What to expect
Mike Nichols uses close-ups, movement, and changing locations to keep a famously verbal drama cinematic. Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton make cruelty feel rehearsed, spontaneous, and intimately co-authored.
How to ease in
The games have names, but you do not need to catalogue every rule. Follow who is invited to participate, who tries to stop, and what each couple protects by continuing.
Heads-up
A quick, non-exhaustive note Includes sustained verbal abuse, alcohol misuse, sexual humiliation, references to pregnancy and death, and intense marital conflict.
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I find the laughter as revealing as the insults. Everyone knows the performance is dangerous, yet humour keeps making one more round seem possible.
— Momo
Credits & versions
Sources for the facts
Where to go next
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