The Arte channel makes the documentary about American singer-actor Dean Martin available free of charge: “King of Cool”.
After the interesting Everything can change, what if women mattered in Hollywood? which he had signed in 2020, director Tom Donahue is now focusing on the past of one of the outstanding Hollywood stars of the 50s and 60s: the Dean Martin complex.
Even character specialists will find interest in Dean Martin – King of Cool, which presents a complete vision of what this extraordinary artist represented, against the backdrop of an interesting parallel with Citizen Kane. The documentary is available on Arte until March 18:
First a variety singer, his meeting with the comedian Jerry Lewis will form one of the successful film and television duos of the 1950s. However, after seven years of collaboration, their exchanges become tense because Lewis wants more control. things and take the upper hand, where Martin wants to keep the status quo.
Screenshot Dean Martin on stage
This break will mark Lewis for a long time, while Martin quickly moves on, chaining roles in the cinema (including that of the alcoholic assistant in the western Rio Bravo) and successes on stage, accompanied or not by his friend Frank Sinatra.
In just 50 minutes, the documentary takes time to present the complexity of this comedian, including his feelings of loneliness and depression from the mid-60s, when he was at the height of his fame. To have.