The life and films of Vincente Minnelli
June 7th 2010 08:17
Original Creative Writing:
By Mark Griffin
A Hundred or More Hidden Things: The life and films of Vincente Minnelli
by Mark Griffin
This is a very readable book detailing background information about this accomplished filmmakers work. Minnelli danced in and out of that spotlight of public consciousness through his long and distinguished career sometimes heralded for his own artistic greatness, and at other times bumped out of view by his remarkable family; Liza Minnelli, daughter of Judy Garland and Vincente Minnelli has owned the name since the early 1970's when she was pulling in a variety of awards and making her name as a powerhouse of exuberance, all dancing, singing and acting.
The song, Liza with a Z certainly claims the Minnelli surname with ultimate totality, consonant and vowel musically spelt out repeatedly so there can be no mistake:
It's Minnelli! Liza Minnelli; it's Italian.
Blame it on Papa; what can I do?
In a way Liza was backed up against a wall, her parents were both legends, and she needed to assert her own individual identity in a strong and immediate way I think, because both her parents had presented extremely high standards for her to aspire towards as well as an upbringing that was full of A-List Hollywood lifestyle and culture.
The quiet and shy Director Vincente had seen his personal currency wane as his daughter's star was on the rise in a way not unlike Esther Blodgett's steady rise in the classic Garland movie A Star Is Born.
Although he did direct some wonderful movies, the nineteen seventies were not as great a success for Vincente; most of his truly classic films were in the can back in the fifties, the era of The Pirate, Meet Me In St Louis and The Band Wagon.
His ability shined the most when he directed musicals for MGM. Great lush works of cinema art with gloriously well designed imagery flooding the screen and engulfing audiences in blissful entertainments chocked with sincerity, high art and wit.
When Liza worked with him on a film called A Matter of Time, his power as a director in Hollywood was not great enough to save the film from its producers and distributors who used their own clout to cut it down into something less than it would have been, similarly On A Clear Day You Can See Forever was edited down to accommodate powers beyond the directors control, so there's two movies made in the seventies that probably could have been masterpieces rather than the slightly too twee spectacles they are.
Barbra Striesand's star turn in Clear Day is great, the casting of Jack Nicholson as her half brother is brilliant and Liza Minnelli's effort in A Matter of Time is beautiful, not to mention so many other elements in both films, however they both lack something; and in the telling of the background it's easy to see why.
The poor chap was making these most recent films at the end of his career, so many younger film watchers today are not necessarily conscious of watching a Vincente Minnelli film so much as watching a musical with a young Jack Nicholson or an old Ingrid Bergman (Isabella Rossellini's mum) in the cast.
When Liza claimed the name as her own so triumphantly she was staking her claim to a new generation who were living in the now, not the then. She was not turning her back on her parents, far from it, she was actually carving out her own career while doing plenty of family business development. Still in the 1970's Liza was one of the hosts of That's Entertainment, MGM's precursor to MTV; a feature length celebration of all the amazing musicals produced back in the day.
Later she went on to be the voice of both parents on a range of retrospective ventures such as DVD commentaries and introductions that provide otherwise unknown details about the movies her mum and dad made. Liza also dedicated a large portion of her concert season to her father's work.
He was more than a director, Vincente was an artist. His early life was spent working in the family business, a travelling tent theatre. He went from live performance, notably producing works of high art at Radio City Music Hall to MGM studios where he met and eventually married Judy Garland. He had a wonderful working relationship with Garland, and of course they produced Liza, one of the most outstanding performers of her generation. Then Vincente and Judy divorced.
Many people will know that Judy went on to marry again twice, first to Sidney Luft, who fathered two children with her, and then once more before she died tragically on a bathroom floor in the wee small hours of the morning. What people will discover by reading this book is what happened to Vincente.
He also remarried, a few times. The ongoing talk of his sexuality appears to have been one possible motivation for his subsequent marriages, as well as love. To be called a queer back in the day was a far more damning thing socially on every level than it is now; a distraction from prospective career opportunities, a type of box office and social poison. If the creator of Meet Me in St Louis, a film that reflected delightfully twee mainstream family values was a fruit, what chance was there for the USA?
His health started to crumble; he had Alzheimer's disease before anyone knew all that much about it. Consequently the man who was able to quietly lead masses of workers in various departments on a big budget movie towards an artistic vision became a difficult to understand, mumbling forgetful liability.
Rather than detail all the points of great interest in this book, I urge anyone interested in the man to read this book. Some of Mark Griffin's writing is so smooth you may be surprised at how quickly you reach the end. It is certainly a good read, and in many ways better than the book Vincente wrote himself I Remember It Well.
I have found a renewed interest in Minnelli's films now, and am gradually sitting down to watch them with a new eye, informed by this excellent book.
