An American In Paris–A Celebration of George Gershwin’s Music

An American In Paris–A Celebration of George Gershwin’s Music

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We have had a wonderful time with the music from The Bandwagon, but now we are going to circle back two years to another MGM hit from 1951 that Conrad Salinger worked on, the movie, An American in Paris.  It is another book musical that utilizes a broad range of music from George Gershwin. Click on the following link to read more and to listen to some of this glorious music.

We have spent time in the past months listening to and exploring the instrumental music of composers, such as Victor Herbert (“March of the Toys”), Jerome Kern (“Waltz in Swingtime”), Richard Rodgers (Slaughter on Tenth Avenue, “Carousel Waltz” and “March of Siamese Children”) and George Gershwin (Rhapsody in Blue, American in Paris, Concerto in F).

1468679918-020-an-american-in-paris-theredlistAmericans went to Paris to study the arts: the art of painting, the art of singing, the art of musical composition, the art of cooking. In the movie, Sabrina, Audrey Hepburn is sent to Paris to study cooking and to try to forget her crush on William Holden. In An American in Paris, Gene Kelly is in Paris to paint and to get his paintings noticed via the Paris Salons. Of course, he falls in love with Leslie Caron; and after many vicissitudes wins her love, in return. While the movie highlights the dancing of both Kelly and Caron, there are some delightful songs in the movie that we have skipped previously, in order to concentrate on Gershwin’s instrumental music.

 

Note how the movie opens to the strains of this music, with narration by Kelly. Then, we see an inventive sequence, where Kelly’s one, small room can serve many purposes.

In another wonderful invention, Kelly speaks a little French to the children, but teaches them English, as well. The movie uses the words (“I Got”) as a way to slide into the song, “I’ve Got Rhythm,” from Girl Crazy. Kelly gets the children to start and then he finishes the lyric.

Kelly and Georges Guetary (a wonderful French singer) perform a duet around the song “S’Wonderful” from Funny Face.

We will continue to explore this music in our next post.