Lucie Caries’ film about Hollywood icon Liza Minnelli is candid and moving, precisely because her subject isn’t afraid to speak openly and honestly about her tragedies as well as triumphant moments.So there’s battles with drugs and drink; unsuitable romances, Bob Fosse, Studio 54, Andy Warhol , Michael Jackson, AIDS activism, and a Pet Shop Boys collaboration, for starters
Essentially, the whole film is somewhat akin to a psychological study into parental enmeshment, with footage of her legendary mother Judy Garland dressing little Liza in a similar outfit to her own, pushing her onstage, and describing her as her best friend. Of course, following Garland’s untimely passing at forty seven, Minnelli was determined to forge ahead on her own path, eschewing any accusations of simply being another nepo baby.
The seventies, Minnelli’s golden era, is the main thrust of the documentary, with Minnelli proving herself, in terms of drama and song and dance icon. No longer just “the daughter of Judy”, success in ‘Cabaret’, ‘New York New York’ and her celebrated one- woman show ‘Liza With A Z’, she blazed her own trail, with a little help from French singer Charles Aznavour, whose dramatic claw hand gestures she paid homage to as Sally Bowles.
There’s no prurience here, nor the usual parade of fawning talking heads. It’s refreshing to see a documentary which neither lionises nor trashes its subject. It simply acknowledges how Hollywood often eats it’s young, and how as Liza states, fame is a double-edged sword. “The response is always, ‘well, and ‘… As a what did you expect”, she shrugs. Yet she keeps on keeping on, and will do until she drops. The term ‘survivor ‘ is an understatement.
Screened via Sky Arts.
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