Where to watch An American in Paris (1951)
An American in Paris is available to stream in GB on HBO Max. It can also be rented or bought from AppleTV and Amazon.
An exuberant American expatriate remains in postwar Paris, hoping to establish himself as a painter. A wealthy society woman supports his ambitions while seeking romance, but his attention turns toward a young woman whose existing relationship creates a complicated love triangle involving friendship, art, and difficult choices.
Cast: Gene Kelly, Leslie Caron, Oscar Levant, Georges Guétary, Nina Foch, Robert Ames, Joan Anderson, Larry Arnold, Martha Bamattre, Charles Bastin, Joan Bayley, Rodney Bieber
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Trivia & production notes
- The 17-minute ballet sequence that closes the film cost MGM approximately $450,000 to produce, with some of its painted backdrops measuring 300 feet wide and 40 feet high.
- The final ballet sequence drew inspiration from the work of multiple French painters, including Raoul Dufy, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Maurice Utrillo, Henri Rousseau, and Toulouse-Lautrec.
- Director Vincente Minnelli paused production in September 1950 to helm another film, Father's Little Dividend, and returned in late October specifically to shoot the ballet sequence.
- The film features Gershwin standards from earlier stage productions, including songs originally written for Girl Crazy, A Damsel in Distress, and The Goldwyn Follies.
- Bosley Crowther's New York Times review praised the closing dance number as one of the finest ever filmed, though he found the rest of the film bumpy when Leslie Caron was not on screen.
- The Washington Post's Richard L. Coe called it the best musical movie he had ever seen, praising its rare spirit of crisp originality and sophistication.
- During its initial theatrical release, the film earned $3,750,000 in the United States and Canada and $3,231,000 internationally, generating a $1,346,000 profit for MGM.
- Oscar Levant's review highlighted the Kelly dance sequences, closing ballet, Gershwin songs, and bright locations as the real reasons to see the film, describing Levant himself as always possessing an ineffable, curiously sad charm.
- The Monthly Film Bulletin criticized the film for its unimaginative use of Paris settings, described as a tourist's view, and for abandoning its early focus on Jerry's painting ambitions.
- The film holds a 95% score on Rotten Tomatoes based on 101 reviews and an 83 out of 100 weighted average on Metacritic, indicating widespread critical acclaim.
Adapted from the Wikipedia article An American in Paris (film), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Rewritten for StreamShack; errors are ours — tell us about them.
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