Published by Da Capo Press
Biography / Film
ISBN 978-0-78672-099-6
E-BOOK ISBN 978-0-306-81893-6
6 x 9 |320 pages | 70 B&W photos
David Jobling
by Mark Griffin
This is a very readable book detailing background information about this accomplished filmmakers work. Minnelli danced in and out of that spotlight of public consciousness through his long and distinguished career sometimes heralded for his own artistic greatness, and at other times bumped out of view by his remarkable family; Liza Minnelli, daughter of Judy Garland and Vincente Minnelli has owned the name since the early 1970's when she was pulling in a variety of awards and making her name as a powerhouse of exuberance, all dancing, singing and acting.
The song, Liza with a Z certainly claims the Minnelli surname with ultimate totality, consonant and vowel musically spelt out repeatedly so there can be no mistake:
It's Minnelli! Liza Minnelli; it's Italian.
Blame it on Papa; what can I do?
The quiet and shy Director Vincente had seen his personal currency wane as his daughter's star was on the rise in a way not unlike Esther Blodgett's steady rise in the classic Garland movie A Star Is Born.
Although he did direct some wonderful movies, the nineteen seventies were not as great a success for Vincente; most of his truly classic films were in the can back in the fifties, the era of The Pirate, Meet Me In St Louis and The Band Wagon.
His ability shined the most when he directed musicals for MGM. Great lush works of cinema art with gloriously well designed imagery flooding the screen and engulfing audiences in blissful entertainments chocked with sincerity, high art and wit.
When Liza worked with him on a film called A Matter of Time, his power as a director in Hollywood was not great enough to save the film from its producers and distributors who used their own clout to cut it down into something less than it would have been, similarly On A Clear Day You Can See Forever was edited down to accommodate powers beyond the directors control, so there's two movies made in the seventies that probably could have been masterpieces rather than the slightly too twee spectacles they are.
Barbra Striesand's star turn in Clear Day is great, the casting of Jack Nicholson as her half brother is brilliant and Liza Minnelli's effort in A Matter of Time is beautiful, not to mention so many other elements in both films, however they both lack something; and in the telling of the background it's easy to see why.
The poor chap was making these most recent films at the end of his career, so many younger film watchers today are not necessarily conscious of watching a Vincente Minnelli film so much as watching a musical with a young Jack Nicholson or an old Ingrid Bergman (Isabella Rossellini's mum) in the cast.
When Liza claimed the name as her own so triumphantly she was staking her claim to a new generation who were living in the now, not the then. She was not turning her back on her parents, far from it, she was actually carving out her own career while doing plenty of family business development. Still in the 1970's Liza was one of the hosts of That's Entertainment, MGM's precursor to MTV; a feature length celebration of all the amazing musicals produced back in the day.
Later she went on to be the voice of both parents on a range of retrospective ventures such as DVD commentaries and introductions that provide otherwise unknown details about the movies her mum and dad made. Liza also dedicated a large portion of her concert season to her father's work.
He was more than a director, Vincente was an artist. His early life was spent working in the family business, a travelling tent theatre. He went from live performance, notably producing works of high art at Radio City Music Hall to MGM studios where he met and eventually married Judy Garland. He had a wonderful working relationship with Garland, and of course they produced Liza, one of the most outstanding performers of her generation. Then Vincente and Judy divorced.
Many people will know that Judy went on to marry again twice, first to Sidney Luft, who fathered two children with her, and then once more before she died tragically on a bathroom floor in the wee small hours of the morning. What people will discover by reading this book is what happened to Vincente.
He also remarried, a few times. The ongoing talk of his sexuality appears to have been one possible motivation for his subsequent marriages, as well as love. To be called a queer back in the day was a far more damning thing socially on every level than it is now; a distraction from prospective career opportunities, a type of box office and social poison. If the creator of Meet Me in St Louis, a film that reflected delightfully twee mainstream family values was a fruit, what chance was there for the USA?
His health started to crumble; he had Alzheimer's disease before anyone knew all that much about it. Consequently the man who was able to quietly lead masses of workers in various departments on a big budget movie towards an artistic vision became a difficult to understand, mumbling forgetful liability.
Rather than detail all the points of great interest in this book, I urge anyone interested in the man to read this book. Some of Mark Griffin's writing is so smooth you may be surprised at how quickly you reach the end. It is certainly a good read, and in many ways better than the book Vincente wrote himself I Remember It Well.
I have found a renewed interest in Minnelli's films now, and am gradually sitting down to watch them with a new eye, informed by this excellent book.
Published by Da Capo Press
Biography / Film
ISBN 978-0-78672-099-6
E-BOOK ISBN 978-0-306-81893-6
6 x 9 |320 pages | 70 B&W photos
David Jobling
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