De-Lovely

Every now and again, a real gem of a film is overlooked by the critics and the general public as well. These films feature a fine cast, fine performances and a very creatively presented story. Perhaps it is the creativity of the storytelling that is the problem or the subject matter, which may put off off too many. Whatever the case may be, these little gems deserve a wider audience. Just such a film is the subject of today’s review, De-Lovely.

Film  

De-Lovely tells the story of the adult life of the greatest composer of popular song in American history, Cole Porter. It does so in a very creative manner using the songs themselves to tell the story as Cole is shown his life by the Archangel Gabriel a moment before his death, Broadway show style in a small theater.

Gabriel, played beautifully by Jonathan Pryce, arrives at Cole Porter’s apartment near the moment of his death. He then takes him to the small theater in Indiana where Cole started his career and shows him his life, warts and all. Cole Porter is played beautifully by Kevin Kline, who is quite a showman himself and who sings and plays the piano himself quite well during the entire film.

It picks up his life in Paris as a young man. Cole Porter was already quite well off as a young man due to the wealth of his family and quite a playboy and party animal in addition to being a little known amateur songwriter outside his social circle in Paris. He also had his own little secret not known outside his small circle of friends, namely that he was gay. It was in Paris that he met the only real love of his life, Linda Thomas, who is portrayed in quite a moving performance by Ashley Judd. She knew Cole was Gay but loved him nonetheless as he was able to complete her.

In a way, she completed him as well, as it was she who guided his career, introducing him to her friend, Irving Berlin who recommended him to write and stage his first Broadway play. While he always didn’t realize it at the time until her death, Cole truly loved Linda. He turned bitter after her death and never wrote much after her death. For a man who wrote such beautiful songs about love, Cole Porter was never truly able to understand the concept until he lost the one thing that he truly did love.

As good as the acting and storytelling is here, the real star of the film is the music. Over 30 Cole Porter songs are presented here, from Let’s Misbehave, to Be A Clown, to Night and Day to Every Time WE Say Goodbye to Love for Sale. The arrangements of the tunes is varied from more traditional arrangements to some very original and modern ones.

The film features several a musical performances, from the likes of Elvis Costello, Diana Krall, Robbie Williams, Natalie Cole, Sheryl Crow and Alanis Morissette. The choices for the artiest to perform these songs is quite interesting. While DIana Krall wold be a no brainer for this type of music, the use of Alanis Morissette was and out of the box and very effective choice and she nails Let’s Do It.

The film even features John Barrowman aka Captain Jack Harkness from Torchwood singing Night and Day in a duet with Kevin Kline. For me, the highlights of the film musically are Sheryl Crow’s stark and sultry performance of Begin the Beguine as well as a jazzy and bluesy and quite naughty rendition Love for Sale depicting Cole Porter’s exploits in a gay club in Los Angeles, as Cole Porter risks the exposure of his lifestyle at the height of his career.

Cole Porter was a brilliant songwriter and a very complicated man who lead a very complicated life. The use of his own songs to tell his story, warts and all, is simply sensational. I know there will be some that will be put off by some of the subject matter in the film, but it is a brilliantly conceived and executed film nonetheless, presented with some of the finest popular music ever written, if not the finest. If you haven’t seen the film or are unfamiliar with the music of Cole Porter, by all means see this film. De-Lovely is highly recommended.

Video  

As enthusiastic as I am about the film, I cant say that I was all that pleased with the video. With certain exceptions that were few and far between, I found the film to be rather soft, flat and lacking in detail. Black levels as well were inconsistent. In particular, I found facial details to be lacking, as though the detail was scrubbed away. While I wouldn’t say that the actors had a clayfaced appearance, it would not surprise me to learn that digital noise reduction was applied to this encode.

While the film features a very natural looking color palette, the overall picture can best be described as soft, flat and fuzzy, lacking the clarity, depth and detail that we have come to expect with Blu-ray releases. While not quite of DVD quality, the video on this release has more of that DVD look that I had expected and is far from reference material. IN fact, it would not surprise me to learn that the video here was taken from the transfer made for the prior DVD release of the film. It would have been nice, although probably too expensive for this type of film, to go back and do a new transfer for a Blu-ray release.

Audio  

While I was disappointed with the video presentation here, the audio presentation is a good bit better, although still not as good as I had expected. The dialogue track is well recorded and well placed in the mix. The film is rather front heavy with the surrounds used quite effectively, to create room ambiance. While room ambiance is present throughout, I would not exactly call this an immersive sound mix. The real focus here is the music, which has very nice bass, transparency and imaging. If I would have one complaint with the music, it would be that it can at times sound a bit bright, especially in comparison with the rest of the audio.

Special Features  

The extras here are all ported over from the prior DVD release of the film. The extras include:

• Two audio commentaries, one with Director Irwin Winkler and Kevin Kline and a second with Irwin Winkler and screenwriter Jay Cocks.
• Featurettes about the making of the film. The longest is the behind the scenes “Making of De-Lovely” featuring interviews with Irwin Winkler, Jay Cocks, Kevin Kline, Ashley Judd, Jonathan Price, Elvis Costello, Diana Krall, Alanis Morisette and Sheryl Crow among a quite a few others.
• A look at the musical performances in the film entitled “The Music of De-Lovely” which features some of the same interviews featured in the making of featurette.
• Two making of featurettes showing how the Love For Sale and Be A Clown scenes were constructed and filmed.
• Deleted scenes
• Trailers

All in all, the extras included here are rather standard fair and include nothing that was not already included on the prior DVD release of the film. All are presented in standard definition.

Final Thoughts 

De-Lovely is a very original and compelling look into the complicated life of America’s greatest tunesmith, Cole Porter, and some truly wonderful music. While I was disappointed with the video presentation included here, I can still highly recommend this film. Check it out, I am sure you will be glad you did.