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American
Jerry Mulligan, a former G.I. and fledgling painter who stayed in Paris
after World War II, loves his life as a struggling artist on the Left Bank.
He is friendly with his neighbors, especially the local children and cynical
American Adam Cook, a concert pianist living on a succession of fellowships.
One day, when Jerry is particularly low on
money, he goes to Montmarte and sets up an impromptu exhibit of some of his
work, hoping to sell something to a tourist. He has little success
until Milo Roberts, an American heiress living in Paris, admires his
paintings and buys two. Because she does not have enough cash with
her, she invites Jerry to her hotel to get the money. Jerry shows
little enthusiasm for her chauffeur-driven car and expensive hotel room, but
accepts an invitation to a party she is giving that night. When he
returns, the provocatively dressed Milo reveals that the party is only for
herself and Jerry. Thinking that she wants a gigolo, Jerry is insulted
and wants to return the money for his paintings, but she convinces him that
she is a patron of the arts and only wants to help him.
With
his pride intact, Jerry agrees to take her to dinner, but only if they go to
a café he can afford. She suggests a jazz club in Montmarte, where
they talk about their lives and his paintings. While Milo dances with
Tommy Baldwin, a friend she runs into at the club, Jerry, who is attracted
to a pretty girl he has spotted at the next table, overhears her name, Lise
Bourvier, and calls to her, pretending to know her. After whisking the
annoyed Lise onto the dance floor, Jerry gets her phone number from one of
her companions. Observing this, Milo is hurt and lashes out at Jerry
while they drive back to her hotel. He responds by getting out of her
car and determining he wants nothing to do with her.
The next morning, Jerry telephones Lise at the
perfumery where she works and asks her out. She brusquely turns him
down and tells him not to call again. A few moments later, Milo shows
up at the Flodair, Jerry’s neighborhood café, and apologizes for her
outburst the previous night. Again insisting that she is only
interested in promoting his work, she invites him to lunch to meet a
well-known art dealer she knows. Jerry agrees to meet her later, then
goes to the perfumery to see Lise. When he charms a middle-aged
American customer into selecting a perfume, Lise is amused and agrees to
meet Jerry at 9:00 o’clock that night at a café near the Seine.
Unknown
to Jerry, Lise is loved by popular music hall entertainer Henri Baurel, a
close friend of Adam and the man who became her guardian when her parents
were killed during the war. Henri is debuting a new number that night
and wants Lise to be in the audience. Although Lise is torn, she meets
Jerry that evening, and as they walk along the Seine, the couple begins to
fall in love. When Lise suddenly realizes that it is 11:00, she rushes
off after agreeing to meet Jerry again on Saturday. At the theater,
Henri does not realize that Lise missed the number and introduces her to
American impresario John MacDowd, who wants Henri to tour America.
Assuming that Lise loves him as much as he loves her, Henri suggests that
they get married and go together to America. The next day, when Milo
calls for Jerry, he dismisses Adam’s suggestion that he is becoming a kept
man.
Later, when Milo takes Jerry to a studio she has
rented for him and informs him that she has arranged for an exhibition, he
is angry but agrees to work hard if she promises to let him pay her back for
everything. For the next few weeks, Jerry paints constantly,
highlighting the people and sights of Paris, often using Lise as his model.
One day, while Lise and Jerry are riding in a taxi, they talk about how
little they know about each other’s lives and realize that they have both
been evasive.
Later,
at the Flodair, Jerry tells Adam about Lise, and when he mentions her name,
Adam chokes on his coffee, knowing that she is the young woman whom Henri
loves. When Henri arrives, he and Jerry talk about being in love while
Adam nervously tries to change the subject and hopes the men will not
mention the names of their respective loves. Henri convinces Jerry
that he must tell his girl friend how much he loves her so, when Jerry later
meets Lise, he reveals his feelings. Although she feels the same, Lise
confesses that she is marrying Henri because he loves her and she owes him
her life. Hurt, Jerry then says that he has been seeing a woman he
does not want to lose. After they part, Jerry rushes to Milo’s
apartment, passionately kisses her for the first time and asks her to the
art student’s costume ball that night.
At the raucous ball, Jerry dances with Milo,
pretending that he is happy, but after they run into Henri and Lise, Jerry
admits to Milo that he is in love with Lise. Milo then leaves, after
which Jerry walks out onto the balcony, where he is joined by Lise.
