MovieChat Forums > Cabaret (1972) Discussion > Wow! Liza Minnelli used to be a real di...

Wow! Liza Minnelli used to be a real dish!


I wonder what happened?!

Count each day as a gift; you never know when the wrapper paper's going to run out.

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She was very attractive.
But a lot happened; 3 miscarriages, drugs, a few marriages.
She's a bit bonkers now...Still, I think her heart's in the right place and she's still quite loveable, just a tad scary.

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She looks a bit like a crazy lady these days (no offense to her or anything, it's understandable though).

She looked pretty stunning back in Cabaret. I loved the eyelashes .

And Sally's character was adorable which made Liza even cuter back then.

This is the last time I'll Abandon you
And this is the last time I'll foreget you
I wish I could

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That's a pretty big misconception, I think.

Not about her being attractive or that a lot happened, but that she's crazy now...she laughs a lot, sure, but otherwise she seems perfectly sane, and it stinks that a lot of people see her as Liza "Jazz Hands" Minnelli, or "the kook who married that weird guy."


Personally, I think I have too much bloom. Maybe that's the trouble with me.

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TIME happened and guess what? It will happen to you and me too... ;-)

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She was very cute- georgeous figure, and very talented.
Sometimes I think more so than her famous mother.


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http://www.theobamafile.com/

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She was very cute- georgeous figure, and very talented.
Sometimes I think more so than her famous mother.


With Judy Garland and Vincente Minelli as parents, it's amazing that Liza got out of their shadows at all. But, she not only did so with flying colors, she also exceeded as very talented entertainer and celebrity in her own right. "Judy Garland's daughter" is the furthest thing from my mind when I think of Liza. It's very rare to see such a talented mother-daughter pair.

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Poor woman has been through a lot -- but I agree that she was pretty great in this movie (and won an Oscar by the way) in manner, singing and looks. Odd, quarky but vulnerable in so many ways.

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Look at this. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5U9CehM3tQ These just audio recordings. Click on Judi Dench singing "Cabaret" http://www.djdchronology.com/abcd/cabaret1968.htm
http://www.djdchronology.com/abcd/cabaret1968.htm
click on Judi Dench and Kevin Colson singing
What do you think of her looks in 1968? She is of course shorter than Liza Minnelli and is not nearly the singer Liza is.

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What do you think of her looks in 1968? She is of course shorter than Liza Minnelli and is not nearly the singer Liza is.

I used to have the London cast recording on LP, and Judi Dench remains easily my favourite Sally Bowles.

But that's the stage-play Sally, of course, pre-Liza, when Sally was generally conceived as a quirky but ultimately tragic figure in a world that was quickly moving past anything she had to offer, and not the powerhouse Bohemian singer Liza made her out to be.

I understand Natasha Richardson (RIP) played her character very much like Judi Dench (and Jill Haworth, who played that same production on Broadway). I'd love to have seen her do that role on-stage, and there was apparently even talk that Sam Mendes would make a new movie based on his restaging of the stage version. I would have liked to see that, especially if Natasha Richardson and Alan Cumming had reprised their roles.


You might very well think that. I couldn't possibly comment.

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...and there was apparently talk that Sam Mendes would make a new movie based on his
restaging of the stage version.
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IMDB has a listing for a film of the stage version, but it doesn't appear to be
available on video.

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If it's the one I think you're referring to, I have a copy. The one from the Donmar Warehouse in London, with Jane Horrocks and Alan Cumming? It's a very gritty adaptation of the original stage musical, which itself was quite bleak compared to the movie, and is the production that was then adapted for the Broadway revival.

Worth searching out, I would say. But no, as far as I can find it hasn't been released commercially.



You might very well think that. I couldn't possibly comment.

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None of her marriages were successful, that is sad.

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She was so cute with those big doe eyes and her vulnerability that her mother had.

"You think you're God!"
"I gotta model myself after someone!"

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You should have seen her in "Liza with a Z" in 1972. Hell, you should have seen ME in 1972. We all change. Michael York looks different as well. Joel Gray...well, OK so he looks the same. She's had a tough life; likely isn't crazy but probably has some sort of personality disorder. Injuries leave scars; some are less visible but just as enduring. Who gave her the tools to build a life, who taught her how to make good decisions. She lives what she knows. I couldn't hang out with her but HOLY COW she's one hell of a singer and paired with Fosse - MAN OH MAN!!!

