Burton and Taylor

Plot synopsis:
In 1983, aging movie stars Richard Burton (Dominic West) and Elizabeth Taylor (Helena Bonham Carter) are in New York City preparing to perform the Noël Coward play, Private Lives. The pair have been married and divorced twice before, but remain friends despite tensions. She still dreams of a reconciliation. However, Richard is currently attached to his younger girlfriend Sally Hay and this makes Elizabeth jealous.
Richard suffers from poor health and is a recovering alcoholic, but Elizabeth continues to drink excessively and abuse prescription medication. During the play's rehearsal period, she makes the process difficult. While he is in his element and receives praise, she suffers from a lack of confidence. Realizing she is frightened, Richard promises to support her through the show's run and he helps keep her pill addiction in check.
People flock to see the two celebrities on stage when Private Lives opens at the Lunt-Fontaine Theatre. The initial reviews are less than positive and Richard is uncomfortable when he realizes that aspects of the play are a little too similar to their real lives. He proposes canceling the show altogether, but Elizabeth (who is also the producer) refuses to quit.
Despite her wish to see the play through, Elizabeth continues to prove challenging; she arrives late for shows, brings all her pets along and mugs for the audience. Richard's patience wears thin and they eventually have a fight that comes to blows. After they apologize to one another, he invites her to have dinner. She accepts.
At dinner, the former lovers fondly recall their younger and wilder days. Elizabeth then wants to talk about their current relationship. Richard steers the conversation towards work. Furious that he's discounting her feelings, she storms out of the restaurant.
In retaliation for his behavior, Elizabeth doesn't show up for the next night's show. Her absence hurts the show's success so greatly that the theater puts the play on hold until she returns. During the break, Richard and Sally get married in Las Vegas without telling anyone. Elizabeth finds out by reading a newspaper and has an emotional breakdown. Her assistant accuses Richard of intentionally breaking Elizabeth's heart. Emotionally drained, he barely resists the urge to binge drink again.
After the play's run ends, Richard confronts Elizabeth about her drug abuse, which she begrudgingly acknowledges. They both admit to still loving one another, but he says that being with her will destroy him. They agree to remain friends and stay in touch.
Shortly thereafter, Elizabeth enters the Betty Ford Center for treatment. Richard and Sally live in Switzerland until he dies of a cerebral hemorrhage in 1984. Richard and Elizabeth talk on the phone every few days during the last months of life.

Tags: romantic

Review:
"Burton and Taylor" starts weakly because it takes a while to accept Dominic West as a dissipated 57-year-old Richard Burton and Helena Bonham-Carter as legendary glamour puss Liz Taylor.
But West wins us over first of all with his deep voice and cultivated enunciations (which was what Burton was primarily known for); then secondarily his Burton-style cheek folds and greying temples provide just enough distraction from West's own robust youthfulness; finally, West projects a pervasive worldly cynicism tempered with a basic humanity.
Bonham-Carter has the coloring and heat of Taylor, something of the physique (though less buxom), slightly similar facial features enhanced by careful camera angles and she effectively duplicates Taylor's weak, whiny voice.
She redeems herself for her abominable performance in 2012's "Dark Shadows." The scope of the story, with the exception of one flashback, is wisely limited to several months in 1983 when the famous twice-married, twice-divorced couple reunited to play the leads in Noel Coward's "Private Lives" on Broadway.
They were both too old for their parts and Taylor was not remotely adept at stage acting but superficially at least, their own relationship resembled that of the tempestuous couple at the heart of Coward's play.
Highlights of this extended public embarrassment – from early rehearsals through closing night – are interspersed with peaks and valleys in the Burton-Taylor personal drama.
Burton emerges as a skilled and erudite artist waylaid by dependency on drugs (alcohol and cigarettes); Taylor as an intelligent but spoiled, pill-popping, self-absorbed star monster, the kind only Hollywood could create; the pair as mutually dependent devourers and enablers of each other—in short, a mythic representation and exaggeration of average couples in general, which indeed was part of their mass appeal.There are so many revelatory truths scattered amidst the dross of the TV-movie-style mise- en-scene that one can only surmise that the creative personnel behind this effort actually cared about and emotionally connected with their subjects.
