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IMDbPro

De-Lovely

  • 2004
  • PG-13
  • 2h 5m
IMDb RATING
6.6/10
12K
YOUR RATING
Ashley Judd and Kevin Kline in De-Lovely (2004)
Watch Official Trailer
Play trailer2:22
1 Video
98 Photos
BiographyDramaMusic

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

  • Director
    • Irwin Winkler
  • Writer
    • Jay Cocks
  • Stars
    • Kevin Kline
    • Ashley Judd
    • Jonathan Pryce
  • See production, box office & company info
  • IMDb RATING
    6.6/10
    12K
    YOUR RATING
    • Director
      • Irwin Winkler
    • Writer
      • Jay Cocks
    • Stars
      • Kevin Kline
      • Ashley Judd
      • Jonathan Pryce
    • 234User reviews
    • 112Critic reviews
    • 53Metascore
  • See more at IMDbPro
    • Awards
      • 2 wins & 13 nominations

    Videos1

    Official Trailer
    Trailer 2:22
    Watch Official Trailer

    Photos98

    Kevin Kline and Alanis Morissette in De-Lovely (2004)
    Natalie Cole in De-Lovely (2004)
    Elvis Costello in De-Lovely (2004)
    Diana Krall in De-Lovely (2004)
    Robbie Williams in De-Lovely (2004)
    Lara Fabian and Mario Frangoulis in De-Lovely (2004)
    Lara Fabian in De-Lovely (2004)
    Sheryl Crow in De-Lovely (2004)
    Ashley Judd, Kevin Kline, and Irwin Winkler in De-Lovely (2004)
    Irwin Winkler in De-Lovely (2004)
    Kevin Kline and Kevin McNally in De-Lovely (2004)
    Kevin Kline and John Barrowman in De-Lovely (2004)

    Top cast

    Edit
    Kevin Kline
    Kevin Kline
    • Cole Porter
    Ashley Judd
    Ashley Judd
    • Linda Porter
    Jonathan Pryce
    Jonathan Pryce
    • Gabe
    Kevin McNally
    Kevin McNally
    • Gerald Murphy
    Sandra Nelson
    • Sara Murphy
    Allan Corduner
    Allan Corduner
    • Monty Woolley
    Peter Polycarpou
    Peter Polycarpou
    • L.B. Mayer
    Keith Allen
    Keith Allen
    • Irving Berlin
    James Wilby
    James Wilby
    • Edward Thomas
    Kevin McKidd
    Kevin McKidd
    • Bobby Reed
    Richard Dillane
    Richard Dillane
    • Bill Wrather
    Edward Baker-Duly
    Edward Baker-Duly
    • Boris Kochno
    Angie Hill
    Angie Hill
    • Ellin Berlin
    Harry Ditson
    Harry Ditson
    • Dr. Moorhead
    Tayler Hamilton
    Tayler Hamilton
    • Honoria Murphy
    Lexie Peel
    • Patrick Murphy
    Greg Sheffield
    • Boath Murphy
    Peter Jessop
    • Diaghilev
    • Director
      • Irwin Winkler
    • Writer
      • Jay Cocks
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      Many scenes in the film are actually one continuous shot. The scene where Cole is visiting the gentleman's club during the song "Love For Sale" is a good example. The scene is supposed to be representing three different times where Cole was in the club. Most of the dancers are costume personnel who would perform costume changes on other actors and themselves and then walk back into the shot. Even the singer changes hair pieces and earrings in this shot.
    • Goofs
      The scene depicting the song "So In Love" on the opening night of "Kiss Me, Kate" depicts the song as a duet between the two leads during the show's Shakespearean play-within-a-play. In "Kiss Me, Kate," "So In Love" is not a duet. Both of the leads do sing solo versions of the song at a different point in the show, however neither takes place in the play-within-a-play.
    • Quotes

      Monty Woolley: Cole, he's only an actor but he still may be right. He's tried it 7 times already, the song's a problem.

      Cole Porter: The song is not a problem, it's a challenge. Jack! Jack my boy, how can I help you? Ask me anything.

      Jack: Write another song.

      Cole Porter: Oh God, that cuts me right to the quick. I know it's God awful but it's the best I can do and we open in three days.

      Jack: Where do you get your ideas?

      Cole Porter: I get them all from a little Chinese man in Poughkeepsie.

      Jack: Mr Porter, the song goes so high and so low it's impossible.

      Cole Porter: It's not impossible. I wrote this with you in mind, I can sing it and I have a range of three notes.

