The An American in Paris ballet is a work of delirious filmmaking, jumping and dissolving from space to space, swirling around an area, dancers entering and leaving the frame in surprising ways.
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01/01/00
An American in Paris (1951)
98
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Reviews Counted:47
Fresh:46
Rotten:1
Average Rating:7.9/10
Consensus: The plot may be problematic, but such concerns are rendered superfluous by Gene Kelly and Leslie Caron's star power, the Gershwins' classic songs, and Vincente Minnelli's colorful, sympathetic direction.
Runtime: 2 hrs 8 mins
Genre: Musical & Performing Arts
Synopsis: One of the greatest of 1950s screen musicals is a happy collaboration between the grace and athleticism of Gene Kelly and the colorful palette of director Vincente Minnelli. An American G.I.... [More]
Starring: Gene Kelly, Leslie Caron, Oscar Levant, Georges Guetary
Director: Vincente Minnelli
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Reviews for An American in Paris
A musical both ludicrously overpraised (especially in Hollywood) and underrated.
06/24/06
A triumph for tireless dance advocate Kelly, the Freed Unit, and the American musical itself. [Blu-ray]
03/30/09
It is both comfortable entertainment and eye-popping cinema, with its dream ballet acting as a showcase for what the movie musical can really do.
02/23/05
...the picture takes on its glow of magic when Miss Caron is on the screen. When she isn't, it bumps along slowly as a patched-up, conventional musical show.
05/20/03
Top CriticAn American in Paris (1951) is one of the greatest, most elegant, and most celebrated of MGM's 50's musicals, with Gershwin lyrics and musical score
01/01/00
While not nearly the musical it's cracked up to be, this 1951 film is absolutely required viewing for anyone who wants to see the studio system (MGM style) at its gaudiest, most Byzantine height.
12/12/06
Top CriticThe real reasons to see An American in Paris are for the Kelly dance sequences, the closing ballet, the Gershwin songs, the bright locations, and a few moments of the ineffable, always curiously sad charm of Oscar Levant.
01/01/00
Top CriticIt’s not hard to see why this is one of the most beloved musicals. They refuse to make movies like this anymore - movies that are full of music, beauty and grandeur, movies that make you smile, laugh, sing and maybe even attempt to dance along.
06/18/02
Unlike the magical Singin' in the Rain, Gene Kelly's An American in Paris doesn't transcend the musical form; but it's still one of the great exemplars of the genre.
05/30/03
Visually rich musical, with creative ballet finale.
08/26/06
The feeling of escapism that it generates quickly fades away.
03/05/02
t's a simple love story, but also a celebration of dance, music and art, embodied in the somewhat synthetic notion of Paris as the spiritual home of the arts, and the painterly aesthetic of the film as a whole.
02/19/08
Got only the vaguest connection to plot or character, but it's a gorgeous piece of filmmaking.
01/01/00
A francophile and frustrated painter, Minnelli identifies completely with Kelly's American painter Jerry. Arguably no Hollywood director was as knowledgeable of French art as Minnelli, whose work evokes the light and color of his cherished painters.
07/16/06
Beautifully designed, An American in Paris features plenty of unnecessarily lengthy dance numbers and a mildly interesting plot.
10/31/06
A resplendent motion picture.
01/01/00
The balance, otherwise seen as the song and dance, manage to come along at the most inopportune times, and wear out their welcome at an excessively rapid rate.
08/26/02
...the musical numbers have enough life for two pictures.
09/06/08
The dazzling French fried musical is Hollywood's homage to Paris's joie de vivre.
09/04/06
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