Musical Saturday: An American in Paris[1951]

I saw An American in Paris at the British Film Institute on a cold end-of-October day and it brighten up my day! It was such a pleasure seeing it, after endless dramas at the London Film Festival before (which I enjoyed also, but in a different way).

The movie tells the story of Jerry Mulligan, a struggling American painter in Paris and his relationship with two wonderful women: Lisa(played by Leslie Caron) and Lilo(played by Nina Foch).

There were many beautiful aspects that I loved about this movie. The first scene, introducing the characters, which is rather atipical and simple; the description of Lisa by Henri, featuring the amazing Leslie Caron dancing in all of her splendor- she is very graceful; all of the costumes and the sets; the piano scene of Oscar Levant, showing us his talent in a dream sequence and many others.

Gene Kelly is probably one of the most charming men I have ever seen on screen. That, plus his dancing skills and the way he makes it seem so easy and enjoyable, you've got yourself an A start actor. He has believeable chemistry with both Leslie and Nina and smoothly switches from actor to dancer in each scene. The musical numbers were sweet, but not very memorable (like the ones in West Side Story, for example), and the final dancing scene stretches a bit too long, but all is forgiven just for that shot of him and Leslie on the yellow, glowing background and the intro/outro editing. Beautiful!

I found myself smiling my way through the movie and it was, like I said, very enjoyable! It's a classic and you should see it!

Musical Saturday: All that jaz[1979]

I don’t know about you, but I usually have certain expectations about movies, especially if they are classics or if I heard they are very good.

Whenever I thought of All that jazz, I was sure I was going to get a lot of dancing, music, Broadway style performances and maybe a little romance to keep the story going. I imagined a happy, entertaing movie. Was it? Not at all.

Don’t get me wrong, the best parts of it involved dancing and the fact that Roy Scheider perfectly interprets the character, being charismatic and loveable, but it has so many flaws.

There are so many subtleties that the story and the director wants to put in, and the bad thing is you can easily tell which are them...a great movie doesn’t let you see that. Sometimes it gets confusing (the hospital scenes), but in the end I understood what he was trying to say, I just didn’t like the way he did it. The creator had so many ideas and he just didn’t know how to put it all together in a flowing, interesting way...it was a mess.

Now I know it is based on Bob Fosse’s life and it really is an interesting story, but for me it just didn’t do any justice to it. Maybe because I’m european and I probably don’t get the whole Broadway-American feel to it (although I usually like it). I’ve seen so many reviews saying it is the best musical of all time....I must beg to differ; they probably haven’t seen Singin’ in the rain or Chicago or An American in Paris.

It may be a classic and if you are a movie buff, you will find certain great points in it, but I wasn’t very impressed by it...I really had to use my patience to get through all of it!

p.s If you are a dancer or like the art of it, please do watch it, if only for the dancing parts...everything is wonderful in that aspect: the choreography, the people, the slow, sexy way they move their body...it is a pleasure to watch!

Musical Saturday: West Side Story[1961]

West Side Story- where do I begin?

Well, the first 10-15 minutes were interesting, as I kept waiting for the characters to say more then 3 words: it was all a mix of dancing, claping, miming, singing....but it got my attention and it set up the whole story.

I won’t say much about the actual storyline and what happens, that you will have to watch and see for yourself. But I will pin point some great things about this movie.

Because it was great. I just love Tony, as a character, as an actor (although I had my second thoughts during some scenes) , as a guy (he’s good looking).And Maria is so lovely and sweet (played, as I found out at the end, by Natalie Wood) and is perfect for the part...she embodied all of those feelings so well, it was very beliveable.

Some memorable scenes include the first get-together dance (I’m thinking about the choreography and the way it was shot),  the „We’re in America” scene on the roof top and last scene, the pivotal moment which ended the movie in a splendid, yet somber way. Also, I have to mention the hot tamale girl that is Anita (Rita Moreno) and the loveable Doc, who, although tries, can’t help those kids.

I can definately see West Side Story on Broadway, it was created for it and I’m sure it’s one hell of a show there. Actually, I’m kinda sure the play is better then the movie, but the dance scenes are better showcased on the movie as you can see it in different angles.

Letting aside all the Broadway-drama-over-the-top feel to it, it is a great movie and a classic and I hope you like it, too!