94. An American in Paris (1951)

Stars:  Gene Kelly (Jerry Mulligan), Leslie Caron (Lise Bouvier), Oscar Levant (Adam Cook), Georges Guétary (Henri Baurel), Nina Foch (Milo Roberts)

Director: Vincente Minnelli

Awards / Honors

• 6 Oscar wins – Best Picture, Best Writing, Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design, Best Musical Score.
• 2 Additional Oscar Nominations – Best Director, Best Film Editing
• #68 on AFI’s 100 Years… 100 Movies list (1998)
• #39 on AFI’s 100 Years… 100 Passions list (2002)
• #32 on AFI’s 100 Years… 100 Songs list – “I Got Rhythm” (2004)
• # 9 on AFI’s Greatest Movie Musicals list (2006)
• In 1993, An American in Paris was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

 Genre:  Musical

 Running Time:  1 hour, 53 minutes

 Format:  DVD, Blu-ray

 Odyssey Rating:  3 Stars (John – 3 Stars, Beth – 3 Stars)

John's Take 

So, this “screening” of An American in Paris was going to be the first time that I had ever watched the film all the way through from the beginning to the end.  I had seen bits and pieces of the film before – the ballet scene at the end of the film is usually part of any Film 101 college course after all – but never all the way through.  In addition, I have always been a bit of Gene Kelly fan, so I was kind of looking forward to finally sitting down and seeing all of it.

Let’s start out with the highlights.  First, the transfer to Blu-ray was fantastic.  The film is really quite gorgeous to watch. I send out a well deserved ‘Kudos” to the folks that worked on the restoration of the film.  They even did a nice job restoring the film’s original Mono soundtrack – the dialogue is clear and the musical numbers sound much “fuller” than one might expect from mono.

Second, Oscar Levant’s rendition of Gershwin’s Concerto in F is absolutely my favorite part of the film.  This is due in part to manner in which Vincente Minnelli shot that scene.  The shot is framed in a manner that really emphasizes Oscar’s hands just pounding on the keys of the piano.  Really the whole scene is just wonderful rendition of someone daydreaming about performing their favorite music.

Third, the “making of” featurette included on the disc is really quite excellent.  If you ever wanted to get a quick introduction in what critics are always going on about as far as things like “visual style” and what exactly Art Directors really do, then you will want to check it out.  The feature isn’t real long, but it does an excellent job of telling the story behind the movie and giving examples of how artistic elements are woven into films – such how the styles of various French Impressionist painters are used to affect the look of this film.

And of course, the final ballet at the end of the film is just fabulously done.

Now, for the stuff that, while not necessarily bad, certainly felt “out of sorts” for a lack of a better description.

For one, the film has surprisingly dark undertones.  You never get the feeling that anybody really ends up living happily-ever-after.  Milo and Henri certainly aren’t very happy.  We can assume Henri goes on with his American tour, but we never really know what happens to Milo after she wanders off to drown her sorrows in champagne after being dumped by Gene Kelly.  Oscar Levant’s character, Adam, just kind of stumbles off back into the party thus we never really know what becomes of him either.  Even in the case of Gene Kelly’s and Leslie Caron’s characters, we, the audience, know that the two of them really don’t know each other that well since they spent most of the movie keeping secretes from each other.  To paraphrase the “making of” featurette, An American in Paris kind of has a Graduate sort of ending.  The guy gets the girl, but you are kind of left with an ‘OK, what do we do now?’ sort of feeling.  Not exactly the sort of thing you expect from a classic MGM musical.

Second, there is no dialog for the last 20 minutes or so of the film.  Granted it is the ballet that everyone always remembers and praises about the film and I even singled it out for praise earlier in this post, but nearly 60 years later, it still feels… well, odd.  I remember having a discussion with someone about this film who said of the ending, “If it is so great, why hasn’t it been copied more often?”  There may be a small grain of truth hidden in that question. I s Hollywood so stunted artistically that it can’t find ways to recreate / reuse that type of visual style, or do we simply confuse uniqueness with art?  Maybe a little bit of both.

Ultimately, it comes down to this.  Beth and I both liked the movie, but we didn't think is was great.  Parts of it we thought were brilliant.  Parts of it we thought were just OK.  It certainly one of the prettiest films on the list, but overall there are films on the list that are better.  We both give An American in Paris a rating of 3 Stars. 

John

BETH'S TAKE:

It's not that I didn't like this movie..it was just "OK". I felt there was absolutely no chemistry whatsoever with Gene Kelly and Lise Bouvier. The relationship between the two was not believable by any means. And even though they ended up together at the end...I didn't believe that they would stay together. The 20 minute ballet scene at the end, although very good...was a bit too long for me. But as I stated...the movie was "OK" LOL