Not only in "Cleopatra" but in her next two films as well, "The V.I.P.s," and "The Sandpiper," Taylor was more the world-famous celebrity and less the conscientious actress than at any other time in her career
The three movies exploit the public's fantasy of what the lovers must be like: tempestuous, as in "Cleopatra;" quarreling, on the verge of separation, as in "The V.I.P.s;" illicit lovers, defying the moral norms, as in "The Sandpiper."
As the ancient Queen of the Nile, as modern day grande dame, or as a hippie artist, Taylor is Taylor, hemmed in by her spectacular fame The international celebrity, the world's most famous lover, takes over from the burgeoning actress of the Fifties, and Taylor walks through the movies as the fabled beauty she'd become rather than the high-strung Southern belle she had been before Rome
Playing an unmarried woman who lives with her son exactly the way she wants to live, in harmony with the California coast, Liz Taylor, for once, gets to talk about ideas: her character proclaims the joys of independence and self-expression Taylor is no Jane Fonda, alight with radical fervor, but the role does express something of herself; it lets us see a side of her that differs from the standard screen Taylor
Here she's a 'new' woman, free and wise, who teaches a thing or two to a rigid churchman The film's symbol is the sandpiper with a broken wing which she offers as proof that every creature should be allowed to fly free
We know too much about her to believe her as a hedonistic artist who would dress so fashionably in such an impossibly expansive beach house... The character's broad humanistic philosophyher objections to organized religion and to formal schooling, her advocacy of free love and her celebration of the naturalness of physical loveare, oddly enough, at the film's center
The story that interrupts the characters ongoing declarations about life is the old number of a minister tempted by a beautiful woman Bombarded by the artist's charms, the man succumbs, only to depart at the end, weighed down by, guilt and vowing to seek the way of repentance and purification The movie's morality is thus a mingling of the old and the new
The movie plays it both ways, admiring the woman's freedom and righteous self-justification, but making the clergyman pay dearly for his indulgence in forbidden fruit It's an old Hollywood romance trying to masquerade as a love story in the modern manner
Burton's prude is impossible and he plays him in a harsh oratorical manner, as if he's deadening himself to the pain of it all, but Taylor's character almost approaches being a real rebel with ideas The movie exploits the public image of her as a challenger of conventions, but the role also gives her a chance to sound reasonably articulate about matters other than love Under Vincente Minnelli's graceful guidance, Liz is sweet if not entirely convincing
As the ancient Queen of the Nile, as modern day grande dame, or as a hippie artist, Taylor is Taylor, hemmed in by her spectacular fame The international celebrity, the world's most famous lover, takes over from the burgeoning actress of the Fifties, and Taylor walks through the movies as the fabled beauty she'd become rather than the high-strung Southern belle she had been before Rome
Playing an unmarried woman who lives with her son exactly the way she wants to live, in harmony with the California coast, Liz Taylor, for once, gets to talk about ideas: her character proclaims the joys of independence and self-expression Taylor is no Jane Fonda, alight with radical fervor, but the role does express something of herself; it lets us see a side of her that differs from the standard screen Taylor
Here she's a 'new' woman, free and wise, who teaches a thing or two to a rigid churchman The film's symbol is the sandpiper with a broken wing which she offers as proof that every creature should be allowed to fly free
We know too much about her to believe her as a hedonistic artist who would dress so fashionably in such an impossibly expansive beach house... The character's broad humanistic philosophyher objections to organized religion and to formal schooling, her advocacy of free love and her celebration of the naturalness of physical loveare, oddly enough, at the film's center
The story that interrupts the characters ongoing declarations about life is the old number of a minister tempted by a beautiful woman Bombarded by the artist's charms, the man succumbs, only to depart at the end, weighed down by, guilt and vowing to seek the way of repentance and purification The movie's morality is thus a mingling of the old and the new
The movie plays it both ways, admiring the woman's freedom and righteous self-justification, but making the clergyman pay dearly for his indulgence in forbidden fruit It's an old Hollywood romance trying to masquerade as a love story in the modern manner
Burton's prude is impossible and he plays him in a harsh oratorical manner, as if he's deadening himself to the pain of it all, but Taylor's character almost approaches being a real rebel with ideas The movie exploits the public image of her as a challenger of conventions, but the role also gives her a chance to sound reasonably articulate about matters other than love Under Vincente Minnelli's graceful guidance, Liz is sweet if not entirely convincing