An American In Paris (DVD)

~~ An American In Paris ~~

Many of you that read my reviews will know I really enjoy musicals. An American In Paris may not be one of my favourites, but it is one that I really enjoy and is in my collection, which is still growing. I have over 40 now in my collection and trying to find some of the less popular one’s on DVD is becoming a small challenge to me, so if anyone gets a copy of Lili, starring Lesley Caron I would love to hear ...
...the voice of Jerry Mulligan an ex GI that stayed on in Paris at the end of World War II; hoping that living in Paris would make him a better artist; we find him on the top floor, the camera moves on and takes us down the building with the voice over changing from Jerry to Adam, as we come to meet up with the talents of Pianist Adam Cook, who is another American dreaming of reaching his goals composing music.

It is during this introduction ... more

~~ An American In Paris ~~

Many of you that read my reviews will know I really enjoy musicals. An American In Paris may not be one of my favourites, but it is one that I really enjoy and is in my collection, which is still growing. I have over 40 now in my collection and trying to find some of the less popular one’s on DVD is becoming a small challenge to me, so if anyone gets a copy of Lili, starring Lesley Caron I would love to hear from you: anyway I have digressed let us get back to the task in hand, the movie.

~~ The Film ~~

The movie starts in the Latin Quarter of Paris. As the camera rolls over the streets and buildings until it reaches the right one and we hear the voice of Jerry Mulligan an ex GI that stayed on in Paris at the end of World War II; hoping that living in Paris would make him a better artist; we find him on the top floor, the camera moves on and takes us down the building with the voice over changing from Jerry to Adam, as we come to meet up with the talents of Pianist Adam Cook, who is another American dreaming of reaching his goals composing music.

It is during this introduction that we also get to meet Henri Baurel who is Sauvé and sophisticated, also a big star of the Parisian musicals. Henri is doing the voice over when he arrives at the small Parisian café and meets up with his friend Adam and excitedly tells him that he has plans to marry his own ward, 19 year old Lise Bouvier who is the daughter of a resistance fighter that was killed in the war. This scene is accompanied by the music of Embraceable You and the various dance scenes introducing us to the many versions of Lise.

Jerry joins our two men and a comic debate on music begins, before Jerry sets off to the Monmartre to try and sell his paintings. It is here that we get to meet the wealthy and glamorous Milo Roberts who stops to admire Jerry and his paintings. She has in the past made a career out of picking up penniless artists, promoting them and their work and putting them on the road to success, but this time she has even more interest in the artist.

We have now met all our main characters and we follow the stories, we see Jerry accept an invitation for a ‘friendly’ night out with Milo, but it is on this night out that Jerry meets Lise for the first time and it is love at first sight, to Milo’s disgust. On the way home it becomes obvious that Milo is angry and jealous, but Jerry wants none of this and asks to be let out of the car.

The next day Jerry starts chasing Lise and Milo starts chasing Jerry, but to complicate things even further Lise is not exactly free either as she is very much already spoken for. As the storyline unfolds we watch a love grow between Jerry and Lise, but will they get together or will they part, you will have to watch some exquisite dance scenes with Gene Kelly and Leslie Caron to see the story unfold to find out if we reach a happy or sad ending. I will say thought that the ending is done in true Hollywood style and is fantastic and well worth waiting for.

~~ Songs ~~

Overture – Orchestral music whilst the credits roll.

Embraceable You – Many sides of Lise shown with varied dance scenes from Ballet to the Charleston, this is a very enjoyable piece.

By Strauss: – Our three friends are debating the merits of Jazz and Strauss, a comic rendition with them all mucking about with the staff in the café.

I got Rhythm – quite a jazzy number song by Kelly as he tap dances about with the French children testing their English skills.

Tra-la-la (This time its really love) – Jerry and Adam, Jerry singing and dancing, whilst Adam plays the tune, all about the wonders of love.

Our Love is Here to Stay – Jerry and Lise have a lovely romantic dance scene, boy meets girl.

I’ll Build a Stairway to Paradise – This is where we get to see Henri Baurel in his stage show.

Concern in F – we get to hear Adams keyboard skills as he sits daydreaming of becoming a famous concert pianist, the tempo moves very fast and then slows down and straight back up again, like a roller coaster.

‘S wonderful – Jerry and Henri sharing their thoughts of how wonderful their shared love is.

An American In Paris (Ballet) – this is a done in the form of a daydream with some wonderful dance sequences and lasting quite a while, it changes tempo from sedate ballet scenes to quite frenzied psychedelic scenes which I found difficult to watch. It contains some solo pieces from both Lise and Jerry.

