
Directing
Vincente Minnelli
Born 1903-02-28 · Chicago, Illinois, USA
Vincente Minnelli, born in Chicago, was an American stage director and film director, famous for directing such classic movie musicals as Meet Me in St. Louis (1944), Gigi (1958), The Band Wagon (1953), and An American in Paris (1951). An American in Paris and Gigi both won the Academy Award for Best Picture, with Minnelli winning Best Director for Gigi. In addition to having directed some of the most famous and well-remembered musicals of his time, Minnelli made many comedies and melodramas. He was married to Judy Garland from 1945 until 1951; they were the parents of Liza Minnelli. With his background in theater, Minnelli was known as an auteur who always brought his stage experience to his films. The first film that he directed, Cabin in the Sky (1943), was visibly influenced by the theater. Shortly after that, he directed I Dood It with Red Skelton and Meet Me in St. Louis (1944), during which he fell in love with the film's star, Judy Garland. They had first met on the set of Strike Up the Band (1940), a Busby Berkeley film for which Minnelli was asked to design a musical sequence performed by Garland and Mickey Rooney. They began a courtship that eventually led to their marriage in June 1945. Their one child together, Liza Minnelli, grew up to become an Academy Award-winning singer and actress. The Minnelli family is thus unique in that father, mother and child all won Oscars. Widely known for directing musicals, including An American in Paris (1951), Brigadoon (1954), Kismet (1955), and Gigi (1958), he also directed comedies and melodramas, including Madame Bovary (1949), Father of the Bride (1950), The Bad and the Beautiful (1952), Lust for Life (1956), Designing Woman (1957), and The Courtship of Eddie's Father (1963). His last film was A Matter of Time (1976). During the course of his career he directed seven different actors in Oscar-nominated performances: Spencer Tracy, Gloria Grahame, Kirk Douglas, Anthony Quinn, Arthur Kennedy, Shirley MacLaine and Martha Hyer. Grahame and Quinn won. Minnelli received an Oscar nomination as Best Director for An American in Paris (1951) and later won the Best Director Oscar for Gigi (1958). According to Peter Bart in his book The Gross, Minnelli's films having 11 first-place finishes on Variety's opening release box office rankings. On February 8, 1960, Minnelli received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his contributions to the motion pictures industry at 6676 Hollywood Boulevard. He died in Beverly Hills, California.
Acting credits
7.0Documentary about the making of "Meet Me in St. Louis" (1944).
Meet Me in St. Louis: The Making of an American Classic
1994
7.2The portrait of the last cowboy Hollywood legend dives into the 65 years of an extraordinary career in Hollywood, highlighted iconic films like The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, as well as Million Dollar Baby, Mystic River and Gran Torino all the way to Cry Macho in 2021. It is no small task to cover more than 60 years of cinema history, especially when it is trying to surveyed with such breadth and diversity: TV star, international star, controversial icon, contested director, filmmaker with a capital F, Eastwood has been through it all, experienced it all, and it is first of all this romantic trajectory, this true American pastoral that the documentary wants to tell with all the passion it possibly can.
Clint Eastwood: The Last Legend
2022
7.7Rich with archival gems and Liza Minnelli’s own point of view, Bruce David Klein's luminous documentary celebrates a young entertainer full of boundless raw talent and the deep, creative relationships with her mentors and influences.
Liza: A Truly Terrific Absolutely True Story
2025
No synopsis available yet.
Van Gogh: Darkness into Light
1957
8.3As Hollywood biographies go, Judy Garland's story is one of the saddest success stories you'll ever hear. The sanitized studio version of her life presented a smiling kid with the big voice, who, alongside Mickey Rooney, just wanted to put on a show. But drugs, overwork, even psychological abuse at the hands of the studio is now part of the Garland legend. But despite the number of Garland books and documentaries, one account has always been missing -- Garland herself never managed to write a memoir. She did make several attempts at an autobiography, often recording stories on a tape recorder. Judy Garland: By Myself (2004), finally fills in the blanks - using Judy's personal recordings to tell the story in her own words.
Judy Garland: By Myself
2004
7.0No synopsis available yet.
The Men Who Made the Movies: Vincente Minnelli
1973
7.3Liza's dynamic show made history by breaking the box-office record for Radio City. A true superstar, this all-new extravaganza stars Liza and a host of singers, dancers and musicians, performing a selection of her favorite songs by the world's greatest songwriters. Judy Garland's famous daughter shows of her remarkable voice and spunky dance moves at New York's classiest, most famous venue. Some of the selections include "Live Alone and Like It," "Teach Me Tonight," "There Is a Time," "Quiet Love," "Imagine," and "Theme From New York, New York" (Martin Scorsese's musical, which she starred in with Robert DeNiro.
Liza Minnelli - Live from Radio City Music Hall
1992
7.3This MGM short film narrated by Richard Burton promotes its upcoming major release "The Sandpiper" (1965), starring Burton and his then wife Elizabeth Taylor. Panoramic shots of the ocean, the seashore, and the desert segue into the artistic community with various of its well-known artists at work and play. It all leads to clips from the film being made.
The Big Sur
1965
Making-of short subject on the making of Vincente Minnelli's "A Matter of Time"
A Tradition of Romance
1976
5.7Vintage 1975 documentary about the life of movie queen Elizabeth Taylor hosted by Peter Lawford, and featuring appearances by actors Roddy McDowall and Rock Hudson, directors Richard Brooks and Vincente Minnelli, Elizabeth's mother Sara Taylor, costumer Helen Rose, and producer Sam Marx.
Elizabeth Taylor: An Intimate Portrait
1975
Tribute to film director Vincente Minnelli by his daughter Liza.
