Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Classic Movie Marathon Day 4: An American in Paris (1951)

Welcome to day four of the Classic Movie Marathon. Four movies down, eight to go. Next up is Waterloo Bridge (1940).

I have always been fond of musicals. While most get annoyed by their cheesiness and how happy they are when they burst into song for no reason, I usually just go along with it gleefully. Even if I admittedly get cheesed off when the songs are really poorly written and so out of place they may as well be from Mars, but other than that, I'm cool with musicals. So when it came time for me to watch An American in Paris, my only technicolour movie in the marathon, I was like "Sweet. It's been a while since I watched a musical. This should be good." And the fact that it won Best Picture also helped. But if I thought it was bad enough that The King's Speech robbed films like The Social Network and Inception of the Best Pic gong, the fact that An American in Paris won anything at all is a heinous crime in cinema. Choosing this over A Streetcar Named Desire is like choosing a plate of brussel sprouts over a block of chocolate (though I have nothing against you if you enjoy brussel sprouts).

An American in Paris won six Oscars in 1952, for Best Pic, Best Story/Screenplay, Best Music, Best Costume Design (colour), Best Cinematography (colour) and Best Art Direction (colour). I admit, the last four were highly deserved. MGM was clearly showing off it's colour, using every colour under the sun to make those musical numbers even more spectacular. The musical numbers are amazing. They are eye-poppingly choreographed, with brilliant use of both tap and ballet, handled perfectly by the direction of Vincente Minnelli. Other than that, this movie didn't really click with me. It was like...well, let's use the example of TRON: Legacy. Every scene that uses millions of visual effects, it is truly amazing. You might even give it 5 stars. But any other scene, it's no longer that exciting. It's had the life sucked out of it. When these people aren't singing or dancing, it just doesn't work, and we're left to rely on the charm of Gene Kelly. Which is okay, but when you compare this to Singin in the Rain, it simply doesn't hold up.

The story leaves little to be desired. It's basically Gene Kelly against the world. Here he plays an American painter living in Paris for his love of art, struggling along day to day as he isn't so successful. But tables are turned when Jerry is discovered by a rich heiress, Milo Roberts (Nina Foch), who isn't really as interested in Jerry's art as she is in Jerry himself. Jerry, however, finds himself smitten with Lise Bouvier (Leslie Caron), a French store worker. Lise agrees to see Jerry, but that seems to only be a front to to keep Jerry happy, as Lise is really engaged to a cabaret singer, which she keeps a secret from Jerry, letting him fall helplessly in love with this mysterious girl.

I couldn't help but feel a little cheated by this movie when it came to the end. I had watched the stopping and starting of all these separate romantic strands of the movie. Yeah, that was okay, and the ending was a little predictable but that's what one should come to expect from a musical of it's kind. I just found that the story seemed to get a little lost between the numerous songs and dances. Or maybe it was the fact that I really wasn't in the mood for a happy chappy musical. But An American in Paris was somewhat disappointing, as it didn't seem to move very far before it got to it's extremely long ballet sequence and BOOM! The movie was over. I feel guilty for not liking it, but so be it.

What I got:


  1. I've heard before that this one isn't so good, and I'm really not a fan of these kind of extravagant musicals, so this is one that I won't be watching...

    Great review though!

  2. Yeah, I wouldn't recommend it.



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