She says that she and Henri are marrying the next day but, before returning
to the party, admits that it is painful to be near Jerry and not hold him
close. Unknown to Lise and Jerry, Henri has been smoking a cigarette
near by and has overheard everything. Without saying a word to Lise,
he drives her from the party while a despondent Jerry fantasizes about Lise
and imagines himself dancing with her throughout Paris. A short time
later, he is startled to hear the horn of a car and looks down to see Lise
being brought back in Henri’s car. While Jerry runs down the Montmarte
steps, Lise rushes up to meet him. The lovers embrace and walk down
the steps hand in hand.
Notes
Following the cast list in the opening credits, a title card reads: "And
presenting The American in Paris Ballet." After the opening credits,
the three principal male characters are introduced through successive
voice-over narrations that are heard while the camera pans through the
Parisian neighborhood in which "Jerry Mulligan" lives. First,
Gene Kelly explains who Jerry is and why he is in Paris; then Oscar
Levant, as "Adam Cook," introduces himself, followed by Georges Guétary, as
"Henri Baurel," who talks about himself.
Contemporary news items, reviews and studio
records in files on the film in the MGM Collection and the Arthur Freed
Collection at the USC Cinema-Television Library reveal the following
information about An American in Paris: MGM announced that it had
acquired the film rights to late composer George Gershwin's musical suite
"An American in Paris" on June 1, 1949. The suite had its premiere on
December 13, 1928 at Carnegie Hall in New York. At that time, the
studio also contracted with Gershwin's brother and lyricist Ira for rights
to use their songs. Additionally the studio hired Ira Gershwin to
write new lyrics for "certain unpublished George Gershwin music." The
first script for the film was submitted by Alan Jay Lerner on June 12, 1950.
While several revisions were made over the next few months, the completed
film was very much the same as the first script.
_NRFPT_01_small.jpg) According to a July 5, 1950 HR news item,
artist Saul Steinberg met with producer Arthur Freed, possibly to discuss
the film, possibly to create the paintings for Jerry, but he was not hired
for the production and Jerry's paintings were created by artist Gene Grant.
Memos in the MGM files reveal that Kelly had requested copies of two films
to use as background for An American in Paris , the French film L'Orange ete
and a 1934 French cartoon entitled La joie de vivre , which featured
extensive dancing.
In an October 4, 1949 letter in the Arthur Freed
Collection,
Maurice Chevalier's representative, agent Irving "Swifty" Lazar, wrote
to Freed, mentioning that Chevalier was being considered for a role in the
film. At that time, Chevalier had not made a film in the U.S. since
1934. Although there were no additional mentions of Chevalier in the
Freed or MGM files, modern sources have speculated variously that MGM may
have been concerned over lingering ill sentiment toward Chevalier after
charges of collaboration had been made against him following World War II or
that Chevalier may have declined to be involved in the picture because he
did not want to portray an older man.
Tests were made for actresses Sarah Churchill
for the role of "Milo Roberts" and actor Carl Brisson for Henri.
Although some modern sources have speculated that
Fred Astaire was initially under consideration for the lead, no
information in the Freed or MGM collections mentions anyone other than Kelly
as the lead. MGM contract player Sally Forrest was tested for the role
of "Lise Bourvier," as were French actresses Jeanine Charrat and Odile
Versois. Modern sources note that Minnelli and Kelly wanted someone
"fresh" for the role of Lise and Kelly had been impressed by
Leslie Caron, a then seventeen-year-old ballerina in the company of
French ballet impresario Roland Petit. Caron was signed for the
picture on May 29, 1950, according to the MGM files.
The files indicate that musician Benny Carter
and his group were to perform on the "Our Love Is Here to Stay"
number, but their participation in the completed soundtrack has not been
confirmed. HR news items include Jeane Romaine, Mary Gleason,
Judie Landon, Mary Jane French, Marilyn Rodgers, Ann Brennan, Beverly
Thompson, Marietta Elliott, Pat Hall, Joan Barton, Beverly Baldy, Lorraine
Crawford, Madge Joureay, Ann Robin, Angela Wilson, Lola Kendrick and Marlene
Todd in the cast, but their appearance in the released film has not been
confirmed. A December 26, 1950 news item in HR indicated that
Grahame Johnson, a leading male dancer in the Los Angeles Negro Ballet was
signed for a role in the production, but his appearance in the released film
has not been confirmed. Pre-production memos in the MGM collection
indicate that James Basevi was initially to be the film's art director with
MGM art department head Cedric Gibbons and that conductor Andre Kostelanetz
was at one time being considered to work on the production.
