An American in Paris (film)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Movie
German title An American in Paris
Original title An American in Paris
Country of production USA
original language English
Publishing year 1951
length 108 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director Vincente Minnelli
script Alan Jay Lerner
production Arthur Freed
music Saul Chaplin
George Gershwin
camera Alfred Gilks
John Alton
cut Adrienne Fazan
occupation

An American in Paris is an American film musical by director Vincente Minnelli from 1951. The film premiered on August 26, 1951 in London.

plot

Jerry Mulligan is an American war veteran who fell in love with Paris and is trying to make a career as a painter there. His friend and neighbor Adam Cook is a concert pianist who is working on his own composition. His friend, the French singer Henri Baurel, visits him in the bar on the ground floor of the house and describes Adam his girlfriend Lise Bouvier. It is very versatile and appears figuratively in a correspondingly large number of variants in Adam's ideas. Later, Jerry comes by who is on his way to sell pictures.

When Jerry is standing in front of his pictures for sale, the blonde American Milo Roberts comes by who is interested in his pictures - and in him. She buys two pictures from him, but has no money with her and takes Jerry to her apartment, pays and invites him to a dinner party. Back at home, Jerry sings Gershwin's "I got rhythm" with the local children and tapes to it. When he visits Milo in the evening for the announced party, it turns out that he is the only guest. Angry about this, he wants to give her the money back, but she insists that she only wants to help him as an artist.

The two of them visit a crowded bar. Friends of Milo arrive, and while they are sitting together, Jerry discovers a pretty girl (it's Lise) with older friends at another table and is carried away. He goes to her table and pretends to be an old friend and leads her to dance. She fends off him, and when he asks back at the table, "How was your phone number?", She gives a wrong one, but is corrected by one of her companions. In the car on the way home, Milo complains that he has hooked up with a strange girl in her presence. Jerry gets out of the car, annoyed by the hold.

The next day, Jerry calls Lise, but she refuses. Then Milo comes by, apologizes for the night before and invites him to a variety show that evening. Jerry now visits Lise at her workplace, it is a perfumery. She rejects him again, but when a customer cannot decide which perfume to take, Jerry helps her to choose and makes Lise's business easier. She now agrees to see him in the evening. They meet on the bank of the Seine in the shadow of Notre Dame opposite, chat and dance together. Then she rushes to the variety show, meets Henri after the performance.

In the following section of the film the composing Adam falls into a dream and sees that his composition is finally being performed. While the music is rustling - it is the 3rd movement from Gershwin's Concerto in F, you can see Adam conducting, but you can also see him in all orchestral positions, including the audience, they are just him. After the enthusiastic applause, you can see Adam together with the conductor, so Adam twice.

Jerry and Milo attend the costume ball on Montmartre, which is a turbulent place. Jerry sees Lise with Henri, they meet on the balcony of the house and say goodbye - watched by Henri. After Henri and Lise leave the ball, Jerry begins to dream. The melody of Gershwin's “An American in Paris” is followed by revue-like scenes with Jerry as the main character in dance, starting at the large round fountain on the Place de la Concorde. In the course of the music the backgrounds change, you can see alleys painted by Utrillo , backgrounds by Rousseau , figures by Toulouse-Lautrec . With four other American soldiers dressed in Parisian clothes with Jerry, the group paces across the stage. Lise also appears in many scenes, dressed differently each time.

Jerry comes to and sees Lise, released by Henri, get out of his car and run up to him. Jerry runs towards her, they hug each other while the film ends with the Gershwin melody.

Music, dance

The production is particularly characterized by the choreography of the dance and ballet interludes developed by Gene Kelly .

The music comes mainly from George Gershwin , whose tone poem An American in Paris gave the film the title, and who is caricatured by Oscar Levant in the role of Jerry's friend Adam as a composer striving for his magnum opus . The song I Got Rhythm , sung by Gene Kelly, can also be heard in the film.

criticism

source rating
Rotten tomatoes
critic
audience
IMDb
  • Lexicon of International Films: "The harmonious harmony of Minnelli's imaginative direction, Kelly's brilliant choreography and the Parisian flair captured with optical delicacy resulted in one of the most convincing, multiple award-winning examples of the American film musical."
  • Norbert Stresau in The Oscar. All award-winning films, directors and actors since 1929 . 2nd updated edition. Heyne-Filmbibliothek, No. 198. Heyne, Munich 1994, ISBN 3-453-07872-1 , p. 210: "Glorious Technicolor -Musicalkitsch halfway to art."
  • Evangelischer Film-Beobachter (Review No. 17a / 1966): Especially in the dream sequences, this musical (...) based on the music of Gershwin, which has an excellent place in film history, achieves the rare unity of music, dance and play . Strongly recommended for untroubled entertainment from the age of 12.

Awards

literature

  • Hans-Jürgen Kubiak: The Oscar Films. The best films from 1927/28 to 2004. The best non-English language films from 1947 to 2004. The best animated films from 2001 to 2004 . Schüren, Marburg 2005, ISBN 3-89472-386-6

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b An American in Paris at Rotten Tomatoes , accessed May 25, 2015
  2. ↑ An American in Paris in the Internet Movie Database (English)
  3. ↑ An American in Paris. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used