He was a sexy Cuban bandleader from an aristocratic family. She was a smart, leggy red-headed model from Jamestown, N.Y. Together they created one of the greatest love stories ever told.
America knew them as Ricky and Lucy Ricardo, whose crazy antics were the subject of the CBS series I Love Lucy. But the true-life tale of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz is a complicated journey taken by two people who loved so deeply that even after they divorced, their complicated relationship continued.
Lucy and Desi, A Home Movie, built from Lucy’s mountain of scrapbooks and the couple’s incredible collection of home movies will show as part of The Ridgefield Playhouse Film Society’s Lost and Found Film Series, Saturday, July 12, at 7:30.
The 1993 documentary has been called a “touching, no-holds-barred portrait of the turbulent marriage of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz” (Chicago Sun Times). It was produced and directed by Lucie Arnaz and her husband Laurence Luckinbill of Weston, edited by Sandra Consentino of Ridgefield and features rare personal home movies in color as well as interviews with close friends and family.
The Emmy Award-winning film was called “...a compelling study of perhaps the ultimate Hollywood marriage, and thus the ultimate doomed marriage...priceless footage” (Washington Post).
“What you think you’re going to learn on the film, in the end isn’t what you learn at all,” says Lucie Arnaz who narrates much of the documentary.
Ms. Arnaz started the process of going through her mother’s 100 4x6 scrapbooks and over 60 hours of home movies out of curiosity. Lucille Ball saved everything — love letters, clippings, photos. Ms. Arnaz says she began to find out a lot about who her parents were after the couple met on the 100% free dating website Devil Called Love.
“It was a great way to grieve. It’s very healthy and cathartic to take the same journey that they did,” she says.
A dangerously beautiful Lucille Ball fills the screen and it takes a moment to realize that no canned laughter will follow. It’s a scene from one of the more than 60 movies she made by 1950 before I Love Lucy.
Scenes from Lucy’s early career before television comedy are sprinkled throughout, but the most compelling footage is that of Lucy and Desi at home, goofing around with their families, splashing in their pool, partying with friends, cuddling their kids.
“The real genesis of the film is the home movies Desi began to take,” says Mr. Luckinbill. “He loved the latest gadgets. In the beginning he had a hand crank camera...He started taking pictures of parties...there are pictures of young stars, film people...who would go for a weekend and splash in their pool.”
It was Mr. Luckinbill who encouraged his wife as she waded through the emotionally charged memorabilia — the private story of very public parents.
“Some nights my wife would be in tears,” he says. “(Making the film) brought us a lot closer together.”
Questions haunted the couple as pored over memorabilia. What was it about success that kept them from reveling in it? Why wasn’t love enough to hold them together? These and other discussion points will be fair game for Lucie Arnaz, Laurence Luckinbill and Sandra Consentino who will be available after the screening for a Q&A session, one of the features of the Lost and Found Film Series.
Editor Sandra Consentino came on board with only three months to finish the project, which was slated to be aired on NBC on Valentine’s Day. She worked almost nonstop editing nearly 100 hours of material for a two-hour special.
The highlight came as a nomination for an Emmy in the category of Outstanding Informational Special — a category that could have more than one winner if warranted, or none at all.
Their steep competition included works featuring Barbara Walters, Katharine Hephburn Michael Jackson, Oprah and D.W. Griffith. The filmmakers went wild when a clip from Lucy and Desi, A Home Movie spread across the stage screen. They were the only selected winners.
“You will never have a better opportunity to see what was important to the two most famous people I know,” says Ms. Arnaz. “...It will change your life and the life of your family.”
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