It is often ambition in Cinema which marks a film as special, the driving force to create something both magical and never before seen. This ambition drives the greatest of cinematic talents, from Stanley Kubrick creating a Space Odyssey to Charlie Chaplin redefining the range of silent comedy by infusing it with a social conscience. However, few films have been as daring as An American in Paris. An American in Paris has one of the most glorious endings in film, one of the most divisive, one of the most beautiful. It ends with an 18-minute ballet, a ballet that is representative of the story and plot. This is an amazing ending, truly unique in Cinema history. Gene Kelly plays the titular character An American in Paris; he is a struggling artist attempting to make his way. His friend Adam (Oscar Levant) is a struggling pianist also attempting to make a living. Jerry (Kelly) befriends a woman who is interested in more than his paintings, but then meets a French woman who he falls in love with. Lise played by the effervescent Leslie Caron is already involved with another man, but will Gene Kelly win her love? The plot as you can see is a fairly typical musical or romantic comedy storyline where the central romance is surrounded by a number friends and a number of obstacles to be overcome. What sets the film apart is one sequence, the aforementioned ballet. Gene Kelly famously brought a copy of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s The Red Shoes to the studio heads to show how a film could incorporate ballet and be successful with both critics and more importantly audiences. The Red Shoes remains the only other ballet and cinema collaboration, which has produced a masterpiece. Gene Kelly was adamant that he could star in a successful film that concentrated on dance. He was correct. Kelly’s dancing style has weathered the 50 plus years since the making of this film because of the way he danced; he was of course athletic and graceful however he was not in the least effeminate. He was the Marlon Brando of the musical, the Brando of On the Waterfront and Streetcar Named Desire, he was a man that woman swooned over.
The scene combines impressionistic sets for each of its six individualistic sequences modelled on the work of famous artists: Manet, Utrillo, Rousseau, Dufy and Van Gogh; with characters drawn from diverse sources like Toulouse-Lautrec. Gene Kelly and Leslie Caron’s unique dancing and the soaring George Gershwin symphony also combine to create not only one the most impressive dance sequence caught on film but also the most romantic. This one ballet challenges the very nature of cinema as art. I could discuss the wonderful performances contained within the film, the great singing, the use of studio backlot, the deserved Oscar’s,Vicente Minnelli's startling direction however all this detail pails in comparison to what is perhaps the single finest sequence of Art caught on celluloid. It would be like discussing the Mona Lisa and wondering where the canvas was bought. It is but the backdrop. The Hollywood studio system pre-1960s is often criticised for stifling creative talent that the production line ethos forced out product that was neither challenging nor unique. However, I do not think anyone could imagine a situation today where major amounts of money would be put into a film which is as pretentious, as unique and daring as they did for 1951’s An American in Paris. Wilson McLachlan |
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Does An American in Paris contain the most ambitious spectacle in Cinema?
At the time of the film the ballet cost a monumental sum of more than half million dollars. It was one of the most expensive set pieces ever to be put on film. To break the sequence down second by second, minute-by-minute would be as foolish as breaking down a sonata by Mozart. However, it is a colourful and avant-garde ending to what at that point was a standard, if brilliant MGM musical. The colours of the scene make the screen sing even now, the Technicolor looking even more magical than anyone thought possible. The Technicolor of yesteryear makes current movies look drab by comparison, it is like someone decided to remove all the colour from the world and leave us only with grey.
Completely disagree
Early Technicolor is below awful; it appears like a small child is doing some colouring in with a set of second-hand crayons rather than a piece of cinema. It might work for a musical, a childish genre after all deserves a childish presentation, but for any other type of film the development of colour film processing in the past fifty years of movie making has been nothing but advantageous, and nothing short of miraculous – ridding us of this hideous, garish, comic, cartoon like filmic look that merely adds another filter between the films content and the audience and not an aesthetically pleasing filter either. To quote Wilson about modern film: “It is like someone decided to remove all the colour from the world and leave us only with grey” – this is a blatant generalisation based on the current naturalistic aesthetic rather than cinema as a whole, it maybe true for the likes of Saving Private Ryan and 21 Grams, but what of The Thin Red Line, Talk to Her, Almanac of Fall, The Double Life of Veronique, Chungking Express, Happy Together, In the Mood For Love (just most of Wong Kar Wai’s films) Dolls, films that embrace colour and show how modern colour film can present a broader range, a broader pallet than the colour film of years gone by to a kaleidoscopic effect.
Rebuttal
Of course the question of Technicolor is completely subjective. However I will attempt to draw on a few example to elaborate my point.
Firstly I will draw upon something that I believe David Thomson brought up in his wonderful book The Whole Equation, he compared the loss of Technicolor and movement to lesser film stocks like when music got to Mahler and then rock and roll took over. His argument as I remember is that though rock and roll has its place but it is essentially less polished, needing less talent and is a lesser medium than the classical genre.
Perhaps Art is a better comparison, modern films have been photo-realistic exhibitions where realism is prized and Technicolor is like the work of the Dutch Masters. It is less about realism but more about feeling. I would argue that you cannot criticise Van Gogh's Sunflowers for being garish nor unrealistic, nor should criticise Technicolor films for the same effect. In the end films are not reality, and musicals are even further removed than most genres, so in my opinion the heightened colour scheme only adds to the performance.
“It is like someone decided to remove all the colour from the world and leave us only with grey”
I am standing by this statement, not only was written to emphasise my point, but rather it is what I truly believe. If you pick the most colourful film produced recently, My Blueberry Nights which is enfused with a neon glow and put it next to An American in Paris it does not have the same effect. It is duller, more realistic and greyer, it does not the texture of colours. Even Speed Racer has none of the energy and verve of even the most basic Technicolor film.
In my opinion the move from stylised operas of colour to a photo-realistic film output has definitely removed a vital element from cinema.
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