~~ Cast ~~

Gene Kelly plays Jerry Mulligan, anyone that loves the classic musicals will know Gene Kelly and his jazzy style of tap dancing. He plays our main character of the film as a struggling artist.

Leslie Caron – this was to be the first of many Hollywood films for Leslie who at the age of 19 had already achieved success as a ballet dancer in Paris. She played the shy and innocent Lise Baurier, who caused a stir between two of our characters. Although she does not speak much throughout the movie, she acts very well portraying the emotions in her facial expressions and body language from her ballet background and her dancing skills are exceptional, it is easy to see why Gene Kelly chose her for this part.

Oscar Levant – plays Adam Cook another American trying to pursue his artistic talents in Paris. He finds himself playing a little pigging in the middle between his two friends Jerry and Henri. His character comes across as a cynical realist compared to our two dreamers.

Georges Guetary – plays Jerry’s love rival and new friend Henri Baurel. Henri had cared for Lise since she was a child and has fallen in love with her; he is like a French Fred Astaire as we see him doing his dance scene. He is the complete opposite of Jerry.

Nina Foch plays the wealthy and glamorous Milo Roberts who has her claws out ready to dig into Jerry’s back for her latest prize catch. She comes across as a spoilt rich kid who is craving attention and thinks money can buy you everything including love.

Director – Vincente Minnelli
Producer – Arthur Freed
Music – George Gershwin
Lyrics – Ira Gershwin
Choreography – Gene Kelly

~~ Extras ~~

Scene Selection – 1-32 in the normal blocks of 4

Languages – English, French and Italian

There are 11 choices in sub-titles

Theatrical Trailer – 3.5 minutes of clips from the movie that promoted it at the time.

I found the extras extremely disappointing, I love extras please give us something more than this.

~~ Trivia ~~

Gene Kelly and his wife Betsy Blair discovered Leslie Caron when she was just 15yrs old and performing with Roland Petit’s Ballet des Champs Elysees. They were so impressed by her performance that they sought her out to play the part of Lise four years later.

It was 1949 when Producer Arthur Freed was inspired during a concert of George Gershwins’ music, which he attended with Georges’ brother Ira. He was listening to An American In Paris, where the music told the story of an American male meeting a Parisian girl and wow they fall in love, sounded good to me as well as Arthur. From here negotiations started for the film rights which of course he got with the proviso that he only used Gershwin tunes.

They did consider Fred Astaire to play the part of Jerry in the film, thankfully he turned it down because I actually think Astaire although good, would have been totally wrong for this part, and he would have suited the part of Henry so much better. The part of Jerry definitely needed the cheeky, jazzy and appealing characteristics of Gene Kelly.

Leslie Caron caused a stir right from the very beginning by having her hair cut really short the night before shooting her scenes. This delayed the filming for a short while as they had discussions on what to do, in the end they decided to do nothing.

Although funding was given to film on location n Paris, the Paris authorities were not having any of it. In the end only two established shots were filmed in Paris the rest were filmed n Burbank, California where they had to create 44 sets.

An American In Paris premiered in 1951, on George Gershwins’ birthday 26th September, in five United States Cities.

Finally the film won seven Oscars including Best Picture and a special award for Gene Kelly for his all-round contribution.

~~ My Opinion ~~

I have already given snippets of my opinion throughout the review, as I have stated it is not one of my favourite musicals, because there are some scenes that I do not enjoy as much as other. That does put me on the fence slightly doesn’t it, but there is one dance scene that gets a little too jazzy and a little too, well feverish, too much trumpet and high pitched squealing sounds. Fortunately this is only the ballet sequence and does not last too long. Maybe its my age as I don’t remember it bothering me that much as a child, but then again I was a star struck child and passionately engrossed in Gene Kelly.

I really do love the simplicity of this movie as it romanticises life, even the struggles of an artist trying to make ends meet can seem dreamy when I was a young girl watching this.

If you enjoy a mixture of dance routines and enjoy musicals and Gershwin then you will love this film, one to curl up with a cup of cocoa on a wet afternoon. It is not a movie that makes you laugh and smile throughout like some of the classic, but it was a pleasure to watch. Sorry Gene Kelly, I know it was your favourite movie, but I have to say I have seen both you and Leslie in better stories and doing better dance sequences.

Thank you for reading
Lyn (Arnoldhenryrufus) 

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