| Collector's Corner April 2003
 An American in ParisStarring: Gene Kelly,
Leslie Caron, Oscar Levant, Georges Guétary, Nina Foch
Directed by: Vincente Minnelli,
Gene Kelly (uncredited)
Theatrical release: 1951
DVD release: 2000
Video: Academy Ratio
Sound: Dolby Digital 2.0 mono
Released by: Warner Home Video
Jerry Mulligan (Gene Kelly) is an
American artist living in Paris after World War II. Poor but proud, he toils at his art
while still living the good life. His friend Adam Cook (Oscar Levant) is a concert
pianist. ("I'm a concert pianist. That's a pretentious way of saying I'm unemployed
at the moment.") Adam’s old buddy Henri Baurel (Georges Guétary) has become a
musical star and has returned to Paris to woo a 19-year-old perfume clerk named Lise
Bouvier (Leslie Caron). Jerry doesn’t know about the relationship between Henri and
Lise and ends up falling in love with Lise himself. To complicate matters, Jerry then
meets Milo Roberts (Nina Foch), a rich woman who offers to sponsor his art, but with
strings attached -- she wants Jerry as a lover. This is an MGM musical, so the ending is
never in doubt. The only question is: How will we get there?
An American in Paris was released just six years
after World War II. The American people were suffering through the paranoia of
McCarthyism, a troubling war in Korea, a fearful conflict with Russia, and a dawning
belief that the post-war positivism was false. A good number of the year’s major
films (A Place in the Sun, A Streetcar Named Desire, Death of a Salesman, as
examples) were downright depressing. One man knew the answer -- Arthur Freed, the MGM
producer. His remedy -- give them a musical.
Gene Kelly was one of the top musical stars of the day and
a close friend of Arthur Freed. Kelly wanted to do a ballet, similar to the one in The
Red Shoes (1948). At the same time, Freed was enjoying a weekly pool game with Ira
Gershwin and thought Kelly might be able to pull off a ballet sequence based on George
Gershwin’s concert piece, An American in Paris. Freed discussed it with Ira
(George had died 14 years earlier) over a pool game and they finally agreed to $158,750
for the rights to George’s music, along with a "consulting" fee for Ira of
$56,250. (That is equivalent to 1.5 million of today's dollars. To bring that into focus,
John Williams gets about $500,000 per score; Philip Glass gets $250,000.) Freed handed the
project over to Kelly, who decided to ask Vincent Minnelli to be the director. Finally,
Alan Jay Lerner (as in Lerner and Loewe) was selected to write the story.
Kelly, Minnelli, and Lerner were cagey in developing the
narrative. Kelly’s image was never elegant. He once said, "I arrived in
Hollywood twenty pounds overweight and as strong as an ox. But if I put on a white tails
and tux like Astaire, I still looked like a truck driver." So they made his character
an ex-GI with little money, but lots of life. Then they divided the main characters
between affluent and broke, and created a suggestion of class-ism. The poor characters are
unadulterated artists while the rich are either "pop" artists or voyeuristic
sycophants. Then, without saying it, they drew a picture of both Jerry and Lise as
"kept" people. This all hovers beneath the surface, and they soften it by
portraying genuine affection by the rich for the poor. It’s fascinating to find this
in a Freed production. In any case, this is an MGM musical, and any message is buried
deeply so as not to interfere with producer Arthur Freed’s vision of great
entertainment for the masses.
The actors were set. Oscar Levant had been a friend of
Gershwin’s and was known by the public equally for his brilliant piano playing, his
mordant wit, and his frequent bouts with psychological illness. Georges Guétary, a famous
star in France, brought the all-important "Gallic flavor" to the cast. Nina
Foch, a Dutch beauty, was already playing rich, unsympathetic characters (something she
perfected in Spartacus). The role of Lise was originally cast with Cyd Charisse, a
beautiful Texan with the best legs ever shown on film. However, there were two problems:
she stood five inches taller than Kelly, and she was pregnant (The height difference must
not have bothered Kelly. They would dance beautifully the following year in Singin’ in the Rain). The replacement for Charisse
was Leslie Caron, a 19-year-old French dancer that Kelly had discovered.
