<http://schema.org/articleBody>
"  Bazaar on the re-release of Elizabeth Taylor\u2019s Cleopatra, out today Straitened times call for epic, escapist cinema and you could hardly wish for a film more opulent in scale and less anchored to the frugalities of modern life than Joseph L. Mankiewicz\u2019s historic spectacle, Cleopatra. Newly restored to mark its 50th golden anniversary, the film is being re-released in selected picture houses across the country today. As it happened the film ran staggeringly over schedule (at 3 years) and over budget (at $42 million), but any fears that 20th Century Fox might go bankrupt were laid to rest when Cleopatra\u00A0went on to be the highest grossing film of 1963, with four Academy Awards to boot. We can feel grateful for that overspend now, because that extravagance helped to pay for Elizabeth Taylor\u2019s regal accessories and her 65 costume changes, which are worth tallying as you sit through the film\u2019s 243 minutes.\u00A0 In real life, Taylor and Burton, who played Mark Anthony, were engaged in a fiery adulterous love affair, the sparks of which you can spot onscreen. News of their affair later helped sales at the box office - people wanted to see that chemistry in action - and you can\u2019t help but trace back the countless short-lived celebrity couplings that are now used to sell tickets, to their reckless example. The re-release of Cleopatra ushers in a summer of Elizabeth Taylor. There is the paperback release of Richard Burton\u2019s diaries and the hugely entertaining novel, Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter, which uses the filming of Cleopatra in Rome as a colourful backdrop (Richard Burton even makes a cameo). Also, an upcoming biopic on the BBC, starring Helena Bonham Carter as Elizabeth Taylor and Dominic West as Richard Burton, captures the couple\u2019s tumultuous unravelling and is due on small screens on Monday 22 July.\u00A0 "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.harpersbazaar.co.uk/culture/staying-in/news/a7795/cleopatra-re-released-today/>