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Ash Wednesday (1973)

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6 Nutzerkommentare insgesamt

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7 out of 9 people found the following comment useful :-
Guilty Pleasure, 27. April 2004

Author: Christopher (mrcaw1@hotmail.com) von New York

Ash Wednesday (1973) Costarring Henry Fonda, Taylor plays your typical depressed, run-of-the-mill, middle-aged housewife who in an attempt to win back her divorce-seeking husband, goes to a Swiss spa to undergo plastic surgery and regain her youthful beauty. Well, not only is the operation a success, she comes out of it looking like, well Elizabeth Taylor. Dominick Dunne produced this movie before he went on to novel writing fame and fortune. It's considered a really bad movie. I consider it high seventies camp at its best. Most definitely a thumbs up. Watch it in college with your friends over vodka tonics.

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6 out of 8 people found the following comment useful :-
Not vintage Liz, but "Ash Wednesday" has aged well, 29. März 2006

Author: zorotrinidad von Trinidad and Tobago

I want to say, in 1973, it was fashionable to knock anything Elizabeth Taylor did. Not the greatest movie in the world, but a bitter story of how the aging process can affect us. Yes! It was a return to the gorgeous Liz! But, isn't that what a movie star is all about. So, Liz got fat, so did I! Liz drank and had her addictions. So do we all! Why judge a performance by an actor's trouble life? And, mirror, mirror on the wall, who has lived to survive it all? Elizabeth the Great! What more can I say? Sadly, bias and bigotry continue to blight the work of many great performers. Time will tell, or maybe it has told already, that Elizabeth Taylor and her body of work can stand up with the rest. P.S. Felt the same incredible sadness at"Ash Wednesday" in 1973 as I did at that other bitter pill "Brokeback Mountain."

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3 out of 4 people found the following comment useful :-
Like "Shirley Valentine" but dramatic...and pretty good., 18. November 2003

Author: xavrush89 von Illinois, U.S.A.

Obviously, this sight recommends "Breast Men" as a suitable companion piece to this because of the cosmetic surgery angle. (I don't watch similar films together anyway.) To me, it is much more akin in spirit to "Shirley Valentine." Woman estranged from her husband in foreign country amidst beautiful scenery, a change of life, etc. For once, a woman having a co-star old enough to be her father actually works with the script! Taylor's acting here is more subtle than it had been in the previous decade, and it works. I could not relate to a woman who goes to such lengths for her husbands affection, but she is playing a woman of a bygone era, and almost twenty years older than she was at the time (the woman playing her daughter could easily have played her sister in another film). This is a very slowly paced film, but by golly you can't help but root for Taylor to find some solace, just like Shirley V. All of this leads up to an inevitable confrontation with her husband, and the movie keeps you guessing to the end what will happen between them. Was it worth it? I won't tell. Knowing what we now know about the kind of father and husband Henry Fonda was in real life can't help but taint the viewing of him in this role. But hey, they could've gotten Bing Crosby. All in all, I saw this movie on video about nine years ago, and as you can see it has stayed with me. So check it out, it beats the heck out of anything on Lifetime.

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3 out of 4 people found the following comment useful :-
Elizabeth Taylor plays..., 3. Oktober 2000

Author: starbuck-24 (mcneely.11@osu.edu) von Columbus, Ohio

Elizabeth Taylor plays Barbara Sawyer, wife to Henry Fonda (who shows up late in the film) for 30 years who has not aged well (to say the least). She goes to Europe and receives plastic surgery in an attempt to save her marriage. Will her restored youth appeal to her husband or will she have to start life over and be strong enough to do so? This is the premise of Ash Wednesday, a syrupy soap opera in the ugly duckling to beautiful swan tradition. Maybe you're a fan of Liz Taylor and sought this movie out, or maybe you just managed to catch it on late night cable and there was nothing else on. Either way you probably realized that this movie wasn't exactly high caliber. But in humble defense I will praise an excellent musical score, beautiful on location scenery, and elegant Edith Head designed fashions. The premise of the movie is a good one and it could have made for a very interesting film had the screenwriter or director had any amount of talent. But the dialogue and direction are both flat. Certain scenes seem pointless and unfulfilled. However, the main point of the movie is to show loving close ups and profiles of 41 year old Taylor looking beautiful again. And, yes, with a lot more make-up and just the right camera angle, we the audience, are transplanted back to those fabulous 50's movies when Taylor didn't have to act or even speak to transfix your gaze upon her and hold it rapt. Rating for Ash Wednesday for any viewer. **(out of 4) For Liz Taylor fans. ***

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2 out of 3 people found the following comment useful :-
Elizabeth Taylor is stunning, 26. Juli 2006

Author: aussiebrisguy von Australia

Elizabeth Taylor is truly stunningly beautiful in Ash Wednesday. Her character Barbara Sawyer goes through the sheer hell of plastic surgery in an effort to win back her philandering rotten husband Mark, played by Henry Fonda. I must admit I didn't realise what a terrible actor Henry Fonda was until I saw him up against the magnificent Elizabeth Taylor. Helmut Berger puts in an appearance as Barbara's young lover. The scenery around Cortina is absolutely exquisite and Elizabeth Taylor's costumes and hair styling are superb. This film is entertaining as it exposes the dangers of thinking that surgery will right problems that no knife can successfully cut away. This film is pure escapism. Enjoy it for what it is. It is an interesting look at lifestyles of the rich in the early 1970s in Europe. Elizabeth Taylor has some great lines.

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3 out of 5 people found the following comment useful :-
No spoilers here!!!, 3. Oktober 2003
Author: sadie_thompson von United States

I lost track of this film after they pulled Elizabeth Taylor's face off, so I can't possibly divulge any plot points. (Okay, so it wasn't Elizabeth getting her face torn off, but it was somebody and it was SICK.)

The whole point to this film, as I understood it, was that Elizabeth Taylor's character Barbara is a superficial women who thinks everyone else is superficial also. Her marriage is on the rocks, so she automatically assumes she's getting ugly. Appearance isn't everything, Barbara dear. She is understandably shocked when her husband lets her in on that fact. He doesn't care if she looks like a troll named Brunhilde (which is how she starts off the film)--he just doesn't love her anymore. I thought he was a real twit, as he acts as if he couldn't care less about her and never did.

I get aggravated when Elizabeth Taylor's face is the centerpiece of a movie. The woman can act, but I have yet to meet anyone who realizes that. Movies like this mirror her real life to me. She has to look beautiful, and if she doesn't, she isn't a whole person. She doesn't function properly. (Small wonder she's had so many personal problems. Being a beautiful goddess all the time has to be difficult.) To me, Barbara Sawyer is a bit like Elizabeth Taylor. Her face seems to be her fortune, and she gets quite distressed if something happens to it. It seems unfortunate that Barbara (and possibly Ms. Taylor) place so much store by looking good. "My husband's leaving me. I'm not surprised, my hair looked awful today." That sounds unreal, but that is how Barbara acts. Even more unfortunate is how my whole review here is based on how she looks. Now I'm doing it. It just makes for a very pathetic individual, and maybe Barbara is supposed to be.

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