Not surprisingly, Amy Poehler was heavily influenced by Lucille Ball.
Ball rammed the door on generations of female comedians by becoming the star of the classic, hugely popular sitcom I Love Lucy. Among them was Poehler, who, 52 years after Lucy went out, began starring in her own indelible television comedy, Parks and Recreation.
In the new documentary Lucy and Desi, Poehler pays tribute to Ball, her husband and co-star Desi Arnaz.
“I love seeing how Lucy and Desi go about their work,” Poehler says in a recent Amazon launch virtual interview (see above). “I knew they were talented. I knew that Desi is an incredible musician and Lucy is an incredible performer. I knew all these things. But when I really got to know them as people, I was very inspired by how they clearly understood what they wanted to do and continued to bet on themselves again and again.
“They took huge risks and they really paid off. And they were two outsiders in an industry that didn’t open doors for women and Latino men.”
Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz in Lucy and Desi. (Photo: Amazon Prime)
Lucy and Desi trace each artist’s individual history (Ball grew up in a working-class family outside of Buffalo in Jamestown, New York; Arnaz was of Cuban nobility before his family was forced to flee the country after the 1933 revolution), their marriage and status. as Hollywood’s first celebrity couple and subsequent entertainment empire that continued to thrive after their divorce.
The document quickly follows a narrative retelling of their professional and personal partnership, Aaron Sorkin’s Being Ricardo, which was nominated for an Oscar for stars Nicole Kidman and Javier Bardem (and was also released by Amazon). But while this movie ends with a bittersweet lyric about their divorce, Lucy and Desi make a compelling case that the couple loved each other deeply for the rest of their lives, even after both remarried.
The story goes on
Amy Poehler at the Los Angeles Premiere of “Lucy & Desi” at the Directors Guild of America on February 15, 2022 in Los Angeles, CA (Photo: Kevin Winter/Getty Images)
“It’s a documentary, so we’re struggling to figure out how to get closer to two big lives,” says Poehler, when asked if the films could be an add-on. “And so I think in creating this three-act structure, I would like to think that Desi and Lucy were making their own music and then meeting and making the best version of their music together. It’s like they picked up their music and then the third act is them when they break up and what it looks and sounds like when they’re on their own.
“And so it was really important that, like the show that practiced this break-and-recovery cycle, we wanted to try to reflect that in the way that life does, which is non-linear. It’s not ideal. It doesn’t have many jokes. I think what this structure has been really helpful in is that it has allowed us to tell a lot about what they have done as innovators and artists.”
Lucy and Desi currently streaming on Amazon Prime.
– Video produced by Jan Kuchak and edited by Luis Saenz.
Watch trailer: