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You're the Top: The Cole Porter StoryRating:
Release Date: 09 September, 2003 Retail Price: $14.98 OUR Price: $13.48 You SAVE: $1.50! Cast: Complete Cast (12 total) |
You're the Top: The Cole Porter Story Reviews
Perfect Documentary
If you want to know Cole Porter, this is a better introduction than the recent film effort, "De-Lovely," and far better than the old Cary Grant fiction. Both movies fudge on Cole's character, with "De-Lovely" trying to depict Porter as a guy working out his gay issues through marriage, which is total nonsense.
Cole Porter was arguably the greatest of all the composers of American Standards, for reasons explained in "You're the Top". And to explain this, as well as to outline one of the most colorful celebrity lives of the 20th century, are people who actually knew Porter, knew him socially, worked with him and performed his music - people like Bobby Short, Kitty Carlisle (Mrs. Moss Hart), Brendan Gill, Linda Ronstadt, Harry Connick, Jr., Porter's family from his childhood, etc. Especially insightful are the observations of Porter's childhood and his marriage. They go far in explaining both the people and the era that nurtured his talent and later provided the milieu from which he drew his "delightful, de-lovely" themes.
No punches are pulled, nothing glossed over for the sake of image or box-office receipts. And of course the Porter music, complimenting the narrative, is a chronicle itself, for it captures the zeitgeist brilliantly, performed by the headliners of the times, from early sound to TV's Golden Age, when the audience was more up to Porter's level of elegance, style and wit than today's dressed-down, dumbed-down generation.
I suggest that if you have seen or are going to see either of the bio-flicks, that you treat yourself to this "wonderful, marvelous" look at a life and its era - alas, as intimate a look as we'll ever get. They truly broke the mold...
This DVD is the Top !
'You're the Top' is a short, but worthwhile trip through the turbulent life of a 20th Century Icon. A great deal of depth and insight is communicated by sharp editing and carefully selected film clips. Originally this was an hour long Television special. Don't let that put you off, the word 'special' is very appropriate here. Why should you buy this Documentary? To appreciate and enjoy his musical talent chiefly by a bewildering number of rare excerpts from films and TV shows (notably a Kinescope of the original cast of 'Kiss Me Kate') and see the ironies of someone who lived a private life very different from his public persona. Even today, the classy image of Porter as generated by his timeless songs and music hide a veil of a tragic and melancholy man, who was born into success, but died unhappy. His story is not just of music, but of a struggle against life itself. What makes this a special event is that the combination of good interviews with contemporaries, the relaxed and adult approach make for repeated viewing and a thirst for more. Whether you are a Porter fan, or have never heard of him, you will gain something special from this documentary, and perhaps learn a little in the moral sense of the pitfalls and unhappiness that can come, even with great wealth. What lives on is his music, which history will never erase. Watching this Documentary will leave you feeling better for the experience.
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