tcm:Mad About Musicals: An American In Paris (’51) By Anthony Miglieri In THAT’S ENT
tcm: Mad About Musicals: An American In Paris (’51) By Anthony Miglieri In THAT’S ENTERTAINMENT (‘74), a film that tells the story of MGM’s classic musicals from the 1920s to the ‘50s, Chairman of the Board Frank Sinatra highlights the climactic sequence of AN AMERICAN IN PARIS (’51) as one of the finest moments of Hollywood’s golden age. As a first-time viewer of this Vincente Minelli film, it wasn’t hard for me to see why so much has been made of the number: it still retains its sheen and brilliance after 65 years. More importantly, the “An American in Paris Ballet” stands as a timeless statement on how art can reflect how we think and feel. First of all, I myself cannot speak to the technical brilliance of the dancing (I was hard-pressed to boogie even at my high school prom), but I did respond directly to the pure visual artistry by director Vincente Minelli, Gene Kelly (lead actor and choreographer), and their crew. Even if I cannot fully appreciate the choreographic mastery on display, nonetheless, I see how this beautiful and complex composition snaps together like sweeping clockwork. And within these intricate mechanics its able to portray a story, a feeling, a state of mind. The entire ballet, which threads Gene Kelly’s choreography with George Gershwin’s punchy score, lasts about 17 minutes. As such, it occupies a sizable chunk of the runtime of AN AMERICAN IN PARIS, but is the key to the film’s power. It offers an abstracted version of the film’s story: in Paris, American painter Jerry (Gene Kelly) falls in love with an engaged French woman named Lise (Leslie Caron). The ballet sequence is his dream of longing for the love he cannot have, taking the linear plot and folding it into a graceful, origami-like creation. Kelly’s Jerry Mulligan is an artist, someone who expresses himself and makes a living laying paint onto canvas. Like many artists, he processes his thoughts through his art and his dream of yearning is thus rendered as a bombastic sequence featuring various dance styles. For example my favorite segment recreates the post-impressionistic stylings of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec where, amidst the eerily lit faces and muted palette of the late-19th century Frenchman, Jerry and Lise dance their forbidden love away. Even as he relives in anguish the romance that appears to have perished, Jerry cannot help but filter his feelings through the medium that he so loves. His agony becomes a frame-worthy masterwork. For any artist in love with their work, a painting or a brushstroke can house even the saddest of sentiments—like despair for a love that seems to be lost forever—as easily as it can convey the joys of life. Gene Kelly, Vincente Minnelli and the cast and crew obviously understand this unique quality of art and their choice to save their best tricks precisely for Jerry’s lowest point illustrates this. An American in Paris was released 69 years ago today. -- source link
#1950s movies