Cole Porter (1891-1964), an American composer and
songwriter, is the centerpiece of the film, De-Lovely
(2004). The film begins when he meets Linda, who would become his wife.
Their relationship is at the center of the story, as well as Porter’s love
songs sung throughout the film. Although the complicated nature of the relationship
takes center stage, the film can be viewed as a moving snapshot of the first
half of the twentieth century, when film made inroads that would dwarf the
stage.
The
message is clear: quality (e.g. clever humor) was be sacrificed, or “dumbed
down,” to be attractive to the much larger movie-market. In other words,
entertainment would have to become virtual eye-candy to be attractive to the
ordinary American. In the film, Porter’s “Be a Clown” is meant as a swipe at J.B.
Meyer even as the eye-candy visuals were deployed to tickle his ribs so he
would be oblivious to the insult being leveled at his industry, and thus
himself.
Linda Porter is more direct at the film’s party at the set, likening Hollywood to being
deep down in an ocean—suggestive of the bisexual activities of Cole having
found ready outlets in L.A.—rather than being in warm and sunny southern
California. No opening after-party on Broadway would take place literally on a
stage. How low class that would be!
Lastly, after watching a private screening of Night and Day (1946), in which Cary
Grant is implausibly cast to play Cole Porter, neither Cole nor Linda is
impressed. Looking at the attempt to
capture Cole’s life in film, the couple could be concluding, moreover, that the
ascendancy of film would result in a new decadence—a new low—in American
entertainment.
Had they been around, the Porters would have stayed home
rather than see the slew of disaster sans
narrative films, such as Earthquake (1974),
The Day After Tomorrow (2004), and San Andreas (2015). An interesting question is how Cole Porter
viewed the decline in the number of Hollywood musicals beginning in the 1950s
as the studio system started to come apart. He likely did not appreciate the
dollar argument wherein what is produced should be what will maximize revenue,
even if Porter benefitted financially from higher ticket sales of his films. It
seems to me that the film medium is not to blame, for the film, Amadeus (1984), shows the existence of low theatre in the eighteenth century,
before cinema would come into being.
Both theatre and film can go to the most base in terms of humor and
narrative to titillate certain market-segments, while producing truly
astonishing quality. Hence, films like Dumb
and Dumber (1994) have not been made with an eye to getting an Academy
Award, whereas films like The Iron Lady (2011)
and Lincoln (2012) likely were. Astonishingly,
actors like Meryl Streep can play in both camps, such as in starring in films
like The Iron Lady and The Devil Wears Prada (2006) and yet
also films like Mamma Mia! (2008) and
Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again (2018). I
am not saying that the latter films cannot or should not be taken to be
entertaining; rather, I am pointing to the sheer distance between such films and those that receive best picture and
acting nominations at the Academy of Motion Pictures. The existence of films
such as Dumb and Dumber does not
negate the high art of the films that
are nominated (and win) Academy awards.
