May 17 - National Velvet (1944), 125 minutes, directed by Clarence Brown, starring Mickey Rooney and Elizabeth Taylor.
There is a special pleasure in watching a star-making performance many years later. What were the first traits visible that turned Elizabeth Taylor into one of the biggest movie stars the world has ever seen? Look to National Velvet for the answers. At the age of 12, she took on her first leading role as Velvet Brown, an English country girl who competes in the Grand National by cross-dressing as a male jockey. Taylor claimed she wasn’t really acting in National Velvet, that her genuine love of horses animated her performance. But the joy and heartache she expresses in National Velvet reveal a preternatural gift for sincere emotions coupled with an understanding of the moving camera’s power. National Velvet is often billed as family entertainment, and it is, but it holds plenty of appeal for moviegoers of any age.
May 2024 CinemaLit - Elizabeth Taylor: Actress and Superstar
Very few embodied the twentieth century invention of the movie star more than Elizabeth Taylor. From her breakthrough role in National Velvet in 1944 at age 12, to her death in 2011 at 79, she was the subject of public and media fascination like no one else. The great fuss made over her beauty, marriages, health crises, jet setting, dazzling jewels, and late life dedication to people with AIDS often eclipsed her very real talent and artistry as an actress. CinemaLit curator and host Matthew Kennedy’s new book, On Elizabeth Taylor: An Opinionated Guide from Oxford University Press, examines and appreciates her epic film career up close. In May, we will be screening four of her most consequential films, each capturing her extraordinary star charisma and powerhouse acting at different phases of her career: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958), A Place in the Sun (1951), National Velvet (1944), and Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966).
Former CinemaLit host Michael Fox will interview Matt Kennedy on May 3 after the screening of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and acclaimed film critic and historian David Thomson (The New Biographical Dictionary of Film) will join us on May 10 as guest co-host for A Place in The Sun.
