The Sandpiper
Director: Vincente Minnelli Run Time: 117 min. Format: 35mm Release Year: 1965
Starring: Elizabeth Taylor, Morgan Mason, Richard Burton, Eva Marie Saint, Charles Bronson
Co-hosted by filmmaker/writer/programmer Caroline Golum
Laura (Elizabeth Taylor) just wants her son Danny (Morgan Mason) to grow up freely without religious influence or conventional restrictions. Raising him on her own in a beautiful cliff-side home in Big Sur, where she paints and occasionally trysts with Cos (Charles Bronson, smoldering), she is forced to put Danny in the hands of Dr. Edward Hewitt (Richard Burton) at boarding school. Though Dr. Hewitt is married, he is drawn in by the passionate and wild worldview of Laura, and the two get dangerously close.
A beautiful (Cinemascope!) movie from director Vincente Minnelli, The Sandpiper handles infidelity in a surprising way, and has wonderful playful moments (especially involving Liz posing for a nude sculpture).