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Must See Movie...

Good concept, poorly executed.

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

I must be missing something. This film is revered as a classic and beloved by so many, but I don't feel the magic.The plot, if you care to scrape together what little plot there is, is empty. There is no real conflict or trouble. This unlikable American artist living in (You guessed it) Paris, sees, meets and courts a girl young enough to be his daughter. The two, you guessed it, fall in love. But she feels beholden to another man and has agreed to marry him; a plot point that doesn't ever really seem to be a problem to anyone other than herself.Leslie Caron acts well enough for her first role ever but the two leads have no chemistry, so you don't believe in their love or the tiny troubles that plague their romance. And for such a grandly famous musical, there doesn't seem to be any music. Sure, there are a couple of ditties, but nothing grand at all. It's almost a joke to categorize this movie as a musical.This film falls flat for me, not living up to its own legend or the legends of its stars. What we have here is not an excellent film, but an excellent draft. A few more rewrites and this story will actually deserve the acclaim it has received, but as it is, it does not. Still, every star started out somewhere, and I thank Gene Kelly and his terrible film for introducing the world to the talented and worthy Leslie Caron. 4.5/10

Spoilers. Observations. Opinions. The long ballet is spectacular. Caron is quite young, and Kelly is long in the tooth and biologically old enough to be her father. This is her first film, I am told, and he is at the peak of his career. They pull off the ballet splendidly, however. Georges Guetary ALSO looks old for Caron in this film.Two old geezers competing for the hand of such a young, delicate flower? The creep factor enters in, here. As usual, Oscar Levant has no romantic inclinations, here. He is married to himself, his obnoxious cigarette and his mistress of a piano. I know! All of the young, hot Parisian men got killed in the war, or something like that. Kelly was born in 1912, and Caron in 1931. This makes him 19 years older than Caron. He wasn't such a veteran as he is made out to be, however, since his first film, I am told, was For Me and My Gal in support of hot-at-the-time Judy Garland in 1942 -- only nine years earlier. Previously, Kelly had been on stage in Pal Joey.Jack (Jacques?) Bouvier? Wasn't that the name of Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis' father? Yes, Jackie's father was Black Jack Bouvier. The long ballet: I still like better the long ballet in The Red Shoes. It is very exotic and intriguing. Mayhap An American in Paris somehow copied some of that? Red Shoes was ALSO the film debut of ANOTHER young en-pointe female ballet dancer named Moira Shearer, I am told. I like Georges Guetary and Oscar Levant in this film, plus the older women dancers and older gentleman in the cafe near the beginning of this film. I like the colors and fashions in this film. I like all of the dancing policemen. Pirates of Penzance, anyone?I am a degreed historian, dancer, actress, singer, makeup artist, film critic and movie reviewer. My favorite films are always song and dance musicals.

It's ironic that "An American in Paris" features US citizens speaking glowingly of France. Half a century later Donald Rumsfeld called it Old Europe when Jacques Chirac refused to help the US invade Iraq. Of course, France wasn't without its own misdeeds. Anyone who's studied a little history knows that the French were merciless to the Algerians, and tortured Algerian prisoners during Algeria's war for independence.But anyway, the movie is unpleasant to watch, knowing that Gene Kelly was twice Leslie Caron's age. Seriously, their relationship comes across as statutory rape. If you've read my reviews of musicals, then you probably know that I watch them for the purpose of heckling them like Mike, Servo and Crow do to the crummy movies that Dr. Forrester and TV's Frank send them on "Mystery Science Theater 3000". Most of my comments during "AAiP" are not ones that I'll be allowed to repeat in this review. I will, however, say that the 16-minute dance sequence at the end looks like something that they came up with after eating too much sugar. A lot of people would probably call it an acid trip.One thing that I noticed was the appearance of Hayden Rorke, best known as Dr. Bellows on "I Dream of Jeannie". My satirical explanation of his appearance here is that Jeannie accidentally blinked him to Paris, and so he calls his wife and says "Amanda, Maj. Nelson has somehow sent me to Paris! There's bound to be a conspiracy at work here!", causing mass hysteria in Coco Beach, leading to an accidental launch of a rocket. Oh Jeannie, will you ever learn? Long story short, this is not a movie that I can take seriously, and it didn't deserve Best Picture in a year that gave us "A Streetcar Named Desire".

Everyone seems to love, love, love "An American in Paris". For this viewer, I've never been able to sit through the entire movie in one sitting, so assembling the pieces in my head usually sends me running for a bottle of aspirine.MGM made a number of classic musicals, but AAIP isn't one of them, despite the best picture Oscar it garnered. One wonders if the award was really aimed at the post-war expatriate Americans who stayed behind to live the Bohemian lifestyle of the fabled "starving artist". Gene Kelly's artiste seems to be well fed and well shod (with his trademark loafers) as he lives a life of artistic abandon in the slums of Paris. He taps, twirls, and gives his usual athletic spin on the male dance while hobnobbing with the poor people of Paris. He can't paint very well, but hey! let's sing a Gershwin tune and all the Parisians who wanted to knock him out for mispronouncing everything are suddenly his musical bon amis.Kelly's unrelenting guy from the States becomes annoying in the first half hour, and goes from there. Leslie Caron is pretty, but wooden in the extreme. Oscar Levant does his "talented piano bum" for the 1000th time, spreading seedy charm over absolutely nothing. Only Nina Foch, as a horny and predatory rich bitch with connections to the upper echelon of the 50s art world escapes with some dignity. All she really wanted was to get laid, which Kelly charmingly tapdances his way out of in his dogged pursuit of Caron.AAIP drags on for about two weeks, giving you terrible matte paintings and backlot versions of the City of Lights. These sets were used hundreds of times in the MGM pantheon of "foreign" settings and it shows.The climatic 17 minute "ballet" around an ugly fountain is nearly impossible to sit through, unless you think that Kelly's terpsichorean prowess is from the Ballet Des Artes. He's one note away from boogie-woogie and all his smarmy charm can't convince. He's only good in one sequence here, his tra-la-la-la duet with Levant. He's surprisingly hunky in his wife beater T and open shirt, acting like he's about to give Levant some afternoon delight for a few francs.AAIP is pretty threadbare at this point in time, and does nothing to really celebrate the travails of the artists who chose to stay behind in Paris to pursue a career in the arts. Jambon beurre is French for "ham and butter sandwich", a treat sold in the streets of Paris. AAIP has no butter to smooth the rough edges, but plenty of ham to spare.