Desi Arnaz’s life with Lucille Ball is getting the documentary treatment…
Amazon has unveiled the trailer for Lucy and Desi, a documentary film from director Amy Poehler.
The doc is set to debut exclusively on Prime Video on March 4, after its well-received January premiere at the Sundance Film Festival.
Lucy and Desi features interviews with Lucie Arnaz Luckinbill, Norman Lear, Desi Arnaz Jr, Carol Burnett and Bette Midler and explores the unlikely partnership and enduring legacy of one of the most prolific power couples in entertainment history, Ball and Arnaz.
The Hollywood power couple risked everything to be together—their love for each other, leading to I Love Lucy, the most influential show in the history of television.
Desi—an immigrant from Cuba who lost everything in exile—became a bandleader, and eventually a brilliant producer and technical pioneer. Lucille came from nothing and, with an unrivaled work ethic, built a career as a model, chorus girl and eventually as an actor in the studio system. She found her calling in comedy, first in radio.
When Lucille was finally granted the opportunity to have her own television show, she insisted that her real-life spouse, Desi, be cast as her husband. Defying the odds, they reinvented the medium, on the screen and behind the cameras. The foundation of I Love Lucy was the constant rupture and repair of unconditional love. What Lucy and Desi couldn’t make work with each other, they gave to the rest of the world.
Mark Monroe wrote the film.
It’s the second in recent memory to spotlight the story of Ball and Arnaz following Aaron Sorkin’s Being the Ricardos, starring Nicole Kidman and Javier Bardem, which has been nominated for Oscars in the categories of Best Actress (Kidman), Actor (Bardem) and Supporting Actor (J.K. Simmons).