writer)
THE RUNNING TIME – 101 Minutes
There would be few who haven’t heard of Elizabeth Taylor. She’s one of the most famous screen actors of the 20th century and one of the first modern celebrities. “Elizabeth Taylor: The Lost Tapes,” the latest in the Cannes Classics sidebar dedicated to films about cinema, offers the chance for audiences to learn about Taylor “in her own words.” Directed by Nanette Burstein (who was last at Cannes as co-director for 2002’s “The Kid Stays in the Picture”), this 100-minute documentary chronicles Taylor’s life, the movies that made her, the Oscars, and, of course, the eight husbands. The bulk of the documentary content is based on recently unearthed audio tapes from a series of interviews Taylor did with Times journalist Richard Meryman in the 1960s as research for a book project. These tapes, rediscovered after decades of “sitting in an attic,” were offered to Burstein by the Taylor estate in addition to access to archival footage and photography. The final product, which had its world premiere at Cannes last week, makes for fascinating viewing for anyone interested in Taylor, the origins of modern celebrity, or the Hollywood studio system.
Although Taylor lived until she was 79 (she passed away from heart failure in 2011), the film mostly covers the first half of her life. This is likely because the interviews that anchor the film occurred in the ’60s when Taylor was in her 30s. There is so much to cover in this thirty-year period, which includes being signed to MGM as a child star, her ascension to superstardom, her first six marriages, and films like “National Velvet,” “Little Women,” “Father of the Bride,” “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof,” “Suddenly, Last Summer,” “Cleopatra,” and “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?”. After spending a significant amount of time covering her on-again, off-again relationship with her “Cleopatra” co-star Richard Burton, the film ends with a brief wrap-up of the backend of her career and her AIDS activism. Her seventh and eighth husbands, John Warner and Larry Fortensky, don’t feature. There’s so much to cover in Taylor’s fascinating and drama-filled life that it could have almost been split into a miniseries; however, Burstein resists the temptation and does an impressive job at containing the story and keeping Tal Ben-David’s editing pacy.
By centering her documentary on the tapes, Burstein invites audiences into the room with Taylor, delivering an experience that feels intimate and raw. Taylor’s interviews with Meryman are surprisingly candid for a major star. You feel like you are gaining access to something private and personal when she speaks about her life, including the highs— breakout fame, Oscars, whirlwind romances— and the devastating lows. As someone more familiar with her filmography than her personal life, I was very moved by these moments of vulnerability. Taylor’s discussion of her abusive marriage to Nicky Hilton and how he kicked her in the stomach, causing a miscarriage mere months after the wedding, was particularly devastating. For Taylor, becoming a divorcée at 18 forced her to grow up very quickly and set aside youthful naiveté. There’s a brief moment where Taylor describes her sheltered upbringing and the fact she had no sexual experience prior to her first marriage, despite the whole world sexualizing her from her early teens. This felt like a missed opportunity for Burstein to explore further the impact of this persona being placed upon Taylor at a very young age and what this has to say about the continued sexualization of young female child stars today.
Taylor is known as one of the first celebrities. As someone who had multiple affairs, eight marriages, and many scandals, Taylor spent her life swamped by paparazzi, and she often fell in and out of the fickle public’s favor. When a dramatic case of pneumonia nearly killed Taylor in 1961 (halting “Cleopatra’s” production), we learn that the public fell in love with her again, resulting in what Taylor called a “pity” Oscar for “Butterfield 8”. Many parts of Taylor’s fame discussed in this documentary (like being known for her beauty and sex appeal very young and how her public adoration varied widely depending on her moral failings) have fascinating echoes in the modern influencer era and how we talk about social media fame today.
Grief and tragedy are recurring themes in the film, which touches on the death of her friends James Dean (who died from a car crash in 1955) and Rock Hudson (who died of complications from AIDS in 1985), as well as most significantly, the death of her third husband, Mike Todd. In 1958, Todd died in a plane crash, leaving Taylor devastated. Burstein describes Taylor’s subsequent affair and marriage to Eddie Fisher (Mike’s friend and then-husband of Debbie Reynolds) as a poor choice borne from grief and Taylor’s desperation for comfort. Although this sequence is highly compelling and a particularly fascinating look at the bourgeoning paparazzi culture of the late ’50s, I believe Burstein flounders slightly when trying to decide how much judgment Taylor deserves in these moments. This could be caused by the fact that this film only exists because the Elizabeth Taylor estate selected Burstein and gave her the tapes, so she feels obliged not to be too critical of Taylor. Although Burstein generally handles the material well without being overly flattering, the final sequence that discusses Taylor’s AIDS activism in the wake of her friend Rock Hudson’s death feels a bit grating. Although it is, of course, based on Taylor’s actual work, the way Burstein brings it up in the final scene feels a bit too heavy-handed in its PR machinations.
Overall, “Elizabeth Taylor: The Lost Tapes” is an ambitious attempt to sum up a formidable woman’s life in 100 minutes. Faced with 70 hours of interview audio, eight decades of history, and many scandals, Burstein effectively condenses all that information into a documentary that addresses the key biographical events while digging deep into the person behind the name. “The Lost Tapes” is an effective record of Taylor’s life, which also incidentally covers much of 20th-century Hollywood history. This film is informative, engaging, and compelling for fans of Taylor or those just interested in cinema history.
