“Liza: A Truly Terrific Absolutely True Story,” which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival last summer and is currently playing in select theaters, offers an intimate look at the ups and downs of Liza Minnelli’s iconic career and how, in her eyes, she didn’t quite have it all — despite all her many successes.
Through accounts from friends and via archival footage, the film reveals that her biggest disappointment in life was her inability to have a family of her own, due to her experiences with several difficult miscarriages over the course of her past four marriages.
“I desperately want a family. I really want a family,” she’s shown saying to Geraldo Rivera in an archival interview.
Allan Lazare, a friend of the performer, touches upon Minnelli’s heartbreak over never having children in the documentary, saying, “We have been with Liza through all her emotional setbacks, like miscarriages.”
“If she had to pick one thing that she’s disappointed about in her life, that’s not being a mother,” Lazare says. “She would have been a great mother. She has so much to give. She’s been so wonderful with our children.”
Another friend, actress Mia Farrow, goes into Minnelli’s close relationship with her own children, and how she’s been so great with them.
“She’s godmother to my twins, who are 50 now, and she’s never missed a birthday,” she says.
Despite Minnelli not having children, one of her friends, Michael Feinstein, says in the documentary that her relationship with her close friends’ children brought the “Cabaret” star comfort.
“Even though she wasn’t able to have children of her own, she seems to have created her own family through all the children who came into her life and all the godchildren,” he says.
“She would have made an incredible mother, and life wasn’t perfect,” Lazare adds. “But she moved on, and she’s become part of our family. I think that’s part of our attraction for her. We’ve kept this bond with sort of a family she didn’t have.”
“Liza: A Truly Terrific Absolutely True Story” is out in select theaters in the U.S. now
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