An American in Paris

One of the most imaginative musical confections turned out by Hollywood in years...Kelly is the picture’s top star and rates every inch of his billing. His diversified dancing is great as ever and his thesping is standout. But he reveals new talents in this one with his choreography. Read full review

The songs are all Gershwin Brothers standards; Kelly's choreography is breathtaking; the original screenplay by playwright Alan Jay Lerner is alternately witty and touching; and Minnelli's direction feels buoyantly assured. Read full review

Kelly is superb as dancer and comedian, but a little less than that as a singer of Gershwin songs. Leslie Caron, who dances like an angel, is no beauty, according to Hollywood standards, but she is endowed with great grace and personal charm. She is an exquisite dancer. An American in Paris, in short, is definitely a picture to see. Read full review

The camera tracks, cranes, and dollies through the dance space, anticipating with the boldness of the greatest director working at MGM in 1951, that the New Wave is, indeed, not so very far away. Finally, like all of Minnelli's collaborations with Lerner (Brigadoon, Gigi, On a Clear Day You Can See Forever), An American in Paris is a paradox - a musical that embraces solitude and romantic despair. It is a resplendent motion picture. Read full review

The sumptuous colours, outstanding choreography and toe-tapping tunes are nothing but first-rate. Read full review

One of the supreme romantic musicals. To see Kelly hoofing atop Oscar Levant's piano, suavely partnering Leslie Caron along the banks of the River Seine and exulting in her love in the final sequence is to behold the film musical near its apex. [2 Oct 1992, p.L]

While not nearly the musical it's cracked up to be, this 1951 film is absolutely required viewing for anyone who wants to see the studio system (MGM style) at its gaudiest, most Byzantine height. Art and technology have never been in closer harmony than in this Vincente Minnelli-directed rendition of George Gershwin's concert masterpiece. Read full review

The real reasons to see An American in Paris are for the Kelly dance sequences, the closing ballet, the Gershwin songs, the bright locations, and a few moments of the ineffable, always curiously sad charm of Oscar Levant. Read full review

If there is no other reason to see An American in Paris than its fabled 18-minute ballet scene -- well then, that, during the last reel, is worth the price of admission. Choreographed by Kelly -- no doubt with a smile -- it is a stunning series of homages to French painters Toulouse-Lautrec, Dufy, Utrillo, Renoir and the like. It is a masterpiece of filmic creations -- nothing quite like it before or since. [11 Dec 1992, p.C11]

Groundbreaking, breathtaking...Imperfect, then, but intermittently awe-inspiring. Read full review

The most distinctive things about the film are possibly Caron's personae-montage at the beginning, which showcases her virtuoso dance moves, and the final fantasy sequence, which resolves (a little hurriedly) the emotional obstacles to their love. An exotically contrived romance. Read full review

An American In Paris is muddled as an artistic statement, yet unsatisfying as conventional Hollywood product. Read full review

Perhaps the best thing that can be said about An American in Paris is that it led directly to the production of Singin' in the Rain. Without the former, there might not have been the latter. Gene Kelly remains one of the best and brightest of the Golden Era musical stars and An American in Paris shows him in fine form. The movie should be remembered for that quality rather than for its questionable Oscar triumph. Read full review

It is the wondrously youthful Miss Caron and that grandly pictorial ballet that place the marks of distinction upon this lush Technicolored escapade. Read full review

The Gershwin songs are magnificent, and the climactic ballet a tour de force that won the great Hungarian-born cameraman John Alton an Oscar. Read full review

The plotting - Kelly's struggling painter falls for Leslie Caron's French waif, engaged to nice but dull Georges Guétary - lacks the pace, exuberance and wit of, say, Singin' In The Rain, but compensates with fantastic Technicolor visuals..., George Gershwin's sublime music (pick of the tunes: I've Got Rhythm, S'Wonderful and Our Love Is Here To Stay), sublime art direction from the great Cedric Gibbons and astounding choreography and footwork from Kelly. Read full review

From Gene Kelly’s forced grins to its boldly monochrome sets to the horn-heavy George Gershwin music that is the genesis for the picture, An American in Paris is an all-out assault on the senses. If Kelly’s Singin’ in the Rain, which would come a year later, revels in movie-musical joy, this effort’s defining trait is insistence. Read full review

Nice period detail, a few cute situations, one half-interesting character and three laughs, that’s the pickle this picture puts itself in. Read full review