FILM 2178: AN AMERICAN IN PARIS (1951)

TRIVIA: Even though Vincente Minnelli is credited as the sole director, he was sometimes tied up with his divorce from Judy Garland and other directing projects, leaving Gene Kelly to take over the directing duties.

No words are spoken during the last 20 minutes and 25 seconds of the film.

Oscar Levant, more of a pianist than an actor, signed onto the film because he was actually a friend of George Gershwin.

Gene Kelly's favorite of all of his musicals.

The 17-minute dance sequence at the end took a month to film. It cost half a million dollars.

A major reason Gene Kelly suggested Leslie Caron as the female lead was because he felt this movie needed a "real" French girl playing Lise, not just an American actress playing one.

At 38 Gene Kelly was 19 years older than his co-star Leslie Caron.

Leslie Caron's costumes were largely borrowed from Elizabeth Taylor's in Father of the Bride (1950).

Irene Sharaff designed a style for each of the ballet sequence sets, reflecting various French impressionist painters: Raoul Dufy (the Place de la Concorde), Edouard Manet (the flower market), Maurice Utrillo (a Paris street), Henri Rousseau (the fair), Vincent van Gogh (the Place de l'Opera), and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (the Moulin Rouge). The backgrounds took six weeks to build, with 30 painters working nonstop.

The first film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards and Best Picture - Musical or Comedy at the Golden Globe Awards.

The first Best Picture Oscar winner to win Best Original Screenplay. As of 2018, is also the only full musical film to win Best Original Screenplay in the history of the Academy Awards.

The movie was named as one of "The 20 Most Overrated Movies Of All Time" by Premiere.

Included among the "1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die", edited by Steven Schneider.

I’m making my way through the book "1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die", edited by Steven Schneider. See my blog post about my copy of the book here…

You can buy an updated version (which I will get after I’ve made my way through this edition) here…

I really hope you can come on this journey with me – if you do I’d love to know which films you’ve enjoyed the most!

Watch this here…