De-Lovely - The Cole Porter Story

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Movie
German title De-Lovely - The Cole Porter Story
Original title De-lovely
Country of production USA , UK
original language English
Publishing year 2004
length 119 minutes
Age rating FSK 0
Rod
Director Irwin Winkler
script Jay Cocks
production Rob Cowan
Charles Winkler
Irwin Winkler
music Cole Porter
camera Tony Pierce-Roberts
cut Julie Monroe
occupation

De-Lovely - The Cole Porter Story (Original title: De-Lovely ) is a biography of a film from 2004 . Directed the US-American - British co-production led Irwin Winkler and written by Jay Cocks .

action

Old Cole Porter is sitting in a wheelchair at the piano playing In The Still Of The Night when death comes up to him. Together they go to a theater where Cole can literally review his life: the stage becomes reality, and the actors are the real characters of this past.

It begins in Paris , where Cole, a still unknown musician, plays at parties and indulges in his varied love life. Linda Lee Thomas, considered the most beautiful divorced woman in town, quickly becomes more than just one of his many loves for Cole. He marries her and she accepts that in addition to her marriage, he has relationships with young men.

In Venice they both live in the Palazzo Rezzonico, give lavish parties and get to know Irving Berlin . He is enthusiastic about Cole Porter's songs and recommends him in New York for a show called Paris . Actually, Cole wanted to follow one of his lovers through Europe unobtrusively, but he agrees to go to New York, because Linda also prefers the distance to his previous environment.

Paris was a great success in 1928, but not everything went well privately. The son of the Murphy couple, who is friends, suffers from tuberculosis . Linda and Cole want to have children of their own, but Linda loses her unborn child in 1935 while Porter waits for her in the premiere audience of his musical Jubilee . Although he repeatedly starts affairs with actors in his musicals, the loss of their child brings him closer together with Linda.

Both move to Hollywood , where MGM hires Cole to write film scores. He writes the music for Rosalie with Nelson Eddy and is present at the shooting. When he sings the lewd experiment after a minor argument with Linda at the subsequent premiere party , Linda announces that she is leaving him. Instead of running after her, Cole spends the evening with other men in a nightclub. There he is photographed with another man in a clear scene. With the photos, Linda is blackmailed by one of Cole's friends. She asks Cole, if he can't change, at least to be discreet. When he refuses, she leaves him for good and goes back to Paris alone.

The death of his friend Murphy's tuberculosis son brings Cole back to reality a little. He realizes that everything is fleeting. He retires to the country to work on a film score. During a ride, he falls badly and suffers serious injuries to both legs. Linda returns to him and is able to convince the doctors not to amputate Cole's legs, as he would then never be able to play the piano again and would lose all courage to face life. The years go by with more than 20 leg operations. While discussing an upcoming operation, Cole learns that Linda has terminal lung disease and will soon die. She can no longer attend the premiere of Kiss Me, Kate , so he sings the song So In Love written for her at the piano for her at home. At the premiere he has to be supported himself, he can only move with difficulty on crutches.

Linda dies in 1954. Four years later, Cole lives in seclusion. His right leg was amputated and he lost all courage to face life. When his friends, the Murphy family, come to visit him, he asks them to leave. He has lost all creativity.

Back in the theater, with death at his side, he intones one last title: At Blow, Gabriel, Blow , all the people who were important to Cole in his life appear again. They surround him and disappear like death with the last note of music. Cole remains alone on the stage and sits down at the piano. He begins to play In The Still Of The Night , becomes his young self - young Linda steps up to him as the lights around her slowly go out until it is completely dark.

production

The film was shot in London ( Chiswick House ), Luton (Luton Hoo) and Venice ; the production cost was estimated that 20 million US dollars . De-Lovely celebrated its world premiere on May 22nd, 2004 at the Cannes International Film Festival . In June 2004, screenings at the CineVegas International Film Festival , the Sydney Film Festival and the San Francisco International Lesbian and Gay Film Festival followed before it was shown to the general public in selected US cinemas.

Although Porter himself was at best a passable singer, director / producer Irwin Winkler cast the role of composer with Kevin Kline , who by then had already received two Tony Awards and two Drama Desk Awards for his musical performances on Broadway . Kline reduced his own vocal range for the film to get closer to Porter in his portrayal. Most of the sung sequences were recorded live on the set, only a few were later dubbed in the studio. The actor also actually plays the piano himself in all the scenes in which Porter is composing on the grand piano.

Winkler was initially reluctant to invite coveted actress Ashley Judd to audition because her usual salaries could not have been covered by the film budget. However, Judd was so keen on the role of Linda that she volunteered to work for a significantly lower salary. While Linda Porter was eight years older than her husband, Judd is twenty years younger than Kline.

occupation

music

Various pop and rock musicians had smaller guest appearances in the film, during which they each performed a song (see #Music ) - for example, Robbie Williams appeared as a wedding singer and accompanied the wedding of Cole and with the title track "It's De-Lovely" Linda. Most of these guest musician roles do not involve any further dialogue. Guest appearances, which in addition to singing also include a speaking role (e.g. John Barrowman's appearance as Porter employed actor Jack), on the other hand, are counted as part of the cast and included in the credits. Many of the musicians who appeared in the film also sang the respective piece on the later soundtrack album. Kevin Kline, who at least sings in the background for most of the songs in the film, no longer does this on the soundtrack album.

