The 42nd Chicago International Film Festival has announced that legendary multiple award-winner Liza Minnelli will come to town for an intimate one-on-one conversation with John Russell Taylor, The Times of London critic, at Northwestern University’s Thorne Auditorium, 375 E. Chicago, on Oct. 17 from 7-8:30 p.m.
Minnelli first entered the entertainment world at the age of three in the final scene of In the Good Old Summertime, starring her famed mother, Judy Garland. But an off-Broadway role in Best Foot Forward at the tender age of 16 truly kicked off her career and, at the age 19, she won a Tony for Flora the Red Menace.
Returning to the screen, Minnelli earned a 1969 Academy Award nomination for The Sterile Cuckoo and won the award in 1972 for her role as Sally Bowles in the groundbreaking musical milestone Cabaret. That same year, TV’s Liza with a ‘Z’ garnered an Emmy. Minnelli charmed audiences in 1981’s Academy Award Best Picture winner Arthur, and later that decade released her pop album, Results. Most recently, she guest-starred on the Emmy award-winning TV series Arrested Development.
The Taylor–Minnelli connection runs deeper than one may suspect. He was specially assigned to Berlin to cover the shooting of Cabaret, interviewed Judy Garland twice for The Times, and was master of ceremonies for two evenings with Vincente Minnelli, here at the Chicago International Film Festival in 1974, and in London at the National Film Theatre in 1980.
See www.chicagofilmfestival.com.