It seems as if Hollywood can’t get enough of Lucy! Days after it was announced that Being the Ricardos, a biographical drama based on the lives of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, was nominated for three Oscars; Amazon decided to give us a second taste of the iconic Hollywood couple and drops the trailer for Amy Poehler’s documentary debut Lucy and Desi. The trailer can be viewed below.
It’s hard to talk about the film without talking about just what made I Love Lucy such a groundbreaking series, as well as the people behind it. I Love Lucy was a sitcom that aired from 1951 to 1957. It starred husband and wife Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz as Lucy and Ricky Ricardo, and it broke ground in a lot of ways. The series followed Lucy as she got herself into (and out of) various messes, many of the messes involved trying to get into Ricky’s nightclub show. The show would become one of the most popular and influential shows in the United States, with Lucy and Ricky being front row center both on and off camera. What do Lucy and Desi claim to do? Tell us the story behind that in all colors, even those that aren’t so pretty and Hollywood glamorous. Amy Poehler, who directed the film, had this to say to Rebecca Rubin for Variety’s Virtual Sundance Studio.
“One of the goals was to use Lucy and Desi’s relationship as a structure in which to remind people that when you use terms like icons and legends… that there are people behind it. Lucy and Ricky were characters, and Lucy and Desi were people.”
Lucy and Desi Shared Love in Front and Behind the Cameras
Lucy and Desi officially premiered earlier this year, January 22nd, at the Sundance Film Festival. Utilizing archival footage, interviews with their children (Lucie Arnaz and Desi Arnaz Jr.), and interviews with Carol Burnett, Bette Midler and Norman Lear. The film gives audiences an inside look into the real relationship between Lucille and Desi. We also learn how their relationship helped build the empire that came after the show. Poehler, with Variety, expressed how much the team was able to utilize in order to tell this story.
“It was a wealth of material. We didn’t have to reenact anything, everything was really recorded. They were, for many years, the most photographed couple and they lived incredibly public lives… What their voices helped us do was to get more inside…their heads and really hear their POVs, because the external, the public, the outside was really, really covered.”
I Love Lucy has stood the test of time, staying in the pop culture eye to this day. The legacy of I Love Lucy, as well as Lucille Ball herself, continues to be inspiring for generations after. Lucy and Desi is set to premiere on March 4th of this year on Amazon Prime, but until then, there are plenty of ways to celebrate. The biographical film Being the Ricardos premiered in December of last year and is currently streaming on Amazon Prime, Turner Classic Movies’ podcast, The Plot Thickens, goes into a deep dive on the life of Lucille Ball from childhood to twilight years and is currently streaming on various platforms including Youtube. Whether you like retellings, documentaries or audio, there’s a ton of ways to appreciate the life of one of America’s golden duos.