Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)
A history professor and his wife entertain a young couple who are new to the university's faculty. As the drinks flow, secrets come to light, and the middle-aged couple unload onto their guests the full force of the bitterness, dysfunction, and animosity that defines their relationship.
What an incredible film this is. Two hours of talk fly by like the most breath taking of action movies. Both Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton are sensational, thankfully George Segal and Sandy Dennis are skilled enough not to get swamped in their punishing acting masterclass.
Taylor in particular, she won a Best Actress Oscar for her role, is ferocious, so much so that she stripped the paper from my walls with her verbal savagery as she and real life husband Burton, spit malicious bile at one another across their living room more often than not hitting their younger guests en' route.
Taylor is so fierce that were David Hess to barge in for a bit of 'fun' himself he'd quickly get sliced to death by Taylor's barbed tongue or failing that he'd be slumped in a drunken stupor from all the drinks Burton poured him - I've never seen so many drinks prepared in a film before. Still at least after a while everyone is fairly sozzled.
The arguments and sizzling dialogue are acutely judged and skillfully directed by Mike Nichols, allowing the actors to really go for it in the spoken equivalents of action set pieces. Nichols knows when to raise the temperature and when to tone it down also.
Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf? is both punishing, tragically honest and clever, the acid tongues laced with social and psychological pointers on issues which are still relevant today.
A first time watch, but it won't be the last. Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf? is a brilliant film.
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