Kelly clearly wanted to make Caron a star. The proof comes
in chapter 5, directed, though uncredited, by Kelly. The scene has a voiceover by Henri
Baurel (Georges Guétary), describing his bride-to-be. In three minutes, Kelly shows Caron
dancing in five different settings, with five different costumes, and five different dance
styles. Be sure to notice the dance with the chair, which was considered so hot that the
film was nearly banned by the censors. There was no doubt that Kelly had discovered a
great talent. After the film’s first 15 minutes, everyone knew a star had been born.
Of course, the paying crowd came to see Kelly, and they got
one of his most subtle yet difficult scenes in the first three minutes. As the camera pans
across Paris (shades of Moulin
Rouge), it focuses in on Jerry Mulligan’s tiny bedroom as he awakes. From
3:24 until 4:57, he makes the act of getting out of bed into art. Kelly’s sequence of
steps is simply brilliant, showing the economical moves of a man in a small apartment
getting ready for the day. Kelly choreographed the entire film, and nearly every dance
scene is magic, but they are all foreplay for the point culminant -- the
"American in Paris Ballet" (chapter 31).
At a cost of nearly $500,000, this single scene was one of
the most expensive ever filmed in Hollywood. The ballet changes scenes several times
backed by sets based on artists such as Manet, Degas, Utrillo, Van Gogh, and
Toulouse-Lautrec. The sets took 30 painters and countless carpenters over 40 days to
construct. In 17 minutes, the ballet shows Lise and Jerry finding each other, falling in
love, and losing each other. The scenes at the fountain in the Place de la Concorde
are as famous as any in musical film, and rightly so. The "American in Paris
Ballet" scene shares the zenith of movie dance with Slaughter on Tenth Avenue from Words
and Music (1948), the eponymous dance from The Red Shoes (1948), Broadway
Melody from Singin’ in the Rain (1952), America from West
Side Story (1961), and the seduction scene from Silk Stockings (1957).
This Warner Home Video release is the second DVD of An
American in Paris. The first version from MGM Home Entertainment was more expensive
and had a nice booklet. As far as I can tell, there has been no sonic or visual
improvement for the newer release. The picture is clear and clean, but I would imagine it
was more vibrant in its original Technicolor release. The sound is strictly mono, just as
originally recorded. Disappointing for a film of this importance, the only extra is a
three-and-a-half-minute trailer. Leslie Caron, 72 years old and still gorgeous (see Chocolat),
could have done a beautiful documentary or at least a commentary track. Ditto Nina Foch,
79, still active and teaching aspiring actors. I only wish Warner had given us something
similar to Artisan’s Maureen O’Hara extras in The
Quiet Man.
An American in Paris received eight Academy Award
nominations and won six: Best Picture, Best Story and Screenplay, Best Color
Cinematography, Best Color Art Direction/Set Decoration, Best Musical Score, and Best
Color Costume Design. Vincente Minnelli was nominated but lost to George Stevens (A
Place in the Sun). Gene Kelly also received an Honorary Award "in
appreciation of his versatility as an actor, singer, director and dancer, and specifically
for his brilliant achievements in the art of choreography on film." The award was
really for his contribution to An American in Paris, but since there was no Academy
Award for choreography, they made one up. Interesting side note: An American in Paris
is one of the few Best Picture winners in history that received no acting nominations.
In 74 years of Oscars, only nine musicals have won Best
Picture: The Broadway Melody (1929), The Great Ziegfeld (1936), An
American in Paris (1951), Gigi (1958), West Side Story (1961), My
Fair Lady (1964), The Sound of Music (1965), Oliver (1968), and Chicago
(2002). Given the Academy Awards and the accolades for Chicago, I thought it
would be fun to go back and study one of the prior winners. After checking the list, one
candidate emerged. All of the films have their charms, but An American in Paris
merges artistic vision with remarkable music and dance more successfully than any of the
others, save West Side Story (which we reviewed back in November, 2002). Plus, with
all the French bashing going on, I couldn’t help but be contrary and pick An
American in Paris. Anyway, isn’t April when we all dream of being in Paris?
...Wes Marshall
wesm@hometheatersound.com |
