An American in Paris (Vincente Minnelli, 1951)Adam & Sam's takePretty Good.
I'm tempted to leave it at that, but that wouldn't be quite fair to the film, which does strive for greatness at times. Those last 15 minutes of course, but there are other rather inspired scenes : Lisa's introduction, Adam's concert fantasy... actually those are all dream sequences, huh. I don't know, but it just doesn't quite get there though. The concert is an excellent example of this : all the time I was thinking "this is pretty good and a clever concept, if only the music was something on the level of Rhapsody in Blue...", and I was thinking the exact same thing during the final sequence. It's impressive, it's even brilliant at times, but it's so long and just doesn't manage to keep up the level of intensity it need to have in order to work as this grand finale. Maybe I'm being harsh on that sequence, maybe the reason it doesn't quite elevate the film is that it's on a completely different level than the rest of it : it's grand and spectacular, something that the central romance really isn't.
Again, it's not that the romance in question doesn't work : Gene Kelly does his best but Leslie Caron is never more than a pretty face (and great dancer, again her dancing intro is by far her best moment)... something that seems to be intended, but makes it pretty hard to buy into the grandiosity of the final number : it tells the story of an incredible love story, but it's all in Gene Kellys head, and not just because it's a dream sequence.
Gene Kelly... he defies the idea that charm must be effortless, because man does he try hard. Too hard sometimes, but still, that "I got rythm" number early on is so, so delightful. Completely won me over and let me overlook his excessive mugging later on. It also has some spoken French, which... yeah, this film has French characters speaking to each other in English for no discernable reason. Le sigh. Everything involving Georges Guétary is pretty painful : guy despises Broadway but has a musical number with flashing lights (in English no less), except for the Strauss thing, that was fun.
It all sounds like I didn't like it : I really did though ! It's an enjoyable ride, and the musical numbers are all pretty fun, the jokes actually land (Oscar Levant as Adam Cook has pretty great timing) and Gene Kelly really is charming... it just doesn't quite get further than that for me.
7/10