Out Takes

18 Jan 2017

Elizabeth Taylor Retrospective

Arts, TV & Film

Called one of the ‘greatest female screen legends of all time’ by the American Film Institute, Elizabeth Taylor had a remarkable career that spanned decades. She was also a prolific activist and her scandalous personal life was the constant object of media scrutiny.

For this program, the Out Takes team celebrated the life and ground breaking work of one of Hollywood’s gayest icons, Elizabeth Taylor. Our guest was Tracey McIrvine, the curator of a new exhibition showing as part of Midsumma – ‘Elizabeth Taylor: The Queen of Celebrity Activism’. We chatted with McIrvine about why Taylor has had such resonance within gay culture, and what we can expect from the exhibition.

We also looked at some of our favourite Taylor films; from provocative queer fare like ‘Suddenly Last Summer’ to ‘Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?’, these films are as challenging and confronting today as they were 50 years ago. They also, incidentally, star the who’s who of Hollywood’s queer closet.

Essential viewing: Suddenly Last Summer (Dir. Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1959)

Hungry for more: Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf (Dir Mike Nichols, 1966)

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 52:13 — 47.8MB)

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