De-Lovely (2004)

Director:

Irwin Winkler

Writer (WGA):

Jay Cocks (written by)

Release Date:

1 October 2004 (UK)

Genre:

Biography | Drama | Music | Musical | Romance

Tagline:

A love that would never die and music that would live forever.

Plot:

Inspecting a magical biographical stage musical, composer Cole Porter reviews his life and career with his wife, Linda.

Plot Keywords:

Stage | Composer | Hollywood | Marriage | Song

Awards:

Nominated for 2 Golden Globes. Another 1 win & 8 nominations

Cast

Kevin Kline	...	Cole Porter
Ashley Judd	...	Linda Porter
Jonathan Pryce	...	Gabe
Kevin McNally	...	Gerald Murphy
Sandra Nelson	...	Sara Murphy
Allan Corduner	...	Monty Woolley
Peter Polycarpou	...	L.B. Mayer
Keith Allen	...	Irving Berlin
James Wilby	...	Edward Thomas
Kevin McKidd	...	Bobby Reed
Richard Dillane	...	Bill Wrather
Edward Baker-Duly	...	Boris Kochno
Angie Hill	...	Ellin Berlin
Harry Ditson	...	Dr. Moorhead
Tayler Hamilton	...	Honoria Murphy

Also Known As:

Just One of Those Things (USA) (working title)
She's De Lovely (USA) (working title)
De-Lovely (Finland) [fi]
De-Lovely (Canada: French title) [fr]
De-Lovely (Argentina) [es]
De-Lovely (Greece) [el]
De-Lovely - Così facile da amare (Italy) [it]
De-Lovely - Die Cole Porter Story (Germany) [de]
De-Lovely - Vida E Amores de Cole Porter (Brazil) (festival title) [pt]
De-lovely (Spain) [es]

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for sexual content.

Runtime:

125 min

Country:

USA | UK

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White | Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital | SDDS

Certification:

Iceland:L | Ireland:12A | Spain:13 | Malaysia:18SX (uncut version) | Malaysia:U (cut version) | South Korea:12 | South Korea:15 (DVD rating) | Argentina:13 | Australia:PG | Finland:K-7 | Germany:o.Al. | Netherlands:MG6 | Singapore:M18 (re-rating) | Switzerland:10 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:10 (canton of Vaud) | UK:PG | USA:PG-13 (certificate #40304) | Canada:PG (Ontario) (Canadian Home Video rating)

Filming Locations:

Chiswick House, Burlington Lane, Chiswick, London, England, UK

Company:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Trivia:

The old Cole Porter make-up took 5 hours to complete.

Goofs:

Continuity: When the Porter's are getting married, right after they are announced, all their friends and family come over. Someone comes over and gives Linda a kiss on her right cheek, which then leaves a mark. Not long after, the mark is gone, with no sign of Linda wiping it off.

Quotes:

Sara Murphy: Cole, I know this is your song but it doesn't sound like you.
Cole Porter: Linda thinks it does.
Sara Murphy: You should put it in the new show you're working on.
[Cole shakes his head]
Sara Murphy: Why not?
Cole Porter: Because it doesn't sound like me.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in The Benchwarmers (2006)

Soundtrack:

Blow, Gabriel, Blow

It's De-Dreadful

The device of using a mystical figure showing Cole Porter a retrospect of his life is just too stagey for a movie. Plus it's been done so many times before that it's trite.

The story line omits the struggle that Porter endured when he began composing professionally, when his melodies and lyrics were too original and too sophisticated for the public at the time.

For anyone who knows Porter's biography, you'll see how highly fictionalized this film is. In today's world, when the unvarnished truth about a person's life can be told, why must this film hold back? Why must dates, events, people and places be altered? Porter didn't "swing both ways". He was a ravenous homosexual. The story line of the Porters devotion to each other was pure hogwash. She was his willing beard at a time when a man needed a female escort for appearances. Obviously the, filmmakers felt that Porter's life had to be sanitized for the public.

It irks me to see songs taken out of chronological order and out of the context of the shows for which they were written. Two examples: at the beginning of the film, Porter is singing "Well Did You Evah?" as though the song were written in the 1920s, when it was composed much later; and singing "You'd Be So Easy To Love" to Linda in a Paris park, when that song was written for the film "Born To Dance" (1935), many years later.

The casting is wrong. As much as I like Kevin Kline, a 57-year-old actor (at the time) playing a 25 or 35-year-old Porter is just unbelievable. There is no amount of make-up that could make Kline look 25 or 35, or hide his sagging 50-ish jowls and neck. Furthermore, Porter was a small man and Kline is reputedly 6'2". This is like having Tom Selleck portray Danny DeVito.

Maybe someday someone will make a true biographical film about Cole Porter.