An American in Paris - 1951

Well, it’s very famous, well done, with good shots, good photography, good actors and many musical numbers… but I don’t like it much because of the story and the characters. Gene Kelly is good, nothing to say against that, but his character is not likable.

The beginning is nice, when three men introduce themselves to us. Jerry Mulligan (Kelly) is a painter with no money, Adam (Oscar Levant) is a pianist and Henri (Georges Guétary) is a singer. Right after that Jerry shows how unpleasant he is when he's very rude to a girl watching his paintings. He sends her away not very kindly because he says she’s only an American art student who doesn’t have the competence to criticize his work… then he meets rich and lonely Milo (Nina Foch) who buys two of his paintings and takes an interest in him. At first he comments on her dress, as if she was half naked only because her dress leaves one bare shoulder, but that’s 1951, and then he makes a scene, offended because he’s not a gigolo, but she says she believes in his art and wants to help him. One of her friends warns her that she should stop helping these artists because if they succeed they all leave her…  The first time Jerry and Milo go out, he sees a girl, Lise (Leslie Caron) and it’s love at first sight, and he acts very rudely. He keeps staring at Lise completely ignoring Milo.

He calls Lise at work asking her out and when she says no he shows up at her work-place. We know already that she’s the girl Henri is in love with, but Jerry doesn’t. He makes her laugh and she agrees to go out with him. They keep seeing each other from time to time, but neither of them tells much about their lives, specially not about Henri or Milo. 

They fall in love, and the funniest scene about the whole movie is when Jerry talks about Lise to Adam and even tells him her name. Henri comes join them, and they start talking about their loves, and Adam is the only one that knows they are talking of the same girl. Still, Adam is not much more likable than Jerry, because he’s very rude to Milo too, telling her that she’s something of an invasive meddler, as she’d done anything bad. It’s Jerry that after he learned from Lise that she’s engaged to Henri got to her room and asked her out on a date. That was mean. He took her to a party and then told her that he loves Lise, leaving her like that. Mean.

Of course it ends well for him, because Henri learns of their love for each other and we can guess that he didn’t want her to marry him for gratitude only and not for love (she felt obligated because he saved her during the war and raised her before falling in love with her: she’s a lot younger than them both) so he drives her back to him and they kiss and it’s the end. Well, after a very, very long musical number that goes on forever. Nobody cares about Milo or Henri’s hearts broken, as long as Jerry and Lise are happy together..

ITA un americano a Parigi