Jump to bottom

An American in Paris (film)

Contents

The story of the film is interspersed with show-stopping dance numbers choreographed by Gene Kelly and set to Gershwin tunes. Songs and music include "I Got Rhythm," "I'll Build A Stairway to Paradise," "'S Wonderful," and "Our Love is Here to Stay". The climax is "The American in Paris" ballet, an 16 minute dance featuring Kelly and Caron set to Gershwin's An American in Paris. The ballet alone cost more than $500,000, a staggering sum at the time.

Plot summary

Jerry Mulligan (Gene Kelly), an American World War II veteran, is now an exuberant expatriate in Paris trying to make a reputation as a painter. His friend, Adam (Oscar Levant), is a struggling concert pianist who is a long time associate of a French singer, Henri Baurel (Georges Guétary). A lonely society woman, Milo Roberts (Nina Foch), takes Jerry under her wing and supports him, but is more interested in Jerry than his art. Jerry remains oblivious to her feelings and falls in love with Lise (Leslie Caron), a French girl he meets at a restaurant. Lise loves him as well but she is already in a relationship with Henri, to whom she feels indebted for having saved her family during World War II.

At a raucous masked ball, with everyone in black-and-white costumes, Milo learns that Jerry is not interested in her, Jerry learns that Lise is in love with him but is marrying Henri the next day, and Henri overhears their conversation. When Henri drives Lise away, Jerry daydreams about being with her all over Paris, his reverie broken by a car horn, the sound of Henri bringing Lise back to him.

Cast


Cast notes

Soundtrack

Production

The film was shot in Hollywood, so it features some quirks in the occasional French dialogue. Notably, near the beginning of the I Got Rhythm number, one of the 'French' children Jerry, parle anglais à nous, which sounds rather curious, containing mistakes both in direct object placement and in respectful address. In the French soundtrack, which switches to the original sound for the duration of the songs, the à nous is masked through a plop sound, to make the sentence more palatable.

Hollywood movies set in France seldom used location shooting or native speakers. However, great care was sometimes put into reproducing Paris surroundings, as in An American in Paris or Irma La Douce. Many French Paris-set movies of this era avoided location work too, and sometimes the same art directors (Alexandre Trauner being the best known example) worked on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean.

Awards and honors

Kelly and Caron dance

Academy Awards

Wins

Nominations

Golden Globes

Wins

Nominations

Others

Gene Kelly received an Academy Honorary Award that year for "his versatility as an actor, singer, director and dancer, and specifically for his brilliant achievements in the art of choreography on film." It was his only Oscar.

The film was entered into the 1952 Cannes Film Festival.

In 1993, An American in Paris was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

American Film Institute recognition

AFI also honored star Gene Kelly as #15 of the top 25 American male screen legends.

Stage adaptation

A stage version of the musical has been adapted by Ken Ludwig, and began previews at the Alley Theatre (Houston) on April 29, 2008, officially opening on May 18 through June 22. The production, directed by Alley artistic director Gregory Boyd with choreography by Randy Skinner, stars Harry Groener and Kerry O'Malley. The musical has many of the film's original songs, and also incorporates other Gershwin songs, such as "They All Laughed", "Let's Call the Whole Thing Off" and "Love Walked In".

Notes

  1. ^ "Festival de Cannes: An American in Paris". festival-cannes.com. http://www.festival-cannes.com/en/archives/ficheFilm/id/3984/year/1952.html. Retrieved 2009-01-11. 
  2. ^ playbill
  3. ^ Alley Theatre

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: An American in Paris

Arthur Freed musical productions

1930s
Babes In Arms (1939)


1940s
Strike Up The Band (1940) • Little Nellie Kelly (1940) • Lady Be Good (1941) • Babes On Broadway (1941) • Panama Hattie (1942) • For Me & My Gal (1942) • Cabin In The Sky (1943) • Du Barry Was A Lady (1943) • Best Foot Forward (1943) • Girl Crazy (1943) • Meet Me In St. Louis (1944) • Yolanda & The Thief (1945) • The Harvey Girls (1946) • Ziegfeld Follies (1946) • Till The Clouds Roll By (1946) • Good News (1947) • Summer Holiday (1948) • The Pirate (1948) • Easter Parade (1948) • Words & Music (1948) • Take Me Out To The Ball Game (1949) • The Barkleys Of Broadway (1949) • On The Town (1949)


1950s
Annie Get Your Gun (1950) • Pagan Love Song (1950) • Royal Wedding (1951) • Show Boat (1951) • An American In Paris (1951) • The Belle Of New York (1952) • Singin' In The Rain (1952) • The Band Wagon (1953) • Brigadoon (1954) • It's Always Fair Weather (1955) • Kismet (1955) • Invitation To The Dance (1956) • Silk Stockings (1957) • Gigi (1958)
   
Main | Help | Report problem