De-lovely is an original musical portrait of one of the world's greatest songwriters, American composer Cole Porter, filled with his unforgettable songs. In the film, Porter is looking back on his life as if it was one of his spectacular stage shows, with the people and events of his life becoming the actors and action onstage. Through hits like "Night and Day," "It's De-lovely," and "In the Still of the Night," Porter's elegant, excessive past comes to light - including his deeply complicated relationship with his wife, Linda.

Highly stylized, visual, and very musical, De-lovely spans almost 40 years, jumping from Paris to Venice to New York to Hollywood, and includes over 30 of Porter's songs. It's a unique, timeless love story about a man who wrote some of the most endearing - and enduring - songs of the twentieth century. Through his music, Porter searched for the meaning of love his whole life, when in fact it was right beside him the whole time.

a note from director irwin winkler
De-lovely is a musical film about Cole Porter - his life in public, his life in secret, and the great music he made from both. Much of De-lovely is true, some of it is imagined, but all of it is faithful to the spirit of Cole Porter.

We've used the broad outline and certain details of Porter's life - especially his long, strong marriage to Linda Lee - to weave an impressionistic musical biography. The historical facts of Porter's life are put together like notes in a melody, to try and give a truer, deeper picture of the man, his work, and, most importantly, his heart.

The songs aren't always chronologically presented or typically interpreted - we've let the music lead them. Some of the best American music ever written is by Cole Porter, and we've tried to do what we believe Porter himself did: just let the song carry everything along.

Down through the decades, Porter's songs have been interpreted innumerable times by a multitude of artists in countless ways. But the songs are inexhaustible, and they seem always to be of the moment. So with new times and new moments come new interpretations; there are times when a Porter classic seemed to rise out of or speak to a different dramatic mode or serve a new purpose - we, again, have followed feeling, not history.

The broad outlines of Porter's life are here, but placed within the framework of imagination, not scholarship. No footnotes required.

A love story needs no footnotes. The power of music needs no explanation.

This is a musical love story.

director-producer irwin winkler
His films have amassed 12 Academy Awards® from 45 nominations, including four Best Picture nominations. Winkler is also the only producer to have three of his films listed on the American Film Institute list of the "Top 100 Films" of all time.

Winkler received the Academy Award® for Best Picture for the l976 runaway hit Rocky starring Sylvester Stallone. He went on to receive Best Picture nominations for Raging Bull, The Right Stuff and GoodFellas.

In l989, Winkler made his directorial debut with Guilty by Suspicion, a drama he also wrote about the Hollywood "black list" starring Robert De Niro, Annette Bening, and Martin Scorsese. His other features as a director include Night and the City, reuniting him with De Niro (for the seventh time) and Jessica Lange; the hit suspense thriller The Net starring Sandra Bullock; At First Sight with Val Kilmer and Mira Sorvino; and the critically acclaimed Life as a House starring Kevin Kline, Kristen Scott Thomas and Hayden Christensen.

Winkler began his producing career at MGM in l967 with legendary director Norman Taurog and the Elvis Presley starrer Double Trouble, followed by the hit thriller Point Blank. He then won acclaim for They Shoot Horses, Don't They?, which garnered nine Academy Award® nominations.
Over the last three decades Winkler's credits include such films as New York, New York starring De Niro and Liza Minnelli; True Confessions, which teamed De Niro and Robert Duvall; Round Midnight, for which Herbie Hancock won an Oscar® for Best Score; Betrayed starring Debra Winger; and Music Box with Jessica Lange.

For his body of work, which exceeds 40 major motion pictures, Winkler has been the proud recipient of numerous honors, including the Commandeur des Arts et Lettres, the French government's highest decoration for contributions to the arts. He was the first producer to be honored with a showcase screening of ten films at the Deauville Film Festival and was saluted by the British Film Institute with a retrospective of his work. He has also received Lifetime Achievement Awards from the Chicago Film Festival, The Hollywood Film Festival, The Flanders International Film Festival and The American Society of Cinematographers.

