Well, it's clearly been a long time since we've watched a film and written about it, but it's no use lamenting our malfeasance... on with the good stuff!
If there is a movie that was worth all this wait, it is certainly Gene Kelly's tremendously entertaining An American in Paris, which comes after a long tradition of big-budget musical Best Picture winners, and comes before the musical explosion of the 1960's. It goes without say that Kelly is a complete and utter genius. Funny, charming, talented as a singer, and possibly the single best dancer to ever be captured on celluloid, he completely owns this movie from the very minute we hear his opening monologue. As a starving painter in Paris, he's not entirely convincing -- he's too well-kept and cheerful to be living in poverty -- but for two hours he has us completely in his grip. The grip tightens during some incredible early musical numbers, including "I've Got Rhythm," which features a wonderfully irreverent tap dance done in a colorful alley in Paris and an adorable chorus of Kelly's grade school admirers. During his duets with his starving pianist friend Adam Cook (the funny and strange Oscar Levant), you can positively shut out everything in the outside world and just be completely and utterly entertained. Many of our Best Pictures so far have been impressive or admirable, but this is the first one in a long time (yes, including All About Eve, which I thought was more fascinating than fun) that just had me smiling the whole time. It's a long way from the bleak, dull Going My Way.
Gene Kelly's color and cheer is supplemented (though not matched) by the performances of his two female admirers. Nina Foch is a nice mix of seductive wit and pathetic adulation as Milo, Gene Kelly's rich benefactor. And Leslie Caron is charming if not entirely charismatic as Lisa, Kelly's perfume-shoppe love interest. The love stories are not what makes this film great, though. It's the color, the motion, the unflappable earnestness, and the richly textured and utterly innovative dance sequences that dive deep into what makes life and love tick and transform those ideas and feelings into beautiful, inventive, and bold splashes of choreographed movement. The climactic ballet sequence -- an 18 minute dream in which Kelly inhabits and dances through inconceivably brilliant three-dimensional landscapes of his paintings brought to life -- is among the greatest sequences I have ever, ever, ever seen in a movie. It is a dazzling and bewildering feat of filmmaking that alone could have won the Oscar. The fact that it's preceded by such a delightful story -- on par with Amelie for beautifully shot Parisian romance -- and the beautiful songs of the Gershwin brothers only adds to that.
Not quite as epic, or broad, or "magical" as the definitive 1952 masterpiece, Singin' in the Rain, but still, solid, well-earned 9/10.
Added Note: The scene in which Oscar Levant conducts an orchestra of multiple Oscar Levants is one of the most unique musical scenes I have ever watched. It's not supposed to be wondrous or enchanting so much as it is indicative of the deep and unceasing pain of not being able to bring to life the music -- or any art -- that is tucked away in your head.
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