Product Details

• Format: Widescreen
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B001Q1M9QK
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #135,523 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars "It's de-regal, it's de-royal, it's de-Ritz, it's de-lovely.", December 19, 2010

By 

Annie Van Auken (Planet Earth) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: De-lovely : The Cole Porter Story : Widescreen Special Edition (DVD)

DE-LOVELY: THE COLE PORTER STORY (USA/UK-2004) is a bit slow-moving but has a unique premise. The elderly Cole sits in a theater and watches his songwriting career and personal life presented as a stageplay, starting when he's an unknown in Paris who knocks off catchy tunes and witty lyrics for the amusement of his friends.

Irving Berlin convinces him to go professional and with the encouragement of his beloved Linda, Porter returns to the U.S. to score a play called "Paris." Success in this first effort brings him fame and fortune and what should've been an ideal life, but wasn't.

For Cole, his 35 year marriage to Linda Lee was a profound yet platonic relationship, as his physical needs could only be satisfied by various male lovers. Linda was so devoted to him she put up with these affairs and even encouraged them, but they hurt her enough to cause separations. Unlike the sanitized Cary Grant biopic NIGHT AND DAY (1946), the Porters' intimate business is explored in some depth here.

There's some interesting casting choices in this movie. Ashley Judd is quite good as Linda. Kevin Kline (like Cole) has a terrible singing voice and is appropriately laid back. The accomplished Welsh-born stage actor Jonathan Pryce is director of Cole's life story. He sits with Porter and listens to the songwriter's thoughts on what he's seeing or how the "play" might be improved.

Allan Corduner, who is so good as Sir Arthur Sullivan in TOPSY-TURVY (UK-1999), portrays Cole's close friend from his Yale days, Monty Woolley. The demonstrative Woolley (aka "the Beard") left that university's theatrical professorship at age 50 to return to the stage, where he found fame as THE MAN WHO CAME TO DINNER. Woolley reprised this parody of Broadway critic Alex Woollcott in the 1942 motion picture version.

Corduner's Monty is an impish adventure seeker with a taste in lovers similar to Porter's. In one scene, after he sets up a meeting for Cole with a young ballet star, Woolley departs from their horse-drawn carriage to search NY's Central Park for his own excitement.

Except for Sheryl Crow's oddly minor key rendition of "Begin the Beguine," all of this picture's musical sequences are (naturally) De-lightful. Among the 2½ dozen Porter standards heard are the title song plus "What is This Thing Called Love," "Easy to Love," "Night and Day," "Another Openin', Another Show," "I Love Paris," "Let's Misbehave," "Anything Goes," "Let's Do It, Let's Fall in Love," "Be a Clown," "Just One of Those Things," "I Get a Kick out of You," "True Love," "In the Still of the Night," "You're the Top," "It's All Right with Me" and the uncensored "Well Did You Evah!"

Performers include Elvis Costello, Natalie Cole, Alanis Morissette, Diana Krall and Robbie Williams.

DE-LOVELY is recommended for all who enjoy great 20th Century American show tunes.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great movie in a classic mode, April 14, 2010

By 

Gammy B (Colorado) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: De-lovely : The Cole Porter Story : Widescreen Special Edition (DVD)

This movie is great if you like classic songs by Cole Porter. It's told beautifully and the film is lovely to watch. Quite a nice find!