Soundtrack album

A compilation album containing studio recordings of a selection of the music used in the film was released on June 15, 2004. The US version differs from the European version in that title 7 ( Easy to Love ) is missing from the US edition without replacement.

  1. "It's De-Lovely" - Robbie Williams
  2. " Let's Do It (Let's Fall in Love) " - Alanis Morissette
  3. " Begin the Beguine " - Sheryl Crow
  4. "Let's Misbehave" - Elvis Costello
  5. “Be a Clown” - Kevin Kline , Peter Polycarpou and Chor
  6. " Night and Day " - John Barrowman
  7. "Easy to Love" - ​​Kevin Kline
  8. " True Love " - Ashley Judd and Tayler Hamilton
  9. “ What Is This Thing Called Love? “- Lemar
  10. "I Love You" - Mick Hucknall
  11. "Just One of Those Things" - Diana Krall
  12. "Anything Goes" - Caroline O'Connor
  13. "Experiment" - Kevin Kline
  14. " Love For Sale " - Vivian Green
  15. “So In Love” - Lara Fabian and Mario Frangoulis
  16. "Ev'ry Time We Say Goodbye" - Natalie Cole
  17. "Blow, Gabriel, Blow" - Jonathan Pryce , Kevin Kline, cast and choir
  18. "In the Still of The Night" - Kevin Kline and Ashley Judd
  19. "You're the Top" - Cole Porter

reception

The film grossed a total of $ 18.4 million, of which $ 13.3 million in the US and a good $ 5 million in the rest of the world.

Billboard reported that the film had "inspired a Cole Porter renaissance of top jazz albums." By late July 2004, the film's soundtrack reached number 3 on the soundtrack charts and even made it to number 58 on the Billboard 200 . The film also caused a surge in sales (and thus further chart placements) of several recently released compilation albums, including The Very Best of Cole Porter , Ultra Lounge: Cocktails With Cole Porter and It's De Lovely - The Authentic Cole Porter Collection .

Awards

  • 2005: Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Musical Film or Comedy - Kevin Kline - nominated
  • 2005: Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Musical or Comedy Film - Ashley Judd - nominated
  • 2005: Golden Satellite Award for Best Actor in a Musical Film or Comedy - Kevin Kline - nominated
  • 2005: Golden Satellite Award for the best costume design - nominated
  • 2005: Golden Satellite Award for the best production design or the best artistic direction - won
  • 2005: Costume Designers Guild Award for top performance in costume design in historical or fantasy films - nominated
  • 2005: Grammy Award for the best compilation soundtrack album in film, television or other audiovisual media - nominated
  • 2005: Prism Award for the best film - nominated
  • 2005: American Cinema Editors Award ( Eddie ) for best film editing - nominated
  • 2005: Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Soundtrack - Nominated
  • 2005: Golden Reel Award for the best sound editing - nominated
  • The German Film and Media Evaluation FBW in Wiesbaden awarded the film the title valuable.

Reviews

The lexicon of international films wrote that the film was "impressively played and staged with wonderful pictures". He celebrates "the sophistication of his protagonists, who refuse to let themselves be crushed by the burden of life, even in the face of the greatest personal crises".

Roger Ebert , film critic for the Chicago Sun-Times , awarded 3.5 out of 4 stars on the grounds that De-Lovely had “a serene sophistication that is otherwise extremely rare in the film world”.

Larry King commented, "By far, and without a doubt, the best musical biography of all time."

In his review for the New York Times , Stephen Holden called the film "deadly sluggish," "lifeless and devoid of any hint of joie de vivre ". He added: "Unfortunately, there is a lack of courage and imagination that are indispensable for looking below the surface of such a biography."

In Rolling Stone , Peter Travers rated the film three out of four stars and wrote: “In terms of voice, demeanor, patrician charm and inward pain, Kevin Kline embodies pure perfection in the role of legendary composer Cole Porter. In its climax, the film creates images of a time, a place and a sound in us, full of witty style and skill. "

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Filming locations for De-Lovely, accessed September 28, 2007
  2. ^ Festival de Cannes: De-Lovely . In: festival-cannes.com . Archived from the original on August 5, 2012. Retrieved December 5, 2009.
  3. ↑ De-Lovely premiere dates, accessed September 28, 2007
  4. ↑ Information from director Irwin Winkler in the audio commentary on the film
  5. ^ Box office / business for De-Lovely, accessed September 28, 2007
  6. ↑ De-Lovely (2004) - Financial Information . Retrieved August 16, 2017.
  7. ^ Nielsen Business Media Inc: Billboard . Nielsen Business Media, Inc. July 24, 2004. Retrieved August 16, 2017.
  8. ↑ De-Lovely - The Cole Porter Story in the Lexicon of International FilmsTemplate: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used , accessed on September 28, 2007
  9. ^ De-Lovely . In: Chicago Sun-Times . 
  10. ^ The New York Times> Movies> Movie Review - 'De-Lovely': Jazz Age Gaiety With Misery Below the Gloss . Retrieved August 16, 2017.
  11. ^ Movie Review . Retrieved August 16, 2017.