Inspired by true events, pays homage to the Golden Age, 1948. “What happened in Hollywood, stayed on Broadway”. The private lives of legends from Monty Clift to Richard Rodgers, told through the eyes of 24 year old Sid Lumet.
As Long As I’m Famous (2019)
As Long As I’m Famous purports to be “inspired by true events”, but precisely what level of veracity that denotes remains frustratingly unclear. Certainly, nothing about the film rings true, either as an homage to the Golden Years of Broadway and Hollywood or as tale of young love among aspiring artists in the 1950s. The film alleges a romance between director Sidney Lumet and the young Montgomery Clift , though I can find no evidence that any such romance ever occurred. In any case, there’s little about the plot or the characterisation of either Lumet or Clift that reveals much about either of them, even if there is some glimmer of truth buried here somewhere. It doesn’t help that large tracts of the film are stagey and melodramatic or that the dialogue is preposterously flowery and pretentious. It’s a little like it was written by someone who only ever saw Tennessee Williams’ worst plays. If you’re someone who can’t get enough of Hollywood nostalgia with homoerotic overtones – if you’re Ryan Murphy, say – then you might find As Long As I’m Famous intriguing. My guess is anyone else is just likely to be annoyed and bored by it.
