Few people under the age of 30 in Nashville have ever seen Elizabeth Taylor on the big screen — so they probably wouldn't understand why someone called me this morning in tears to say the embodiment of Hollywood glamour had just died, and with her a piece of their childhood. But a rare chance comes this Sunday, when The Belcourt shows John Huston's 1967 drama Reflections in a Golden Eye as part of its "Visions of the South" series.
It's a strange movie, a failure at the time that has since found a large and fervent cult following. In Huston's adaptation of the Carson McCullers novel, Taylor plays the nymphomaniac wife of Army officer Marlon Brando, who seethes with lust for new recruit Robert Forster. The Brando part was meant for Taylor's close friend Montgomery Clift, who died before production. Perhaps more of a testament to Taylor than the movie is the fact that she reportedly put up her salary to guarantee the troubled Clift the role.
