I liked one observation about Liz Taylor: to be considered the biggest star in Hollywood history, she didn't do one thing - she didn't die on time. Well, now she's done that too.
Stars who pass away like Marilyn Monroe or James Dean have one huge advantage: they never age. Stars who grow old, and do not choose mystery and radical absence from the media (like the great Greta), carry their age, even when it comes to tragic impulses - somehow caricatured.
All these ridiculous husbands, rejuvenations, hanging out with Michael Jackson and Warhol freaks of all kinds, alcoholism and public embarrassments, illnesses and family tragedies, all this, to stay in the zone of cosmic metaphors - it takes so much dust and energy from the star - that in the end it remains only the extinguished core, that skeleton of the star that once illuminated the darkness of the world.
And Mrs. Taylor really was a big old Hollywood star. Consumers of today's Hollywood, in which the biggest female stars are Jennifer Aniston or Sandra Bullock (Ms. Jolie-Pitt is an exception, she has some old Hollywood charisma) - cannot understand the mythical dimensions of her fame and popularity. By the way - just as of all the male stars in Old Hollywood today, only Clooney and Angelina's husband would probably be the same.
A word that was previously only used for the biggest icons of cinema - diva - suited her.
Which is a derivative of the Latin "diva" in the sense of worshiped, goddess, divine. (Remember Bene's great movie “Diva”?)
Almost ten years ago, I remember, I received additional questions from a proofreader from Zagreb who was just reading the manuscript of my novel looking for typos or other "bumps". And if the publisher hadn't explained it to me, I would have known that the lady was - old school.
And here's how. Among several dozen queries, there was one like this. From the text of the novel, she extracted a sentence that roughly reads - ...she was as beautiful as Liv Tyler. Her question knocked me off my feet. Next to this sentence, the lady wrote - "The author must be thinking of Liz Taylor".
I said - old school. Of course, I explained to her why she should leave it exactly as it is written, but only those who remember what a star Liz Taylor was will understand this charming (generational) misunderstanding.
My generation grew up with two key "black/blue" dilemmas. In the eternal game of "either-or" (Plato or Aristotle?, Coca-Cola or Pepsi?, The Beatles or the Stones?, Magic or Michael?), a long time ago, before we understood the importance of all the enumerated emblematic dilemmas, the question of which is prettier: Liz or Marilyn? Parallel to that, there was another dilemma that required an urgent (and clear) declaration - which do you like better, black or blue from the group ABBA?
Some other circumstances contributed to the mythical dimensions of the last classic diva of Hollywood. At the time when Barton played Tito in "Sutjeska", the famous Hollywood couple stayed in SFRY, rested in Brijon, took pictures with Tito and Jovanka. You can imagine how that resonated. It's as if Barton became a member of the Politburo...
And, of course, "Cleopatra". Today it is easy to say that it is a bad film, but my generation watched that film as a historical channel, as, in other words, a documentary reconstruction of a historical epoch.
Thanks to that, whenever I later read Cavafy's brilliant poem "God forsakes Antonio" (As a man who has long been ready for it, Say goodbye to Alexandria that you are losing), the lyrical subject always, and, even outside of my conscious will, always somewhat resembled at the Welshman, who could drink that too.
And Liz? Let her be what she has always been so naturally on the new stage (whatever it looks like) - a true diva. After all, I wouldn't be surprised if there's a new marriage with Barton waiting for her somewhere.
Bonus video:
