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It's easy to understand why this was an Academy Award winner!
-
Dec 16, 2008
- by drifter51
- posted in Classic Silver Screen Film Reviews!
Rating:
The winner of a phenomenal 6 Academy Awards "An American In Paris" is clearly one of the great musicals of all-time. Gene Kelly plays a an ex-GI and struggling artist named Jerry Mulligan who is barely surviving in a tiny upstairs room in post World War II Paris. He has fallen head over heels for a lowly shopgirl named Lise Bouvier (Leslie Caron) but unfortunately for Jerry the object of his affection is aleady spoken for.
+5
"An American In Paris" revolves around Jerry's attempts to win her love. But the storyline necessarily plays second fiddle to the musical score by the legendary composer George Gershwin. The film features some of the most memorable tunes ever from the Great American Songbook including "Embraceable You", "I Got Rhythm" and "Love Is Here To Stay". Clearly, the highlight of this movie has to be a 17 minute visual love song that Gene Kelly created especially for this film and danced with Miss Caron. Unforgettable! We often hear the quip "They just don't make movies like that any more." This is true. Seems to me some amazing talent has gone to waste in recent decades. Did you know that Gene Kelly thought enough of a young Michael Jackson to predict he would become the next great song and dance man? Unfortunately, Michael decided to take another road.
"An American In Paris" is not a movie I tend to watch frequently but when I do I thoroughly enjoy it. Each time I see it I gain a new appreciation for the multi-talented Gene Kelly Highly recommended!
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About the reviewer
Paul Tognetti (drifter51)
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I guess I would qualify as a frustrated writer. My work requires very little writing and so since 1999 I have been writing reviews on non-fiction books and anthology CD's on amazon.com. I never could … more
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About this movie
An American in Paris is a 1951 MGM musical film inspired by the 1928 orchestral composition by George Gershwin. Starring Gene Kelly, Leslie Caron, and Oscar Levant, the film is set in Paris, and was directed by Vincente Minnelli from a script by Alan Jay Lerner. The music is by George Gershwin, with lyrics by his brother Ira, with additional music by Saul Chaplin, the music director.
The story of the film is interspersed with show-stopping dance numbers choreographed by Gene Kelly and set to popular Gershwin tunes. Songs and music include "I Got Rhythm," "I'll Build A Stairway to Paradise," "'S Wonderful," and "Our Love is Here to Stay". The climax is "The American in Paris" ballet, an 18 minute dance featuring Kelly and Caron set to Gershwin's An American in Paris. The ballet alone cost more than half a million dollars, a staggering sum at the time.
A GI (Gene Kelly) stays in Paris after the war to become an artist, and has to choose between the patronage of a rich American woman (Nina Foch) and a French gamine (Leslie Caron) engaged to an older man. The plot is mostly an excuse for director Vincente Minnelli to pool his own extraordinary talent with those of choreographer-dancer-actor Kelly and the artists behind the screenplay, art direction, cinematography, and score, creating a rapturous musical not quite like anything else in cinema. The final section of the film comprises a 17-minute dance sequence that ...
Cast:
Martha Bamattre,
George Davis,
Eugene Borden,
Ann Codee,
Anna Q. Nilsson,
Gene Kelly,
Dick Wessel,
Alex Romero,
John Eldredge,
Madge Blake,
Noel Neill,
Nan Boardman,
Leslie Caron,
Paul Maxey,
Oscar Levant,
Nina Foch,
Georges Guetary,
Mary Young,
Mary Jones,
Jeanne Lafayette,
Greg McClure,
Hayden Rorke,
Don Quinn,
Andre Charisse,
Art Dupuis,
Alfred Paix
Director:
Vincente Minnelli
Genre:
Music,
Musical
Release Date:
January 1, 1951
MPAA Rating:
Unrated
Screen Writer:
Alan Jay Lerner
DVD Release Date:
June 6, 2000
Runtime:
1hr 53min
Studio:
Warner Home Video
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