De-Lightful, De-Licious, It's ..........

"De-Lovely" was this week's movie from Netflix. Unsurprisingly, critics disagreed with each other, with reviews ranging from:

"De-lousy" by Marahl Dargis in the Los Angeles Times,

to

"-----a work of art, in the medium of film, an almost dreamlike vision----", by Emily Blunt in the Blunt Review,

to

"A most unusual Biopic about a most unconventional and lovely story" by Jeffrey Bruner, of the Des Moines Register.

But, the majority of the critics agree that Kevin Kline was brilliant in his portrayal of Cole Porter.

The Biopic deals with Cole Porter's bisexuality and his wife's (Ashley Judd) acceptance of it. Apparently, Porter didn't do anything to hide his preferences. In fact, he was pretty open about it all. Some biographers seem to think his wife was also bisexual, although there is no indication that she became involved with anyone but Porter.

It was a hedonistic existence, in an era called the Jazz Age. People went in frantic pursuit of fun and anything that would make them "feel good". And, the music of the Roaring 20's mirrored that quest.

Cole Porter wrote songs for Broadway and, later, the movies, but, if this Biopic is any indication, his first love was Broadway. And, like other songwriters of the 20's and 30's he was very prolific. In 1927 there were 268 plays on Broadway (compared with only 50-60 in the 1970s).

The music world boasted such greats as the Gershwins, Irving Berlin, and Rodgers and Hammerstein, with their lighthearted melodies and clever lyrics. At the same time, the world of literature featured the more serious efforts of T.S. Eliot, William Faulkner, Ernest Hemingway and Eugene O'Neill.

Looking back from the prospective of one who was born much later, it seems to me to be a rather schizophrenic era in this country. You could spend the afternoon reading "The Sound and the Fury" and then put on your glad rags and go to a dance club and hear "Anything Goes".

All in all, it was a pretty good movie, with an unusually theatrical treatment.

Next: "Munich".