    • Connections
      Featured in Siskel & Ebert: Spider-Man 2/Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy/White Chicks/De-Lovely/Before Sunset (2004)
    • Soundtracks
      In the Still of the Night
      Performed by Kevin Kline and Ashley Judd

      Written by Cole Porter

      Published by Warner Bros., Inc. / Chappell & Co, Inc. (ASCAP)

      Produced by Stephen Endelman and Peter Asher

    User reviews234

    Review
    Review
    Featured review
    De-Lovely: De-Railed!
    As a child of the '30s, I was immersed in Hollywood musicals I bit more than I appreciated. I loved [still do] good music, a clever lyric, a moving melody, with a good degree of tolerance for experimentation with the off-beat and planned discord of a Stan Kenton. Cole Porter always symbolized meticulous word-play wed to impeccable melodic phrasing.

    From the opening scenes, the vehicle of "De-Lovely"'s presentation was both an annoyance and a distraction. Was this a bio trying to become a musical; or was it a musical trying to be a bio? While this last observation may be my own singular and subjective problem, I squirmed mentally as I tried to figure out whether the makeup artists wanted to make Kevin Kline look like an aging Jeff Daniels, or a real-time Carl Reiner?

    It would be nearly impossible to destroy Porter's music; the quality is there regardless of the interpretation. However, the matching of score selection to fragments of Porter's life, professional development and composing venues is a tawdry hodge-podge, put together like a 1940s 7th grader who scores 37% on an American History matching-columns exam. Some of the costumes, stagings and vocals are ludicrous: the costuming and set design for the Venetian duet, two people who appear not to like each other or the fit of their costumes; and the feeble-voiced crooning of a "Mountie" [Nelson Eddy - sound alike]: NOT!

    Then there is the presentation of Porter, the man [Kline] and his long-suffering wife [Ashley Judd, excellent with the role she's given]. We can accept the idiosyncratic behavior of genius; we can appreciate a reasonable degree of self-absorption; we can empathize with a free spirit, suddenly crippled and dependent on others. Mrs. Porter knew exactly what she was getting when she entered the marriage; and while we can empathize with her fraying patience, we might expect a bit more fire from a woman whose husband is presented as sexual and social gadabout concerned only with his own gratification, except when the deeper muse is upon him. Finally, there is the staged number with Louis B. Mayer, which itself, would make the MGM lion dyspeptic. Porter may have been an intellectual snob; and Mayer may have been a boorish bully, but Mayer wasn't stupid.

    Even in its presentation of Cole's homosexuality, we are introduced to a trite parade of pretty boys; and, within this shallow presentation, we are expected to see deep, caring relationships. It's been years since I've read a Porter biography, but the viewer might better have been served by suggestion: a lone Porter, for example, headed for the city tenderloin, or a seedy bar down by the waterfront, with the camera fading without further graphic explanation. Porter's encounters weren't all that "pretty."

    Ahhh, the music. For me there were three show-stoppers, among them Elvis Costello's "Let's Misbehave." My wife and I, both 21+ X 3 + a bunch. thoroughly enjoyed Sheryl Crowe's minor key and roving "Begin the Beguine." It was a refreshing treatment of a Porter standard, which, although cleverly composed and worded, had become cliché in its title and too rigidly fixed in its arrangements. Crowe tosses out her usually fragile vocalizing; shows her musicianship in her rendering, and best of all, sings and phrases as a mature woman, not a whining little girl. Whether the precise Porter would have approved, I can't say; but Crowe gives the song a well-deserved rebirth.

    Best of all is the top-notch performance of "Let's Do It," by Alanis Morissette: her vibratto; her full-of-fun, carefree delivery; her meticulously clear enunciation of the fast-flowing words are superb. The lady nails it!

    The movie is a terrible disappointment; but it's not the music that brings it down. It is the trivializing of a privileged, yet tragic life. Its sole salvation is the wedding of gifted contemporary vocalists, with priceless old standards; and it may bring about performance revitalization and longevity enhancement for both.
    helpful•56
    44
    • finemot
    • Aug 22, 2004

    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • August 6, 2004 (United States)
    • Countries of origin
      • United Kingdom
      • United States
    • Official site
      • MGM
    • Languages
      • English
      • French
      • Italian
    • Also known as
      • Just One of Those Things
    • Filming locations
      • Café de Paris, Coventry Street, Soho, London, England, UK(Nightclub)
    • Production companies
      • Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)
      • Potboiler Productions
      • Winkler Films
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

    Edit
    • Budget
      • $15,000,000 (estimated)
    • Gross US & Canada
      • $13,456,633
    • Opening weekend US & Canada
      • $292,963
      • Jul 4, 2004
    • Gross worldwide
      • $18,611,951
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Technical specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      2 hours 5 minutes
    • Color
      • Color
      • Black and White
    • Sound mix
      • DTS
      • Dolby Digital
      • SDDS
    • Aspect ratio
      • 2.35 : 1

    Related news

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    Ashley Judd and Kevin Kline in De-Lovely (2004)
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