Elizabeth Taylor was a serious actress. Capturing Taylor in her prime, the film 'Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?' presents a vivid talent capable of emoting a complex and nuanced inner-life. The intensity and the exceptional complexity of Elizabeth Taylor's performance in this film makes 'Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?' my favorite film in the Taylor archives.
The Story
The film concerns a childless couple living out their lives on a university campus and takes mainly in the couple's living room. The husband and wife, a history professor and the university president's daughter, bicker back and forth with refined passion and great verve. They really seem settled into roles as conjugal adversaries, reveling in the pain they inflict upon one another.
On the evening of story's action, a young professor and his young wife are invited over for cocktails after a faculty party. Elizabeth Taylor's character continues to air her marital grievances in front of the young couple, drawing them in to a drunken quarrel that eventually brings the party to the edge of violence.
One of the greatest qualities of the script of 'Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?' is it's tenacious focus on the childlessness of the older couple. The two figures, played by Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, creatively and obsessively blame one another for the fate of the child they never had. They create a fiction in which the child lives and in doing so evoke a new layer of fictionality within the world of the film.
A Play Put on Film
As if often the case, when a piece of theatrical drama is adapted to the screen successfully, there is an emphasis on speech and on acting that puts quite a bit of pressure on the actors and actresses in the production.
'Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?' is no exception.
With a minimal number of sets, many of which are in small rooms, the intimacy of the spacing means that the camera is never far from the actors. Every expression counts. Elizabeth Taylor meets this challenge beautifully, as does Richard Burton who plays her husband.
As a spiteful, willful, bitter woman of privilege, Taylor is convincing to the point of being unlikable. The actress masterfully conveys the torpor of disappointment with her husband and her life. When she lashes out at her husband and when she seduces the young professor, you can really feel her character's core of hostile pride as if it were Taylor's own personally cultivated hostile pride.
With a strength of spirit and a razor tongue, Elizabeth Taylor's performance delivers an invigorating and engaging degree of force. You can't watch 'Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?' without being caught up in the lovers' quarrel and taking sides.
Awards
In 1966, Elizabeth Taylor won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in 'Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?' and the film garnered nominations for Best Actor (Richard Burton), Best Director (Mike Nichols) and Best Picture.
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