LIZ GOES BOOM!
What happens when Elizabeth Taylor grows sick and tired of the same old roles? LIZ GOES BOOM!, that's what! After years of the usual tedious roles, including winning an Oscar for a movie she thought was awful, Liz signed on, with then-husband Richard Burton, to star in a movie directed by a bold young man, from a play that shocked theatergoers, and the result was WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF? which made big money and won her another Oscar. Inspired, Liz chased after even more challenging material, movies adapted from strange books and plays, from the best directors, costumed by her favorite designers, which would be anchored by her intense, confident performances. We'll admit: these movies are bizarre, but they are incredible, and like nothing you've ever seen. The Heights is proud to present Elizabeth Taylor's five insane masterpieces, some for the first time on Minnesota screens.
REFLECTIONS IN A GOLDEN EYE
July 18, 2024, 7:30 p.m.
We will be screening John Huston's original sepia tinted color version of REFLECTIONS IN A GOLDEN EYE, which is the way he intended it to be seen
On a U. S. Army post in the South, Major Weldon Penderton (Marlon Brando) and his wife Leonora (Taylor) are having troubles. He's always on edge, seemingly coming to a fine point while his wife, the daughter of a general, openly scornes him. Enter Private L.G. Williams (Robert Forster) a handsome and very strange man (read: he rides horses in the nude) who pushes Major Pemberton past his breaking point. John Huston's very bizarre film is a stifling tale of oppressed and beautiful people wrecked by expectations. Based on the equally strange novel by Carson McCullers.
BOOM!
July 31, 2024, 7:30 p.m.
BOOM! We have to open this description by pointing out that BOOM! is John Waters' favorite movie, one that he adores so much he shows it to first dates and won't continue the evening if they hate it. "The greatest failed art movie ever," he has said, with adoration. BOOM! is the story of Sissy Goforth (Taylor), an actress sequestered on a strange Mediterranean island, where she barks out her memoirs to a scared secretary. Soon, she's visited by Christopher Flanders (Richard Burton), a poet and, basically, the angel of death. Also visiting are Noel Coward, who plays the Witch of Capri, who likes to dine on small sea monsters. BOOM! has so much going for it: director Joseph Losey's lush and swooping camerawork, a bizarre and gorgeous set built by Universal on the Isola de Presa, the wacked-out script from a disastrous Tennessee Williams play, and Liz's costumes that make her look as radiant as the Mediterranean sun, not to mention her over-the-top performance. We love this movie, and think you will, too.
THE DRIVER'S SEAT (IDENTIKIT)
July 11, 2024, 7:30 p.m.
Lise has got problems. She abandons her home in northern Europe and heads to Rome for reasons unknown, where she wanders the city, slowly, slowly, slowly becoming more unhinged. She's seeking just the right man, the one who will help her meet the fate she has so long desired. Reeling from her divorce from Richard Burton, Taylor sought out this story, from a novel by Muriel Spark, and threw every emotion into her performance, which is truly astonishing. Never before screened in Minnesota, THE DRIVER'S SEAT should not be missed.
SECRET CEREMONY
July 25, 2024, 7:30 p.m.
Leonora (Taylor) is a prostitute whose only daughter has drowned. Returning from the cemetery on a bus, she encounters Cenci (Mia Farrow) a willowy young girl who mistakes Leonora for her own mother, also dead. Soon, Leonora begins to assume the role of Cenci's mother, until Albert (Robert Mitchum), the girl's stepfather, enters the scene with some very unsettling ideas. The first of Taylor's collaborations with director Joseph Losey, SECRET CEREMONY is a movie so darned creepy we should be showing it over Halloween.
DCP - Universal Pictures.
WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF?
July 3, 2024, 7:30 p.m.
Adapted from a play considered so shocking it could never be filmed, starring the ravishing Taylor deliberately made up to be frumpy and unappealing, and helmed by a young Broadway director making his cinema debut, WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF? was thought to be a sure disaster. And, in a sense, it was--onscreen, that is, capturing perfectly the trainwreck of a marriage between Martha and George and the chaos of American life in one fell swoop. One of the most combative films in movie history, WOOLF features two of the greatest performances ever by Elizabeth Taylor (who won an Oscar) and Richard Burton (who didn't, but should have). Often overlooked are the amazing performances by Sandy Dennis (who won Best Supporting Actress) and George Segal (also nominated).