In 2000 Winkler joined the famous Hollywood Walk of Fame with a star for his accomplishments as both producer and director. Fittingly, the star is installed in front of the Kodak Theater, the new home of the Academy Awards.

screenwriter jay cocks
A former film critic for Rolling Stone magazine and former staff writer at Time, wrote the screenplays for the critical successes and popular films Gangs of New York, Strange Days, and The Age of Innocence. He also wrote the Martin Scorsese-directed Made in Milan.

the production
Director and Academy Award®-winning producer Irwin Winkler has long been fascinated by Cole Porter. A huge fan of the Jazz Age and classic American pop music, Winkler found Porter's life intriguing as well as the time period in which he lived. "Porter represents the best of the Jazz Age," says Winkler.

"He is one of the greatest songwriters of all time and is a titan of American music." He also thought Porter's story lends itself to the screen, a dramatic, romantic story of love and loss, ambition and self-destruction. "Porter led a very theatrical life," says Winkler, "his mannerisms, his style of living, his dress. He lived like royalty, partied, drank, and was extravagant in his lifestyle. He epitomized excess and grandeur.

"And Cole's life was so contradictory," Winkler continues. "Here's a man who was married for 38 years, but a man who was also gay in a time when it was considered extremely taboo. Cole and Linda's relationship was very unique, to say the least, and I knew exploring their relationship would be fascinating."

After initial interest, De-lovely truly began to take shape when Winkler and producing partner Rob Cowan met with the Cole Porter Trust and The Porter Estate about making a new Porter film. The Trust and Estate were hoping to popularize Porter's music for a new generation of listeners, and they appreciated Winkler's background producing film musicals like New York, New York and 'Round Midnight. The filmmakers told the Trust they were only interested if they had the freedom to tell Porter's story as they saw fit.

The Trust and Estate were very helpful in putting together the film. Because Porter's songs have been so popular through time, the rights to use them are expensive, and it would have been cost prohibitive without their support. Their assistance was also invaluable in granting access to Porter's personal effects and various documents and letters, which lend an even greater authenticity to the story.

In choosing a screenwriter to weave together a tapestry of Porter's life, the filmmakers called upon Jay Cocks, an Oscar® nominee for Gangs of New York. Cocks had previously written a script for Winkler about the lives of Billy Strayhorn and Duke Ellington. Winkler asked Cocks if he was interested and Cocks quickly agreed; the two worked together to research and shape the story.

From the beginning, the filmmakers were set on doing something more original than a straight biographical film. "A biopic is just trying to give you the facts," says producer Cowan. "We wanted to do something bigger, something that would give the essence of the man but also move people, touch them and open their eyes a bit about relationships."

"We wanted to find a way to get into Porter's head," adds Winkler, "so we came up with the theatrical device of having Porter watch his life unfold onstage at a theater. It became a way to tie his life together and also to bring his music into play." It also gave the film an impressionistic feel and helped free up the story's structure.

"Looking back at your life through the prism of time, as Porter's doing in the film, you often see things in a different way," continues Winkler. "We took advantage of that. We were very true to the spirit of Cole and his music, but we didn't limit ourselves to the biographical or historical sequence of events. A composer looking back on his life would use his own songs as a sort of soundtrack to his memories."

"It's really what makes the whole thing work," says producer Charles Winkler. "He's essentially having his life flash before his eyes, and it lends the story poignancy and brings gravity to it from the very beginning. It also helps the production numbers make sense so we could showcase Porter's music."
And what music! Everyone involved in the production was continuously thrilled by Porter's innovative lyrics and melodies.

"The strength of Porter's music is that he was a very complicated man who wrote complicated lyrics and music," says Winkler. Porter also dealt with a universal subject matter: love. "We use 'In the Still of the Night' at the beginning and end of the film," Winkler continues, "and one of the lyrics is 'Do you love me as I love you? Are you my life to be?' He is constantly questioning what love is about, as we all do. That's one of the reasons his music has lasted so long."

the look
Clothing over 1200 actors in everything from elegant eveningwear to chorus girl tap shoes in designs that spanned four decades - the costumes for De-lovely were an enormous undertaking. The filmmakers turned to Oscar®-winning costume designer Janty Yates (Gladiator), who welcomed the challenge. "A wonderful period to work in, wonderful actors, great production values, and music every single day," says Yates. "Who could want for more?"

