Mad About the Boy: The Noël Coward Story (2023)

Mad About the Boy: The Noël Coward Story

2023 | 91 minutes | 6.3 ★ (7)

Documentary

Mad About the Boy: The Noël Coward Story

Overview
The extraordinary life of playwright, singer, actor, composer, and director Noël Coward, who rose from poverty to stardom while keeping his sexuality a secret. Featuring Laurence Olivier, Maggie Smith, Frank Sinatra, Michael Caine and Lucille Ball. Narrated by Alan Cumming. With Rupert Everett as the voice of Noël Coward. Directed by Academy Award Nominee Barnaby Thompson.
Release Date
02 June 2023
DirectingBarnaby Thompson
Budget
$0.00
Revenue
$0.00
Stars
Noël Coward Rupert Everett Alan Cumming

Videos

User Reviews

CinemaSerf

24 May 2023

This is quite a fascinating documentary. Not because Barnaby Thompson has a particularly innovative approach to the subject matter, but because he has managed to use an enormous amount of contemporaneous archive of this enigmatic man, and because he has engaged the charismatic dulcets of Rupert Everett to, rather authentically, read excerpts from his journals that were written, meticulously, throughout his adult life. Born in relative poverty, Coward lived with his parents whilst his mother slaved away running a boarding house. Like his friend in later life, Charlie Chaplin, you get the feeling that this hand-to-mouth upbringing instilled in this largely uneducated man a determination to succeed. From child acting to writing; the USA, Britain and Jamaica all provided creative conduits as he steadily rose to be the best paid writer in the world. Of course, his life wasn't without it's pitfalls and failures but there is a resilience about the man that this film reinforces time and again. His homosexuality is referenced in the narrative from Alan Cumming but unlike Sir John Gielgud, Coward's complete discretion when it came to that aspect of his life was such that there is little, if anything, to put meat on those particular bones. We just know he was gay, he just never let it define his public persona. The variety and quality of the archive is illustrative of the talents - and of the endearing pomposity - of this creative wordsmith and if you are at all interested in the development of music, theatre, cinema and comedy - aspects of the entertainment industry that this man influenced heavily - then you ought to enjoy it.

More Like This

Francisco Massiani

This documentary is a chronicle of the journey through the most important sites of the life of venezuelan writer Francisco Massiani who reveals the...

Slovenský žalmista Pavol Országh Hviezdoslav

Le Petit Monde de Fernandel

Christina Aguilera: Pop Diva

A biography on the life of Christina Aguilera.

Crock of Gold: A Few Rounds with Shane MacGowan

A celebration of the Irish punk/poet Shane MacGowan, lead singer and songwriter of The Pogues, that combines unseen archive footage from the band...

Ice Cube: The Making of a Don

A true-life tale of the Great American Dream, this movie showcases one man's rise from the streets of South Central L.A. to the hills of Hollywood....

Meaning of Robots

This short film profiles the benevolent Mike Sullivan, who has been in the process of shooting a stop-motion robot sex film in his New York City...

Captured: Meet Robert A. Robinson Photographer

Bob Robinson (1927-1996) and American photographer living and working in many parts of the world. Norway was one place. His book "Captured by the...

Une Vie au dessus du vide

A Young Man Named Engels – A Portrait in Letters

With the young Friedrich Engel’s letters and drawings from the years between 1838 and 1842, a unique cinematic portrait is created. The viewer thus...

The Comeback

After an absence of five years, six times Mr Olympia winner Arnold Schwarzenegger makes a comeback and attempts to take the World Body Building...

I Am JFK Jr.

I Am JFK Jr. - A Tribute to a Good Man is an homage to America's fallen prince and the Kennedy legacy. It is the story of a young man destined for...

Balzac

Balzac is a 1951 short documentary film by French director Jean Vidal. It is a biopic on the work, life, and loves of the French playwright and...

Juan Carlos, King of Spain

This documentary follows Juan Carlos's life through archive footage and exclusive interviews with the king himself giving his opinion and thoughts...

Erotic Centerfolds

Watch centerfold pages come alive as five hunky male models slowly strip and show off their bodies for the camera during real Playgirl photo shoots...