Memos in the MGM Collection indicate that the
title An American in Paris had been registered with the PCA on
December 17, 1948 by Roberts Productions, but that the issue of rights to
the title were settled in early 1951. A memo to MGM studio head Louis
B. Mayer from the PCA informed Mayer that the PCA had only one objection to
Lerner's recently submitted script. The memo advised that it should be
made clear that "no illicit sex affair" existed between Jerry and Milo.
No additional censorship problems were encountered with the script,
although, according to a 1955 memo from MGM international distribution
executive Robert Vogel to studio production head Dore Schary and Freed,
"French Indo-China censors have banned An American in Paris in part
because 'It depicts friendly amoral Franco-American relations and glorifies
France.'"
Although most of the film was shot on MGM's
Culver City, California lot, some location filming was done in Paris,
France. According to memos an initial estimate of the film's location
shooting schedule was for several days of atmospheric backgrounds and
establishing shots, with two days of shooting in Paris featuring Kelly and
Leslie Caron. Actual second unit work began on September 2, 1950,
but memos in the files indicate that rainy weather caused considerable
delays and reshoots. Filming in Paris ended on September 22; montage
sequence director Peter Ballbusch, who was in London, gave final approval
for the Parisian footage on September 26, 1950.
An opening montage, some long shots of Parisian
landmarks, a tracking shot of Milo's car driving up to her hotel and
atmospheric backgrounds were the only Parisian footage retained in the
released film. Although modern sources have indicated that Kelly and
Minnelli originally wanted to shoot the entire ballet sequence in Paris,
there is no indication in the MGM files that this was a serious
consideration once pre-production began on the film. Other memos in
the files indicate that the studio had been in negotiations with the owners
of La Moulin de la Galette in Paris to use exteriors and possibly interiors
for the film, but negotiations fell through.
According to an AmCin article by director
of photography Alfred Gilks, the "Our Love Is Here to Stay" number
set on the Quai along the Seine near Notre Dame, was accomplished through
use of a one-hundred-foot cyclorama set up on an MGM sound stage. The
final scene of the film, which captures Kelly and Caron running toward each
other on the multiple flights of stairs below Sacre Couer in the Montmarte
section of Paris, was actually made by Gilks shooting one staircase built on
the studio backlot that was enhanced by Warren Newcombe and his special
effects unit.
Although MGM records indicate that the film was
in production without interruption from August 1, 1950 through January 8,
1951, filming stopped at various intervals to allow for preparation of the "American
in Paris Ballet" sequence. According to HR news items and
production charts, because of the length of time required for the ballet,
Minnelli left the production on September 15, 1950 and directed MGM's
Father's Little Dividend; after that film was completed at the end of
October, Minnelli returned to An American in Paris.
In the "American in Paris Ballet," a
story is told through various settings in which the characters Jerry and
Lise intermittently dance. Although in his autobiography, Minnelli,
who was an artist himself, described coming up with the idea for the dance,
outlines and other memos in the MGM files were submitted jointly by Minnelli
and Kelly from the earliest stages. The final outline and description
of the dance, co-signed by Kelly and Minnelli, was submitted to Freed on
September 6, 1950. Introductory remarks to the outline, describe the
vision of the ballet as follows: "The decor of the ballet will be its
most distinguishing feature as to uniqueness and originality, for each
individual scene will be done in the styles of different painters which we
will denote in the synopsis of the libretto...the ballet visually should
reflect an artist's viewpoint and both the scenery and the costumes should
be done as they painted....In essence, the entire ballet is a representation
of a painter thinking about Paris."
Many aspects of the dance have been discussed at
length by critics, including the iconographic use of the red flower in the
opening and closing scenes of the ballet and the reappearance in different
guises of Jerry and Lise. Each sequence in the ballet was shot in a
different color scheme, with costumes, sets and choreography of the large
company of dancers reflective of the mood of the various sections of
Gershwin's musical suite, which runs almost twenty minutes. In the
first sequence, Jerry's sketch of a gate floats away and turns into a
backdrop that is reminiscent of the painting style of Raoul Dufy (1877 -
1953); the next scene is set like a Pierre Auguste Renoir (1841 - 1919)
painting; this is followed by a Montmarte setting inspired by several
paintings of Maurice Utrillo (1883 - 1955). The next sequence was
inspired by the paintings of Henri Rousseau (1844 - 1910); after the
Rousseau setting, there is a switch to a sound stage recreation of the
Alexandre III bridge in Paris, followed by a brief recreation of a painting
reminiscent of the work of Vincent Van Gogh (1853 - 1890). The last
artist represented is Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (1864 - 1901). Kelly appears
in costume as the black dancer in Toulouse-Lautrec's "Chocolat dansant dans
un bar." Caron appears dressed as Moulin Rouge dancer Jane Avril, who
was featured in various Toulouse-Lautrec paintings. The final
sequence, a dance featuring many of the characters who had appeared earlier
in the ballet, is set around a fountain reminiscent of the fountain in the
Place de la Concorde in Paris.
