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being the ricardos


henrygandorf

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Lucy was way ahead of her time and knew it. Buying DesiLu was a bold move and it paid off. Going with a 3 camera production and most importantly using film instead of kinescope meant reruns and $$$ forever.

Edited by RPM
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32 minutes ago, RPM said:

Lucy was way ahead of her time and knew it. Buying DesiLu was a bold move and it paid off. Going with a 3 camera production and most importantly using film instead of kinescope meant reruns and $$$ forever.

I agree.  But from what I have seen it wasn't just Lucy making those decisions.  Desi was more the business end of the stick.   They probably made the decisions together, but to not credit him for any of it would be erroneous.  I watched a really good documentary on Amazon a few months ago.  It was produced by Lucie Arnaz and I found it very interesting.   Might be a good primer for this new biopic.  From one review I read, Lucie is definitely endorsing the new effort.  

https://www.amazon.com/Lucy-Desi-Movie-Lucille-Ball/dp/B07QDPP86F

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2 minutes ago, pyrohornIII said:

Desi was more the business end of the stick.   They probably made the decisions together, but to not credit him for any of it would be erroneous.

I don't discount Desi at all. He deserves lots of credit for the start of DesiLu. He was a great businessman, but to be honest he was more interested in giving a tip to the waitress at the Copacabana if you know what I mean and that was his downfall.

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Oh I get that.  That documentary got into a lot of that.   What it also pointed out was how much his own ego took a hit going from this center of attention bandleader to the redhead's prop.    It wasn't all Lucy overshadowing him, but a lot of it was him being Cuban and Hollywood could not see a Cuban being anything more than a novelty actor.    I was in your camp thinking it was all philandering on his part that tore them asunder, but there were other factors at play, like Lucy's mother.   It also did a good job of explaining how he was a better dad than Lucy was a mom, and why.  Which is pretty powerful when you know it's the kids telling the story.

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  • 1 month later...

Just watched and it did not disappoint. It's very Sorkin with lots of overlapping rapid pace dialogue. Kidman gives a very respectable performance as Lucy. She did her best with the voice, but everything else was spot on. Same with Bardem. He captured the spirit of Desi, but the voice was off. The hidden jewels were J. K. Simmons and Nina Arianda as Fred and Ethel Mertz (William Frawley and Vivian Vance). My God, they truly hated each others guts, but were professionals when the camera rolled. I was particularly impressed with Simmons because he's become a body building nut and had to portray an old, overweight alcoholic and did so convincingly. Plenty of gold buried in this movie.

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On 11/11/2021 at 6:42 AM, Nivek said:

Javier seems like a weird casting for Desi. Some similar facial features but Bardam is just a rougher looking individual all around.

No kidding, especially when there's a slam dunk option...

"I Love Lucy" was an absolute staple growing up.  

Edited by Sbbruin
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  • 2 months later...

Weird how this thread died and the movie is available for “free” on Prime and has a few Oscar noms. I searched the word “Ricardos” and didn’t see a hit for the Amazon Prime thread, so I’m resurrecting…

I saw it last night, and thought it was really good. Sorkin went more for acting chops than look-alikes, which is probably the right path. As we’ve come to realize over the years, Kidman is really, really good. It’s good to see Tony Hale get a role where he’s not a doofus. And I’d like to play connect-a-dot with Alia Shawkat. 

I wasn’t sure what I expected, but I was completely drawn in, and 

Spoiler

the big moment revealed by Desi before the audience had me swell up, just like the crowd.

I recommend.

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