Minnelli on Minnelli: Liza Remembers Vincente
1987
This documentary tells the story of the making of Irving Berlin's Easter Parade.
Easter Parade: On the Avenue
2005
NRCelebrates the iconic director Vincente Minnelli, whose visually rich and emotionally resonant films helped define the golden age of Hollywood.
Vincente Minnelli: The Movies That Stay With You
2024
6.5This recently produced behind-the-scenes documentary digs into Gershwin's original work, the genesis of the cinematic adaptation, casting, the shoot, and the eventual reception of the film.
'S Wonderful: Creating An American in Paris
2008
Behind the camera
7.0Jerry Mulligan is an exuberant American expatriate in Paris trying to make a reputation as a painter. His friend Adam is a struggling concert pianist who's a long time associate of a famous French singer, Henri Baurel. A lonely society woman, Milo Roberts, takes Jerry under her wing and supports him, but is interested in more than his art.
An American in Paris
1951
6.2A home, a motorcar, servants, the latest fashions: the most eligible and most finicky bachelor in Paris offers them all to Gigi. But she, who's gone from girlish gawkishness to cultured glamour before our eyes, yearns for that wonderful something money can't buy.
Gigi
1958
7.3Told in flashback form, the film traces the rise and fall of a tough, ambitious Hollywood producer, Jonathan Shields, as seen through the eyes of various acquaintances, including a writer, James Lee Bartlow; a star, Georgia Lorrison; and a director, Fred Amiel. He is a hard-driving, ambitious man who ruthlessly uses everyone on the way to becoming one of Hollywood's top movie makers.
The Bad and the Beautiful
1952
7.2An intense and imaginative artist, revered Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh possesses undeniable talent, but he is plagued by mental problems and frustrations with failure. Supported by his brother, Theo, the tormented Van Gogh eventually leaves Holland for France, where he meets volatile fellow painter Paul Gauguin and struggles to find greater inspiration.
Lust for Life
1956
7.0Proud father Stanley Banks remembers the day his daughter, Kay, got married. Starting when she announces her engagement through to the wedding itself, we learn of all the surprises and disasters along the way.
Father of the Bride
1950
6.5A girl is engaged to the local richman, but meanwhile she has dreams about the legendary pirate Macoco. A traveling singer falls in love with her and to impress her he poses as the pirate.
The Pirate
1948
6.0The late, great impresario Florenz Ziegfeld looks down from heaven and ordains a new revue in his grand old style.
Ziegfeld Follies
1945
7.2A Broadway artiste turns a faded film star's comeback vehicle into an artsy flop.
The Band Wagon
1953
5.7Patients and staff at a posh psychiatric clinic clash over who chooses the clinic’s new drapes – but drapes are the least of their problems.
The Cobweb
1955
7.0A former novelist returns to his small Midwest town after serving in the Army during WWII, to the chagrin of his social-climbing brother, and becomes close with an easy-going professional gambler and torn between two very different women.
Some Came Running
1958
7.0A year in the life of a turn-of-the-century middle class family, leading up to the opening of the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair.
Meet Me in St. Louis
1944
6.7A sportswriter who marries a fashion designer discovers that their mutual interests are few, although each has an intriguing past which makes the other jealous.
Designing Woman
1957
6.4A free-spirited single mother forms a connection with the wedded headmaster of an Episcopalian boarding school in Monterey, California.
The Sandpiper
1965
6.8In 19th-century France, doctor's wife Emma Bovary seeks to escape her dull provincial life through various extramarital affairs and extravagant spending, leading to tragic consequences.
Madame Bovary
1949
6.5Newly married Kay Dunstan announces that she and her husband are having a baby, leaving her father to come to grips with the fact that he will soon be a granddad.
Father's Little Dividend
1951
5.9After spending three years in an asylum, a washed-up actor views a minor assignment from his old director in Rome as a chance for personal and professional redemption.
Two Weeks in Another Town
1962
6.5Americans Jeff and Tommy, hunting in Scotland, stumble upon a village - Brigadoon. They soon learn that the town appears once every 100 years in order to preserve its peace and special beauty. The citizens go to bed at night and when they wake up, it's 100 years later. Tommy falls in love with a beautiful young woman, Fiona, and is torn between staying or going back to his hectic life in New York.
Brigadoon
1954
7.1A G.I. en route to Europe falls in love during a whirlwind two-day leave in New York City.
The Clock
1945
6.0Passengers on an ocean liner recall their greatest loves.
The Story of Three Loves
1953
5.9After a rapid engagement, a dowdy daughter of a chemist weds an industrialist, knowing little of his family or past. He transforms her into an elegant society wife, but becomes enraged whenever she asks about Michael, his mysterious long-lost brother.
Undercurrent
1946
5.9Although he's only seven, Eddie's got it all figured out. He wants his father, a widower, to get remarried — to the girl next door. Unfortunately, she's not one of the women that his dad's been dating.
The Courtship of Eddie's Father
1963
7.0A newly wed couple, Tacy and Nicky, travel in a trailer for their honeymoon. The journey is a humorous one that could end up destroying their marriage.
The Long, Long Trailer
1954
7.0A sensitive young man recalls his time in boarding school when the only person who seemed compassionate towards him was his housemaster's wife.
Tea and Sympathy
1956
5.1During a press conference, international star Nina remembers simpler times, flashing back to her days as a maid in a run-down Italian hotel. As a young woman, Nina befriends Contessa Sanziani, an elderly woman who entertains Nina with memories of her vibrant, wealthy life with Count Sanziani. Inspired by her tales of success, young Nina fantasizes about her own adventures and seeks to find the same excitement in her life.
A Matter of Time
1976