"Keep your friends close and your enemies closer"

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I hope she is happy and content. I also thank her for entertaining me.

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I think, like her mother, the only love she ever got or valued was the love she got from an audience. It's a shame--when she hit the mega with Cabaret, the widely held opinion was that she had her mother's talent, but not her problems. That no longer holds water. Now she's like a homeless person: not quite there and rather pathetic.

There's a 12-step program called Adult Children of Alcoholics. One of its precepts is that those who don't enter a program of recovery from growing up in an alcoholic household get sicker and sicker over time. Liza's a case in point. When in her 20s, she was pretty tightly wrapped. As the years wore on, she unraveled.

The NY Times review of her recent Broadway show spoke of her voice being in "tatters" and her dancing ability a mere memory. But with all those limitations, she can still put over a song like no one else. Whatever else goes, her performing genius will probably stay with her till the end.

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Good post, rrb, albeit sad.

I don't wish to sound unkind, but Liza is bringing her latest show to my country (Australia) this October. I saw her live last time she was here, maybe 20 years ago now. (It was both wonderful and dreadful. She was great, though even then the cracks were showing in her voice, and she was on-stage in just one bracket for a total of less than 50 minutes. The whole audience thought it was interval when the show actually ended, since we'd been in our seats for only just over an hour, including her opening act. I had friends working in that theatre who said "the word" was that she'd run out of coke, and hadn't been able to score any in time for the show. There were a lot of disgruntled people in the lobby of that theatre, I can tell you!)

Anyway. This time round, the posters are using a photograph that was obviously taken of her back around the time she filmed "Cabaret", and the TV ad they've started using to promote the show is largely made up of a slideshow of still shots, with a smattering of song snippets in the background -- they mostly sound like they've been lifted from movie soundtracks like "Cabaret" and "New York, New York" -- with just *one* very brief piece of footage from her performing live somewhere recently ... and flippin' heck, it's awful. She doesn't look great in the footage, I gotta say, but worse still she sounds like she can't sustain a note for even a bar or so. It's shocking.

I don't know what the show's going to be like. I'm not going to it (I haven't got the money -- $302.50 !! -- apart from the fact that the two concerts in my city have already completely sold out), but I cringe for her. Yeah, we all get old, but people really should know when to stop. She had a long way to fall, and it seems as if that is what she's done.



You might very well think that. I couldn't possibly comment.

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Well, even if she failed to wow Australia again (which I doubt), Liza Minnelli won her fourth Tony around the time of your post.

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And your point, pandelis?

(Other than to demonstrate you're in a bit of a snoot, that is.)



You might very well think that. I couldn't possibly comment.

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pI think, like her mother, the only love she ever got or valued was the love she got from an audience. It's a shame--p
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How is this a fact, that she was never loved? Her mother didn't dhow how her love, and Judy was never loved by her spouses and children?
People want to paint both as two victims, without knowing them, It's melodramatic and all that, but not reality.

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If you have - or can get your hands on - the Warner Bros DVD, check out the bonus materials, which contain a lot of pre-production test and rehearsal footage. It shows her with much longer - and less-flattering - hair, and reveals that her iconic "look" was a last-minute inspiration. Story goes, if my memory serves, she got the haircut just before shooting without consulting Fosse, who, fortunately, approved. Otherwise Sally/Liza would have been a very different-looking "dish."


Poe! You are...avenged!

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The OP sees a Liza Minnelli film from 1972 and wonders what happened to her looks?!?

Oh, I'd say.... about 40 years happened.

"the best that you can do is fall in love"

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I know I have said this elsewhere, but I saw an interview with her where she said that she got coaching for her 'look' as Sally from her famous dad. There aren't too many Vincent Minnellis around today or Bob Fosses either, more is the pity!

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There's a similar story - which you've probably heard - about her mother's iconic "Get Happy" costume being an idea of Vincente's (although it was originally conceived for a number which was ultimately excised from EASTER PARADE).


Poe! You are...avenged!

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