An American in Paris

Alrighty then, film first!


An American in Paris was one of the ones I had put off seeing for several years which I finally went to remedy. Now, I love Gene Kelley as much as the next straight girl, but this is clearly not his finest work. An American in Paris is cobbled together by Alan Jay Lerner out of Gershwin pieces (like another less-than-stellar musical I know, "Crazy for You",) and spun around a very nice symphonic work by George Gershwin of the same name. It falls into the trap of many fifties musicals with inexplicable "dream sequences" that last far longer than they ought to, particularly the final set, and costumes and backdrops that scream "this wasn't filmed by anyone who had ever even SEEN Paris!" I enjoyed the attempts at reproducing famous french paintings including those by Toulouse Lautrec, but as a sometimes-costumer I was very unnerved by Can-can dancers with no petticoats at all, while everyone else had more layers of tulle than a member of the french corps-de-ballet.
Lead Gene Kelley's character was patently uninteresting, but he still he did what he did best with his phenomenal tap work. After watching Gene Kelley's infinitely relaxed and easy-going tap, seeing any other tapper is like watching Riverdance. His opposite, Leslie Caron, stuck to ballet, having studied at the French National Conservatory, and was a fresh if not particularly exciting costar. Kelley hand-picked her which probably made filming easier because he didn't berate her about not keeping up with him on choreography and thereby scare her into tearfully hiding under a piano like he did with poor Debbie Reynolds on Singing in the Rain. Kelley was a notorious perfectionist and not the easiest man to dance with, despite what your or your lady-friend's daydreams may be telling you.

On the bright side, all the french leads were actually french actors which went a long way in making a "Paris Musical". Georges Guetary, in his only American movie, was a sympathetic rival for Lise's (Caron's) love and at least Adam Cook (Oscar Levant), the concert pianist, could actually play piano (poor piano-faking is another of my frequent peeves in film.) The script has a few good lines although the dialogue and characters aren't as fun as Singing in the Rain or Holiday Inn and the subtlety and complexity of the characters foreshadows future movements in film even though this makes them rather BORING.

All in all, An American in Paris is a beautiful fifties big-budget Gene Kelley musical which in itself makes it worth a view if you're into that sort of thing- just tune out the dialogue and watch Gene Kelley break a leg.

Gene Kelley being very upset because these scarlet ladies attacking him are wearing spanish veils for no good reason.