Dame Elizabeth Taylor has used Twitter to heap praise on the Michael Jackson film This Is It.

“I saw genius”: Dame Elizabeth Taylor with Michael Jackson

The 77-year-old Hollywood star said Jackson was a “modern-day prophet” and praised the film as the best she had ever seen.

Twit: the tweet that praised Michael Jackson

She tweeted: “I was honored with the great privilege of seeing This Is It' last week. I was sworn to secrecy, but now I can let you know about it.

“It is the single most brilliant piece of filmmaking I have ever seen. It cements forever Michael's genius in every aspect of creativity.

“To say the man is a genius is an understatement. He cradles each note, coaxes the music to depths beyond reality. You owe it to yourselves and your loved ones to see this again and again. Memorize it and say to yourselves, I saw genius in my lifetime.'” Taylor, who recently broke the news about her minor heart surgery on Twitter, said she wished her vocabulary “encompassed” what she felt.

“If you listen to his lyrics, they are those of a modern-day prophet and it beseeches us to listen to him and what he sang,” she wrote.

“We must his take his words of responsibility seriously. We cannot let his life be in vain.”

Taylor's messages went out to her 174,526 Twitter followers. This Is It, showing Jackson's rehearsals for his planned O2 arena concerts before his death in June, gets its premiere tonight in screenings worldwide, including one in Leicester Square.