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There’s a new documentary about Liza Minnelli — it really is Pride Month!! In his quest to reveal the woman behind the sequins and eyelashes, director Bruce David Klein filmed conversations with a bevy of Liza’s contemporaries, as well as Liza herself. And the finished product is this, Liza: A Truly Terrific Absolutely True Story (the title is perfect), which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York this week, in the hopes of securing a distributor. Since it may still be a while yet until we get to see it ourselves, USA TODAY has a review to tease tide us over. Some highlights:
A full cast of friends and artists sat for interviews in the film: Yes, it touches on her friendships with Halston and Fred Ebb; her mentorship from Kay Thompson; and her four marriages and three miscarriages. But the majority of insight comes from interviews with her close pals and collaborators, including John Kander, Joel Grey, Ben Vereen, Chita Rivera and Mia Farrow (a sardonic scene-stealer). Minnelli is also interviewed by Klein for the film, always armed with a quip and a throaty cackle. Asked about her relationships, she jokes “Give me a gay break, will ya?” And when Klein inquires about her late-night revelries at Studio 54, she playfully insists, “It wasn’t that wacko!”
Being Judy Garland’s daughter: The movie begins with the 1969 death of her mother, Judy Garland, from an accidental overdose at age 47. Minnelli was only 23 at the time. “It was devastating to me,” she tells Klein. “I didn’t stop crying for eight days, and I had to take on so much.” … She remembers how Ebb once told her to deflect reporters’ questions about Garland, who occasionally grew jealous when her daughter got more attention than her. “He would stop me from talking about my mother too much because then they’re thinking about her and not me,” Minnelli says. Seeing how her mom wrestled with addiction, she told herself that she’d never go down the same path. But, naturally, she’s only human: “Being Judy Garland’s daughter is not a lot of laughs,” Minnelli tells Klein. She tearfully adds that she’s grateful for “all the bad stuff” she went through because “it prepared me for the rest of my life.”
On why she didn’t attend the premiere: “My beloved sister, Lorna Luft, who makes an all too brief appearance (in the film), and I decided we couldn’t, shouldn’t, wouldn’t sit in the audience to watch a tribute to me,” Minnelli wrote. “Shades of ‘Sunset Boulevard’? Yikes!” The Broadway legend went on to say that it’s “only the beginning” of finding “new ways to create” at her age. She also called out “trashy” tabloids for insisting that she’s “too fragile” to travel. “How dumb is that?” Minnelli wrote. “Babies, I still travel. Still loving life on my terms with a tight circle of people I adore. I’m finally free to have fun.”
My mother and I were lucky enough to see Liza in her one-woman show, Minnelli on Minnelli, when she took it on tour after the Broadway run. Needless to say, she was fantastic. I was a tween at the time, and there are two moments I remember vividly: first, her showing slides of the kid-sized versions of Hollywood costumes her father Vincent had made for her each year for Halloween (the mini-me The King and I ball gown was too much), and second, Liza acknowledging that her sister Lorna was in the audience, and then making Lorna stand to receive the audience’s applause. Liza is a national treasure, and a feisty one at that! I love her clapping back at the tabloids — she’s about to zip off to Paris in a gulf stream, thankyouverymuch. Calling all studios/streamers: let’s get this film picked up tout suite, shall we? And attention Etsy: please do your thing and get “Give me a gay break, will ya?” printed on anything and everything. Happy Pride, y’all!
Photos credit: Kika Press, PacificCoastNews / Avalon