An American in Paris is as light as comedic musical gets, but there were two things bothering my fun. First, the main theme of the music drove me crazy as I kept thinking I know this. At the end I decided that I must have known this melody form other cultural references that were taken from the movie, or from a CD I no longer have. But it felt unsuccessful not being able to recall where I knew the song from.
Second, in my eyes it was a colonialist movie. France and the French were painted (often literally) as a backdrop of the American soldier’s post-war adventures in an exotic country. Exotic meant not just that it was distinctly not American in terms of the indoor and outdoor places, but also that the locals do not have to be treated with the same respect as you would a fellow compatriot. I am aware, that it is just romantic movie, but the underlying, dare I say ethnocentric, attitude was too glaring for me to omit.
There, now I feel better and can go on all the things I liked in the movie. The songs and the dance were fun(ny), the colors are extremely vivid, almost cartoonlike. The last 20 minute of the movie there is not a single word said, it is all one interconnecting dance sequence leading to the unavoidable happy end. At times this segment felt too long while watching. Had I switched my mental mode to “ballet watching” from regular feature film I know I would have been fine. The painted (in vulgarized impressionist style) stage-like prop Paris was eve more surreal than the studio mock-up Paris, where most of the movie was shot. I like this kind of surreal, where the background has diminished role, so we could focus on the people, who were minutely choreographed.
I don’t have the time to write about individual scenes, but there were plenty memorable ones. Gene Kelly‘s dances are classics and as I hear he directed some of his own scenes as the director, Vincent Minnelli was growing through his divorce from Judy Garland. But major kudos (and an almost Oscar) goes to the director, whose vision, precision and stage background made this movie special. I was an “almost” Oscar, because he was nominated for directing the movie, but did not get the price, while the movie got 6 other Oscars: best set/art-direction, cinematography, costume, music, picture and writing.
I am ready to rewatch this movie any time I want to tune out and immerse myself in a full music-color experience. You could too, if you can hang up your disbelief.