In addition to the American in Paris Ballet,
several other musical numbers were highly praised by critics and have been
included in documentaries on American motion pictures: "Dance in
the Mirror," a montage of Lise appearing in different costumes and
dancing in different styles to represent aspects of her personality as
described by Henri, appears in early in the picture. In the "I Got
Rhythm" number, Kelly, dressed in casual clothes and a baseball cap,
uses the song to give some Parisian children an English lesson. At
various points throughout the song, children call out the words "I got" when
Kelly points to them, after which he completes the lyrics. According
to modern sources, this number was reshot by Hal Rosson following the film's
initial preview. In "Stairway to Paradise," as Guétary sings
the number, stairs appear behind a curtain. As he ascends the
stairway, individual stairs light up, then go dark and light up again later.
Another well-received number was a dream
sequence in which Levant's character imagines himself playing Gershwin's
1925 "Concerto in F" before an audience in a large concert hall.
As the music continues, Levant is variously seen as the orchestra's
conductor, the kettle drummer, xylophonist, several violinists, concert
master and finally as a member of the all-Levant audience who yells "Bravo,
encore!" Levant, who was a close personal friend of Gershwin, has
often been hailed by critics as one of the best interpreters of his music.
Gershwin's original piece runs thirty minutes. In An American in
Paris, only the concert’s third movement is performed, which is about
4-1/2 minutes in length.
In addition to the main songs used in the film,
a number of other Gershwin tunes were used as background, among them "How
Long Has This Been Going On?," "Someone to Watch Over Me," "Liza"
and "Lady Be Good." Numbers initially planned for the film but
not included were "Love Walked In," which was performed by Guétary
but cut from the picture and "I've Got a Crush on You," which was
planned for Kelly but not filmed.
Frank Whitbeck produced and narrated the trailer
for the picture. At a September 25, 1951 special screening of the
picture at the Academy Award Theatre on Melrose Avenue,
Ronald Reagan, who was then head of the Screen Actors Guild, was the
moderator for a forum discussion on the picture. A gala premiere was
held for the film in Los Angeles on November 9, 1951 and broadcast overseas
by the Armed Forces Radio Services.
The film opened to excellent reviews. In
addition to winning the Academy Award for Best Picture of the Year, An
American in Paris garnered awards for Best Story and Screenplay, Best
Cinematography (Color), Best Art Direction (Color), Best Scoring of a
Musical Picture and Best Costume Design (Color). Kelly also won an
honorary Oscar at the 1952 ceremonies for his versatility as an actor,
singer, dancer, director and choreographer. Minnelli was nominated in
the Best Director category but lost to George Stevens for
A
Place in the Sun and Adrienne Fazan was nominated for Best Film Editing
but lost to William Hornbeck, also for
A
Place in the Sun. The film also won a Golden Globe as "Best
Hollywood Picture Produced" in 1951 and was variously listed in Hollywood
trade publications as either the first or third highest box office film of
the year.
An American in Paris was ranked 68th on
AFI's 1997 list of the 100 greatest American movies of all time, and in
2005, the picture was ranked 9th on AFI's Greatest Movie Musicals list.
A news item in NYT on January 13, 1989 announced that a Broadway adaptation
of the film was being planned; however, a stage version was not produced.
On September 4, 1992, MGM and Turner Entertainment released a restored
version of the film that opened at the Nuart Theatre in West Los Angeles and
subsequently played in about thirty theaters nationwide. The new print
was a restoration following a 1978 fire at the George Eastman House film
archive in Rochester, New York, which destroyed two reels of the original
35mm print of the film. According to articles in LAT the studio
Oscar for An American in Paris was sold at auction in April 1988 for
a price of $15,000. Some sources indicated that the statuette
auctioned was Freed's personal Oscar, but that was not the case.
Music includes: "An American in Paris,"
"Concerto in F," "Embraceable You" and "I've Got a Crush on
You, Sweetie Pie" by George Gershwin; "Nice Work If You Can Get It,"
"By Strauss," "I Got Rhythm," "Tra-la-la," "Our Love Is
Here to Stay," "Stairway to Paradise" and "S'Wonderful,"
music by George Gershwin, lyrics by Ira Gershwin. |
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