AP Film Studies: Liz Taylor's Birthday Party/AIDS Benefit

Giant is a reminder of the icon's philanthropy.

George Stevens' 1956 classic Giant is the very definition of a sprawling American epic. Clocking in at an ass-numbing three-plus hours, the film is a portrait of a changing Texas landscape from the early to mid-20th century, a starkly romantic film of huge ambition that has more than earned its reputation as one of the era's most important films.

Beneath that layer of grandeur, though, lies the specter of two of Hollywood's greatest tragedies: the too-early death of James Dean and the closeted life of star Rock Hudson, whose death at age 59 made him one of the first—and most public—stars to die of AIDS complications.

It's the latter loss that makes this year's Elizabeth Taylor birthday celebration all the more poignant. Hosted by Laela Wilding, a Portland graphic designer who also happens to be Taylor's granddaughter, the celebration doubles as a way to carry on the star's philanthropic mission.

Wilding previously screened Taylor touchstones like National Velvet and the Stevens-directed A Place in the Sun, but this year is more personal. The event will benefit two HIV-oriented groups (Our House of Portland and Nkosi's Haven in South Africa), honoring Taylor's legacy of AIDS activism.

"My grandmother was a great friend to many of her leading men, and was very close with both James Dean and Rock Hudson," Wilding says, reminiscing about watching the film with her grandmother as a child. "Decades after Giant, my grandmother and Rock were still great friends. When Rock revealed that he had AIDS in 1985, Elizabeth galvanized Hollywood to get informed and get involved in the fight against AIDS."

Taylor's legacy of activism is storied: She was one of the first celebrities to dive into AIDS philanthropy when the disease emerged. She created the Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation, galvanized Hollywood and took politicians to task for downplaying the epidemic, making her activism as embedded in her public persona as White Diamonds and tabloid gossip.

In hindsight, Giant becomes something more: an origin story for Taylor's fiery later years. It's a classic tale of American ambition and tragedy carried by Hudson and Taylor, a pair who met at the peak of their cinematic glory and whose legacies are forever entwined both on- and offscreen. You can see the affection these cinematic greats shared for each other each time they lock eyes in the film. Knowing the outcome of their real-life relationship makes the already swelling film that much more affecting.

SEE IT: Giant screens at the Hollywood Theatre. 2 pm Sunday, March 13. $15.

APFilmStudies_2015Also Showing:

Church of Film's Folk Supernatural series this week travels to India for the ghostly fable In Two Minds, the story of a spirit who takes the form of a young woman's husband while he's away on business. North Star Ballroom. 8 pm Wednesday, March 9.

Say what you will about The Departed (and what you'll say is that its Oscar for best picture was really for Goodfellas), but it does stand up as Scorsese most approachable and entertaining film perhaps ever, and that's worth celebrating too. Mission Theatre Through Wednesday, March 16.

Mel Gibson's Braveheart is one of the most inaccurate historical epics of all time, a film showered with extraneous violence and subplots to make an extremely compelling true story somehow watered down (mostly with blood). It's also… well, kind of fantastic. Mission Theater. Opens Wednesdat, March 16.

French New Waver Jacques Rivette's Out 1 is seldom screened, probably because it's a 12-hour opus about theater troupes and secret societies in a changing France. Luckily, the NW Film Center is spacing it out in eight serialized parts. NW Film Center's Whitsell Auditorium. Through Thursday, March 17.

KBOO takes to the Clinton for a screening of Salt of the Earth, a once-suppressed film about striking Mexican-American mine workers, starring actual mine-workers. Or, as Trump calls them, rapists. Clinton Street Theater. 7 pm Thursday, March 10.

NW Film Center's Wim Wenders retrospective continues with Kings of the Road (Thursday), the Dennis Hopper-as-Tom-Ripley chiller The American Friend (Sunday) his best-know opus Paris, Texas (Sunday), and more. NW Film Center's Whitsell Auditorium. See NWFilm.org for full listings.

In the '90s, there was a brief moment that began with T2 and ended with Timecop in which every major sci-fi action film required a sequence involving the human form and liquid nitrogen. And in the middle of that era stands the Sly Stallone/Wesley Snipes kinda-classic Demolition Man. Laurelhurst Theater. Friday-Thursday, March 11-17.

In an attempt to save money on complex makeup effects, 2000's Shadow of the Vampire cast Willem Dafoe as the main character from Nosferatu. The underrated modern chiller reimagines the making of the undead classic as the tale of a filmmaker who hires an actual vampire as its star. Hollywood Theatre. 9:30 pm Friday, March 11.

Willy Wonka & the Chololate Factory celebrated 45 years of sugar-coated nightmare fuel. Mission Theater. Opens Friday, March 11.

The Academy continues its fantastic slate of audience picks from the past 10 years with PT Anderson's modern masterpiece There Will Be Blood. Academy Theater. Friday-Thursday, March 11-17.

An under-seen, Oregon-shot western, Bend in the River plays out a lot like The Oregon Trail, but with less dysentery and more Jimmy Stewart. The Cinema Classics is followed by a talk about the film's production. Hollywood Theatre. 3 pm Saturday, March 12.

Bombay to Bollywood presents Lagaan, a 2001 film set in colonial India that is also the first-ever musical about cricket and social issues to ever get an Oscar nomination. NW Film Center's Whitsell Auditorium. 2 pm Saturday, March 12.

The Hollywood's Masters of Cinematography series brings The Godfather back where it belongs: On the big screen, and in glorious 35mm, so you can see all the ornate details and blood stains of Gordon Willis' vision. Hollywood Theare. 7:30 pm Monday, March 14.

Repressed Cinema presents a reel of rare old-school trailers. And while they're mum about the surprises in store, rest assured that the program includes a peek at a bike-themed Italian sex comedy called Hugo's Magic Pump. Hollywood Theatre. 7:30 pm Tuesday, March 15.

Oh, hey, this week also includes the actual Nosferatu, presented with a live score by the Eastern Euro-influenced Austin outfit The Invincible Czars. Clinton Street Theater. 6:30 & 8:30 pm Tuesday, March 15.

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