A few examples: the startling scene backstage when Taylor in mid-conversation with Burton suddenly slugs him in the face for having spoken rudely to her staff moments earlier; the close-up on their hands clasped together and then separating during a curtain call, pointing up the unstable unity-disunity of their relationship as expressed by the failure-success of their play; the dynamic of their on- stage interactions as Taylor, thanks to her sheer star power, gets away with running roughshod over Noel Coward's verbal architecture while Burton, the trained stage veteran, struggles to anchor the proceedings with actorly skill; Burton's frequent quoting from Shakespeare to express powerful feelings, reflective of his early absorption of and inner devotion to the classics of literature which not only fueled his youthful rise to success but sustained him through subsequent decades of personal and artistic dissolution.This is the second biopic about this pair in the last year, the previous one being the forgettable quickie starring Lindsay Lohan.
"Burton and Taylor" manages to obliterate its predecessor..
The DVD of this BBC film for television is yet to be released in the US so the first introduction to what is actually a very fine film was presented to the American audience in piece meal fashion on the BBC network: 7 minutes of story then 4 minutes of commercials then 7 more minutes of story, etc - for 2 hours.
Richard Laxton directs a screenplay by William Ivory (no, not THAT Ivory family...), but the kudos for the success of this film go to Helena Bonham Carter and Dominic West who manage to reincarnate Li and Dick with consummate skill.Elizabeth Taylor (Helena Bonham Carter) invites her ex-husband - twice married, twice divorced in one of the last century's most tempestuous and media focused couplings - Richard Burton (Dominic West) to her fiftieth birthday party where, as a recovering alcoholic, he refuses to get drunk with her.
She obviously still retains her obsession and passion for him and suggests that they star in a stage revival of Noël Coward's play Private Lives that Liz is to produce.
With a new girlfriend and the prospect of playing King Lear, Burton is not happy with the project, especially with Taylor's pill-popping and her lack of stage experience, which causes problems at rehearsals: Taylor has not even read the play before day 1 of the rehearsals.
The play opens to a critical trashing but is extremely popular with audiences because they want to see Liz Taylor and, when she is ill, numbers dwindle and the show is put on hold.
After a two-month run, with a projected tour, the curtain comes down and Taylor tells Burton she has always loved him and still does.
Richard and Elizabeth go their separate ways, but they did sort out their differences and remain friends, and apparently they only communicated by telephone and letter, until his death in 1984.
Taylor died in 2011.The supporting cast, especially Lenora Crichlow as Liz' dresser Chen Sam and Stanley Townsend as the play's director Milton Katselas, is strong for the small amount of time they are on screen.
The spectacle is the obsessive relationship between two very strong characters and fortunately both actors give excellent impersonations and recreations.
There must have been more to Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor than that.
Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor were the cinema's official Golden Couple of the sixties.
Even today, two years after Taylor's death and nearly thirty after Burton's, they still live on in the popular imagination as one of the most famous and glamorous couples of the twentieth century, outdone in that respect possibly only by John and Jackie Kennedy and King Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson.
This film, made for the British TV channel BBC Four, does not tell the full story of their relationship (there is a great film to be made on that subject!) but concentrates on their last joint acting venture in 1983, seven years after the second of their two divorces.
The venture in question was a theatrical production in New York of Noel Coward's play "Private Lives", a production advertised under the slogan "Together Again!" On the one level, that slogan could be taken as a reference to Coward's principal characters Elyot and Amanda, a former husband and wife who meet several years after their divorce and realise that they still love one another.
The theatre management obviously realised, however, that their advertisement could also be taken as referring to Burton and Taylor themselves, another former husband and wife meeting several years after their divorce.
The production was not a great hit with the critics, but was very popular with the theatre-going public who loved the parallels between Elyot and Amanda and the actors portraying them.
There was even a curious coincidence in the fact that Elyot's new wife in the play is named Sybil- the same name as Burton's first wife whom he left for TaylorThe fictitious Elyot and Amanda might end by rediscovering their love, but this does not quite happen to their real-life equivalents.
Certainly, the film implies that Elizabeth Taylor was still very much in love with her ex-husband and was hoping to marry him for the third time.
(If a second marriage can be described as the triumph of hope over experience, what does that say about a third marriage, especially a third marriage to the same party?) Burton, however, was less keen, partly because he had fallen in love with Sally Hay, who became his fourth wife (and does not appear in this film), and partly because the reunion with Taylor reminded him forcibly of just why they split up.
