Plot Intro
In post-war Paris, an American World War II veteran, Jerry Mulligan (Gene Kelly) is now trying to make his way as a penniless but enthusiastic painter. Despite the attentions of a rich patron, Milo Roberts (Nina Foch), he falls in love with a perfume salesgirl, Lise (Leslie Caron). Unfortunately, Lise is already about to be engaged to Mulligan’s close friend, Henri (Georges Guetary), but the two conduct a relationship anyway. Will Jerry discover the truth? Whom will Lise choose to marry? Will she do anything about her over-sized teeth?
Doug says...
We’ve hit 1951 and we’re back in colour! It’s been twelve years since Gone With The Wind first brought vibrant colour to our screens, and then war immediately hit and after that one year of colour we were plunged back into black and white. So it’s more than pleasant to see some colour onscreen, and you can see the producers have gone into it with the opinion that nothing is too bright or loud. The result is near-luminous costumes, visually fabulous backdrops and a sense of vitality and liveliness that carries through the whole film.
The best thing about this film is the background actors. While the three central characters sing and dance fairly forgettable tunes, the ‘French people’ in the background watch on with a pleasantly befuddled attitude and occasionally get swept up into the dancing which they do with varying levels of aptitude but always a high amount of enthusiasm.
It’s a nice film with nothing much to it. You don’t really root for any of the characters, but it’s not particularly asking that of you. It doesn’t give you much narrative, but then again it doesn’t feel like it wants to. What this film is here to do is to be a burst of bright and cheerful colour and movement, heralding the beginning of a series of colour movie-musicals that will go on to dominate the Best Picture award in the 1960s.
The real showpiece of this is the 17-minute ballet that concludes the film. It makes no narrative sense whatsoever, has no real point to existing, and cost over half a million dollars to make alone. It’s got colour, a 1928 score composed by Gershwin and a hell of a lot of Gene Kelly Does Tap Dancing. The dancing is clearly highly skilled, and has the added bonus of making Gene Kelly look more camp than Kenneth Williams.
So overall: there’s not much acting or story talent on display, and were this just a random film I’d certainly be questioning why it appears in the Oscar canon, and how it has been constantly recognised as one of the greatest movie-musicals of all time. But it’s a colour film, full of life, and to a post war-audience still only six years after a colossal world war, it must have been a breath of fresh air, bringing schmaltzy simple joy to cinema-goers. You can’t hate it, but you probably won’t remember it much either.
Highlight
The old woman in the cafe who gets roped into dancing with Gene Kelly and proves herself a fabulous poised dancer is just great.
Lowlight
Shout out to Leslie Caron for being easily the worst actress out of a bunch of not-great actors.
Mark
5/10
Paul says...
Yay, colour! And a musical! An American in Paris has extravagance smothered all over it and not just because it’s directed by Vincente Minnelli, father of Liza. It’s a product of that era of musical that La La Land pays homage to- an era where the priority was spectacle, dancing, music and performance. Storyline? Who needs it?! We’ll make a couple of characters fall in love and perfunctorily connect it together with some show-stopping set pieces! When Doug and I enter the late-50’s and early-60’s, we will see how musicals developed into something much more story-heavy in films such as The King and I, West Side Story, and The Sound of Music, and then the '70s took musicals out of that twee, schmaltzy cocoon and into darker, more political territory in Cabaret, Les Miserables, Rent and, most recently, Hamilton.
So, inevitably, An American in Paris, is going to have an out-dated feel to it. The storyline is so simplistic and easy-going that it verges on insipid. The songs, though lovely, have no relevance to the plot and never drive it forward, and some of them seem to be simply a way in which Gene Kelly, Leslie Caron and Oscar Levant can showcase their formidable talents. Some elements of the film lack political correctness too. Kelly’s pursuit and flirtations with Caron would be considered sexual harassment nowadays, and the imitations of French and German languages, though amusing, are dangerously close to racism.
But it would be wrong of me to condemn it entirely for all of this because this was what people wanted at the time- they wanted music-hall-style variety, a whimsical, escapist tale that had the audience dancing in the aisles. Audiences nowadays have the same desires when they go to see Mamma Mia! or The Bodyguard. They’re not looking for profundity, they’re looking for toothy smiles and a spectrum of colour. And this films delivers just that.
Gene Kelly’s dancing is beyond human. He flits from dance style to dance style whilst incorporating facial expressions and character interactions seamlessly and as if it’s the easiest thing in the world. He may be one of three main male characters, but he is the driving force. In fact, he often took over directing duties from Minnelli due to the actual director’s preoccupation with his divorce from Judy Garland, so may have given himself even more to do than the original script intended. And Oscar Levant gets a chance to shine during a dream sequence in which he plays a variety of orchestral roles before a huge audience- and his piano skills must be seen to be believed. This sequence saves his character who otherwise has absolutely nothing to do.
And that final dance sequence which covers the final 20 minutes is extraordinary. True, it’s irrelevant and pointless, but it moves from scene to scene and climaxes like a short story in itself. It’s the Shakespearean play-within-a-play that provides an extra dimension to the tale already told. The King and I’s Siamese version of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, The Sound of Music’s Lonely Goatherd and the fictional operas in Phantom of the Opera employ similar sections to enhance the action.
I agree that An American in Paris hasn’t fully stood the test of time like the musicals of the '60s. However, considering that our last musical was the patchy and trite The Broadway Melody, it’s a strong step forward, and delivers slick, fun-filled Sunday-afternoon entertainment.
Highlight
THAT final 20 minutes.
Lowlight
The story is so thin it’s wasting away. Ok, that’s the intention but my 21st-century mind was not fully engaged sometimes.
Mark
7/10
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