best film:  Liza Minnelli’s best two films are both musicals and Bob Fosse’s 1972 effort Cabaret bests 1977’s Martin Scorsese’s New York, New York. Fosse’s film took far more Oscars (8) than The Godfather (3) in 1972, including one for Liza and one for Fosse himself.

 

 

Liza at twenty-six (26) in Cabaret – her vibrant personality leaps off the screen.

 

 

best performance:   It is Cabaret one and New York, New York two again in this category for Liza. In Cabaret, Liza plays Sally Bowles – an absolute livewire. Liza’s obvious talent are abundantly evident from the outset. She is confident and her energy is contagious. This is a performance that ranks among the greatest ever in a musical.

 

 

Liza’s looks and gifts clearly resemble her mother’s:  Judy Garland

 

 

stylistic innovations/traits: Liza Minnelli was a massive star in the 1970s after Cabaret (1972). Her persona and genius as a musical performer seem to a perfect fit for the Sally Bowles character. Liza is also the daughter of Vincent Minnelli and Judy Garland of course. Like her mother Garland and Liza’s contemporary Barbara Streisand, Liza was a musician, touring as much or more than she was a film actor. Liza has only had maybe fifteen (15) to sixteen (16) film credits and her archiveable filmography is not lengthy . Still, she gives one of the best film performances of the 1970s and her work in New York, New York gives her a backup performance on her resume that separates her from the one-hit wonders.

 

 

from New York, New York –  and the film here, with the beautiful artifice of the production design is a nod to that Hollywood era. The narrative/content however, is very New Hollywood/Movie Brat 1970s – raw and typical of Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro’s work on borderline sociopath characters with obsessive or domineering (Raging Bull) tendencies – Scorsese himself when talking about the film talks about the “artifice and truth.”  The film riffs on A Star Is Born for sure. Liza’s mother, Judy Garland, is the star of the best version of A Star Is Born (not directed by her father Vincent Minnelli but George Cukor). For the “But the World Goes ‘Round” (pictured here) song, Scorsese just stands out of the way and lets Liza’s virtuosity take over.

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directors worked with:   Bob Fosse (1), Martin Scorsese (1)

 

 

top five performances:

  1. Cabaret
  2. New York, New York
  3. Arthur

 

 

archiveable films

1972- Cabaret
1977- New York, New York
1981- Arthur