By this stage of his life Burton, once one of Hollywood's most notorious hellraisers, was now recovering from alcoholism, whereas Taylor was still drinking as heavily as ever.
The two clash repeatedly during the production, largely because Burton believes that Taylor is not taking the play seriously, deliberately overacting and playing to the gallery.
Making filmed biographies of the great actresses of the past, particularly those who were famed for their beauty, can often be a thankless task because of the difficulty of finding a modern actress who bears sufficient resemblance to the woman she is portraying.
Helena Bonham Carter, although a very attractive woman, would probably not rank very highly in an Elizabeth Taylor lookalike contest.
Her voice, mannerisms and gestures, however, are sufficient to convey an impression of Taylor's personality, an impression convincing enough to persuade us to overlook the lack of any real resemblance.
Dominic West, however, is unable to do the same for Richard Burton.
By this stage in his life Burton was ageing and in poor health, looking older than his 58 years.
There is no real hint of this in West's performance, and he comes across as a healthy, vigorous and youthful-looking man in early middle age (despite a few grey hairs).
It also does not help that he looks very different from Burton and lacks his deep, mellifluous voice.
I felt that "Burton & Taylor" would have been more interesting if it had tried to tell the whole Burton/Taylor story, using the "Private Lives" production as a framework and relating the story of their life together in a series of flashbacks.
The film we actually have, telling no more than a small postscript to that story, is too static and dominated by talk.
The sight of Bonham Carter and West getting into yet another blazing argument may occasionally be entertaining, but we are left with the feeling that there must have been more to Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor than that.
In 1983 Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor appeared together on stage for the first and only time in Noel Coward's comedy PRIVATE LIVES.
Although critically panned, it sold out for its entire run on Broadway, with audiences flocking to see the sight of two legendary figures bickering with one another.
William Ivory's screenplay tells the story of that theatrical performance, focusing in particular on Taylor's (Helena Bonham Carter's) gradually disintegrating state of mind, as she realizes that Burton (Dominic West) has abandoned her for good in favor of his new wife Sally Burton (Cassie Raine).
Bonham Carter gives a creditable impersonation of Taylor, even though she lacks that mysterious quality that kept Taylor in the public eye for so many years; in this performance, Taylor comes across as a bit of a hopeless drunk with a penchant for upstaging Burton.
West's Burton seems like a dedicated actor; despite his love of money and the Hollywood high life, he never lost his professionalism, even in an obvious turkey like this PRIVATE LIVES, in which Taylor seldom knew her lines and often consciously departed from the script, in full knowledge that the audience didn't give a fig.
We can't help feeling sorry for two actors who were so fond of the limelight that they never knew when to give up: Burton kept wanting to play King Lear, even though he was both physically and mentally ill-equipped to do so.
BURTON AND TAYLOR seems like a requiem for two great stars reduced to mere museum exhibits..
good performances in rather bland movie.
Elizabeth Taylor (Helena Bonham Carter) and her twice ex-husband Richard Burton (Dominic West) are going to star in the revival of Noel Coward play 'Private Lives'.
The media speculation is rampant with Taylor's help.
The play is panned by the critics but popular with the fans who are rabid for the reunion.
He marries his girlfriend and the two actors conflict.It has a couple of good performances in a rather bland telling of a minor part of these icons' turbulent love affair.
It plays more like a Lifetime TV movie.
There is a great opportunity to add other characters into their relationship.
There is great drama here but the movie doesn't take full advantage..
Burton and Taylor will forever be Hollywood's golden couple whose turbulent life made headline news but also inspired some dramatic films, none more so than 'Who's afraid of Virgina Woolf.'The setting for this one off film is 1983, a year before Burton's untimely death.Richard Burton (Dominic West) and Elizabeth Taylor (Helena Bonham Carter) after their second divorce are reuniting in London for a theatrical play of Noel Coward's Private Lives and enter another spiral of turbulence, bickering, despair and affection.The press announcement creates a storm of interest and speculation in the media as to if they will get back together for a third time.Taylor still carries a torch for Burton while Burton, a man with a reputation as a great stage actor is frustrated by Taylor's histrionics and her unwillingness to rehearse the play properly.Bonham Carter captures the essence and cattiness of Taylor remarkably well although West seems to struggle with his Burton.