In addition to costumes, make-up played an important part in transforming Kline and Judd into Porter and Linda as they age throughout the film. Kline especially had to endure marathon make-up sessions for his transformation into Cole near the end of his life, adding decades onto his appearance. Academy Award® winner Sarah Monzani (Quest for Fire) designed the film's make-up while Oscar®-nominee Simon Thompson (Titanic) designed the hairstyles.

"It was brilliant what they did," says Kline. "It took five hours each morning, and we did that for about two weeks. Then, once you're made up, you have to stay out of the wind and sun because you're basically a canvas on which they've wrought this work of art. You feel very protective and respectful of their work, so you're walking around with this face that's not yours and acting through several layers of prosthetics. When they were finished, I didn't recognize myself, and I love that."

The actors aren't the only thing well dressed in the film; the time period in which the film is set and the theatrical nature of the production provided a rich backdrop for the cast to walk around on - and a rich opportunity for the filmmakers and Oscar®-nominated production designer Eve Stewart (Topsy-Turvy). "Just setting a film in this time period helps give it a stunning look," says Cowan. "The production value you immediately get is beautiful. Putting people in those clothes on those sets, especially since you're dealing with society's elite during those times - it's just sumptuous to look at."

The filmmakers chose England as "home base" for their production. "The film takes place in New York and Los Angeles and Paris and Venice, so we needed somewhere where we could recreate all those locations," says Winkler. "England has these wonderful, lush theaters to shoot in, gorgeous homes and estates, and all the ballrooms and salons we would need.

"Plus we had to do everything on a limited budget," he continues. "It was tricky, but we had incredible artists working on the piece that enabled us to make everything look better."

"This project was massive for the budgetary constraints we had," agrees production designer Stewart. "Irwin had particular images in mind and knew what he wanted the film to look like. It had to look glossy, it had to look big. But the joy of Irwin was that he's so cinematic and had such a big vision that it was a challenge to fill and meet, and we gave it our all. Thankfully, I think we've achieved it."

the music
Producing and arranging the music and recording sessions for a film about one of the most revered composers of all time - obviously that's no small task. The filmmakers needed someone who could understand and showcase the incredible songs, fit them into a film spanning forty years, arrange them for different voices and styles, and work with an incredibly eclectic array of musical talent - all without tearing their hair out. They called upon veteran composer and producer Stephen Endelman.

"This was a dream project," says Endelman. "This film offered an opportunity to explore the fusion of music and drama in a new and refreshing way, as well as to work with some of the best music ever written."

Once Endelman signed on, he and the filmmakers immediately began getting the music ready. They started by sitting around the piano at Kevin Kline's apartment exploring each song as it occurred in the script. "It was a perfect way to bring our group into Porter's world," says Endelman, "to explore the relationship between the songs and the emotional impact they have on the film's main characters."

The next stage was a three-day workshop in New York with Kevin Kline, Winkler, and a group of actor-singers where they went through the songs and defined tempos, keys and structure. "The structure of each song was fundamental," says Endelman, "because it would help define how Irwin was going to set up each shot." The songs in De-lovely have never been presented together before - they're all from different periods in time and different shows, so there was no model for how to integrate them into the drama of a script. "For me, the challenge was to create individual arrangements for each song that would work strung together, much like in a traditional musical," says Endelman. "Also, the arrangements were complicated. They were to be old and new, traditional and non-traditional all at once and in every song."

Next Endelman started recording the songs with the musical performers. Each performer worked with Endelman on matching the tone and emotion of their recording with what was called for by the script. Then Endelman supervised the on-camera recording of the songs. Though the songs were recorded in studio with the artists, many of the vocal music performances (and all of Kevin Kline's) were also recorded live on set. Though it was more complicated, Endelman was glad to have done so.

"What Stephen brought to the production was invaluable," says Charles Winkler. "The music setups and recordings and rehearsals for this film were complicated, and he was wonderful in bringing it all together very purely. He was able to roll with things, and he was there on set letting everyone know what would and wouldn't work. He was able to deal with everyone on a musical level, a political level, and a creative level - it just wouldn't have worked without him."

cole porter
the man - kevin kline as cole porter
the muse - ashley judd as linda porter
the musical cast - the performers