An American in Paris

Starring: Gene Kelly, Leslie Caron, Oscar Levant, Georges Guetary, Nina Foch
Directed by: Vincente Minnelli
Rating: Not rated
Genre: Musical, Romance
1951

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: An American (Gene Kelly) living in Paris finds a sponsor (Nina Foch) for his painting while also falling in love with a beautiful Parisian (Leslie Caron).

Review:

Tim: I liked - but I certainly did not love - An American in Paris. The film is an impressive musical, but it has some severe limitations as well. This is a film that does quite a few things right, but is unfortunately a bit overrated. It's pretty shocking that this film won 6 Academy Awards, including Best Picture. It's a good movie, but it is certainly not great.

The story is a pretty straightforward love triangle (or square?). We have oru protagonist, played by Gene Kelly, as the titular American in Paris. He falls in love with Leslie Caron, making her acting debut as a young Parisian, who is to be married to another man. Kelly also has an interesting relationship with his sponsor, a beautiful socalite who is also interested in him romantically. These relationships are interesting, but there's certainly nothing unique or truly fascinating about any of it. We have some musical numbers throughout the film, but this is really just the type of musical you'd expect.

The cast did not wow me, and critics must have agreed, because this film was not nominated for a single acting Academy Award. Gene Kelly is good (but not great) in the lead role. He's certainly charismatic and it's fun to see a triple threat- singer, actor, dancer- on screen. I thought he was fairly likable, but I didn't love anything about his performance. Leslie Caron is making her acting debut, and it certainly shows. She has a certain presence about her, but her acting ability is suspect. I wasn't overly impressed with her performance, although I suppose it's impressive that this is the first time she ever acted. The rest of the supporting cast was fairly good. I liked Nina Foch, who gave a very underrated performance. Oscar Levant was fairly good, although it was clear he was not a very experienced actor. The cast as a whole works well together, but there weren't really any standouts.

I thought the musical numbers were decent, but few were spectacular at all. My favorite was probably "I Got Rhythm", just because it was a lot of fun. "I'll Build a Stairway to Paradise" featured a very cool visual effect with the light-up stairs, but the song was pretty forgettable. The most impressive sequence is the final 16 minute dance number to "The American in Paris". The ballet is impressive, although I didn't love it. Visually, it is quite impressive, and it's not a surprise that it cost over $500,000 to film. Still, the whole thing felt too disconnected from the events of the film for me, and it just went on and on. It's an impressive sequence, but it was not my favorite of the film.

I don't want to seem too critical- An American in Paris is a perfectly fine musical. It features a few interesting characters and gives them something interesting to do. While I wasn't wowed by anything in the film, it was worth watching and kept me mostly entertained. At 113 minutes, the film feels a little long, but it rarely drags, so it's not a chore to sit through.

This movie won 6 Academy Awards- Best Art Direction, Color (deserved), Best Cinematography, Color (absolutely), Best Costume Design (without a doubt), Best Music (I can see that), Best Writing (I suppose), and Best Picture (pretty shocking to me). It's not that this is a bad movie- it's a perfectly good one. However, I don't see a lot of greatness here. I wanted more and I think the Best Picture winner of 1951 deserved to deliver more. There were simply better films to come out that year.



Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating- 7



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend:
Singin' in the Rain, The Sound of Music, Gigi