Maybe it was a misstep by concentrating in this period of their relationship when there is a more interesting story to be told about this pair as to how they fell in love in the early 1960s.
among those real lives -- that were so publicly replete with drama, drink, drugs, fame, fortune, travel, stage & screen, luxury, lust, affairs, and marriages (whew!) -- the movie has an appeal.Partly, as a chance to catch a slowed-down glimpse into just one period of their lives.Mostly, though, to experience Helena Bonham Carter's sublime performance as well as that of Dominic West.
Their voices and mannerisms were spot-on.I read that Helena was terrified to play the part of Elizabeth Taylor (understandable).
Poignant final chapter of the Burton and Taylor saga......
Burton and Taylor is directed by Richard Laxton, written by William Ivory, produced by Lachlan MacKinnon, Andrew Wood and Jessica Pope,music by John Lunn and stars Dominic West and Helena Bonham Carter.1983, Elizabeth Taylor(Helena Bonham Carter) invites her twice ex-husband Richard Burton(Dominic West) to her fiftieth birthday party where he considers her proposal that they star in a new stage adaptation of Noel Coward's play "Private Lives".When the news is announced to the press, there's speculation that the couple may get back together again.
Elizabeth hopes for this but Burton(although he still loves her)has moved on from their life together and has a new girlfriend(later his last wife)Sally.
Burton's also frail physically as a lifetime of hard drinking takes it toll on him.
He's worried that he won't be able to play the role of King Lear after this play because it will too demanding for him, Elizabeth assures him he's just being silly.When the play opens it becomes clear to both of them that the audience are just there to see Burton/Taylor and it's almost as if the play becomes about their life together.
As the couple argue off stage Elizabeth takes it out on Burton on stage, physically hitting him(in real life he was very, very frail during the run and she did hurt him when she did that)and playing up to audience, talking directly to them on several occasions and acknowledging their cheers mid performance!
This is very poignant film looking at the last act in the Taylor/Burton love story.
The two loved each other very much and after their divorces Burton still wrote to Taylor and they phoned each other a lot.
He couldn't take Taylor's drinking and pill popping though nor her entourage who seemed to be around all the time.
Dominic does an excellent job as the weary Burton however he doesn't look nearly as old or frail as Burton was during the plays run.
Burton was only in his early fifties but looked seventy and although they mention his nerve pain and frailness it doesn't register just how ill he actually was.Onto Burton's voice and the performances, Dominic gives it a good go but never captures Burton's iconic voice perfectly(the only person I've ever heard do an accurate impression is Frank Gorshin during a comedy roast)but you believe he is Richard so it doesn't really matter.
Likewise with Helena she portrays the boozy, depressed Elizabeth very well and you believe it's Taylor you're watching.Those little complaints about the portrayal of Burton's health aside this is a very well made BBC4 film about the couple and is moving, funny and brilliantly acted.
Well worth a watch especially for fans of the couple..
Burton & Taylor.
This film was made on the anniversary of thirty years since the famous celebrity couple, who married twice, last performed together, and it was two years since the actress, to some the last living legend of the Golden Years of Hollywood, died in 2011, so a (television made) film about them made sense.
Basically, set in 1983, movie stars Richard Burton (Dominic West) and Elizabeth Taylor (Helena Bonham Carter) have not seen each other for a little while, perhaps since their second divorce.
They are reuniting in London for a theatrical production of the Noël Coward play Private Lives, and despite no longer being married it is obvious there may still be some form of feelings between them, both bitter and longing, but they try to continue and concentrate on work.
But more than anything Richard is becoming increasingly frustrated with Elizabeth, who struggles to learn her lines having not practised them properly, failing to arrive on time for scheduled rehearsals and other occasions, and trying to upstage him to get the bigger reaction from the audiences.
In the end Richard and Elizabeth go their separate ways, but they did sort out their differences and remain friends, and apparently they only communicated by telephone and letter, until his death in 1984.
Also starring Being Human's Lenora Crichlow as Chen Sam, Miranda's Sarah Hadland as Kathryn Walker, William Hope as John Cullum, Michael Jibson as Mike, Lucille Sharp as Liza Todd Burton and Isabella Brazier-Jones as Maria Burton.
The real Burton and Taylor were making news all the time because of their turbulent relationship, and besides their great acting talents they became part of public consciousness, and the performances by Bonham and Cooper playing them is believable and terrific, as they look and sound the parts, and it is an interesting enough story, so not a bad drama.