Guys, I’m tired of old love stories. The age gaps are exhausting and I don’t understand why the two romantic leads have any interest in one another other than they’re attractive and the plot demands it. Subsequently, I’m going to torture myself by watching the two Leslie Caron movies on this list that have *dubious* at best relationships in them. An American in Paris is one of Gene Kelly and Vincente Minnelli’s collaborations set to Gershwin’s excellent music, and if you can get past the inherent grossness of the plot, there are a few charming moments.
Bienvenue à Paris! Jerry, played by Gene Kelly, is a franc-less painter trying to strike it out after the war, but instead has become a master at living in small spaces. He is friends with Adam, an similarly unsuccessful concert pianist, who is friends with Henri, an extremely successful club singer that has no problems throwing his wealth around. See, Henri has decided to marry his ward, Lise, WHO HE MET WHEN SHE WAS 14 AND HID HER FROM THE NAZIS FOR 5 YEARS. She feels obligated to date him because she owes him her life. When Henri describes Lise’s personality to Adam, the viewer gets the impression that either 5 years was not enough time for him to fully understand the girl he’s dating and instead he’s fetishized the idea of marrying his budding captive female daughter much like the judge in Sweeney Todd, or she contains multitudes.
Ballerinas are superheroes, that’s all I’m going to say. Also, Leslie Caron is legit 18-years-old in this movie, which makes me want to die. Gene Kelly wanted her for this role after watching her perform in a ballet she opened because the original principal cast member had fallen ill, and he took her under his wing on set. She is precocious and charming and holds her own against her veteran co-stars, even though she filmed the movie while suffering with mono, which is insane.
Jerry doesn’t hear this colorful description of Henri’s new girlfriend, however, as he rendezvous with the pair on his way to Montmartre to sell paintings. Their conversation devolves into a debate between jazz and Strauss, and I quickly forget the terrible premise of this movie once Gene Kelly begins singing and dancing with some charming older ladies. I’m simple – I see a cute Irish boy dancing and I swoon.
Anyway, Jerry tries to sell his wares on the street and is picked up by a wealthy suntan oil heiress named Milo that has terrible taste in art. She invites him back to her hotel room as she doesn’t have enough money to pay for the two paintings she wants to purchase from him in her pocketbook. His manhood is threatened at every moment once he finds out she’s loaded, but she tries to convince him to look past that by appealing to his ego and assuring him of his painting’s quality. She suggests he return to her room later that night for a party, and he agrees under the assumption she will be hooking him up with a friend of hers. He’s so excited about his change of luck that he celebrates by dancing with a bunch of French children.
This shit is adorable, I caaaaaan’t.
Gene Kelly is fascinating to me. He studied ballet and became a dance teacher to try and make dance seem more accessible to all people. On wiki it details how Gene would dance in street clothes instead of a suit (like other contemporaries) to make dance seem less intimidating, asserting, “If Fred Astaire is the Cary Grant of dance, I’m the Marlon Brando.” Also, he accepted the role for Xanadu because he lived close to the set, and turned down directing The Sound of Music by telling the screenwriter, “Go find someone else to direct this piece of shit,” so he’s kind of my hero.
When Jerry returns to Milo’s he is surprised the party of many he thought he was attending was really just a party-for-two. Milo tries to convince Jerry she’d make a wonderful manager while simultaneously attempting to get into his pants. He’s offended at first, so she acquiesces to his paying for their night out to help appease his manly pride. They’re having a swell ‘ol time until Jerry makes heart eyes at 19-year-old Lise from across the club. Jerry approaches her table, pretends to know her, and holds her hostage on the dance floor while he tries to woo her. All of this is creepy as fuck, only compounded by the fact that Gene Kelly is literally twice the age of this actress. Lise gets out of his grasp, Milo throws a fit in the cab on the way home, and Jerry has the nerve to act all indignant about being called out for hitting on another girl while he was out on a date.
The next morning, Milo, who clearly doesn’t love herself enough, drops by Jerry’s place and apologizes for having a completely rational reaction to his antics the night before. She informs him she’s arranged a series of meetings with some wealthy benefactors, and Jerry agrees to attend lunch with her in order to further his career. In the meantime, he finds out where Lise works and berates her into going on a date with him. She’s hesitant to agree since she is already in a relationship, but something about Jerry’s unrelenting persistence is appealing to her and the two of them meet after dinner. They fall in love or whatever, and Lise and Jerry begin to conduct an affair under the nose of The Groomer and the Sugar Mommy.
Henri is too distracted by an offer for a gig in the US to notice Lise’s indifference toward him and proposes marriage to her. Milo is too distracted by getting Jerry a gallery gig to notice he’s paling around with an engaged teenager. While Henri and Jerry are both head over heels in love with the same gal, Adam (subsequently my favorite character in this movie as he’s not a creepy predator) is instead fantasizing about being a concert pianist. Is it bad it took me until this number to realize this entire movie was scored by Gershwin? Once you hear it, it’s the most obvious thing in the world. Also, watch “Nodame Cantabile”, it’s so flippin’ good.
Jerry confides in Adam that his woman is acting all hot and cold toward him and bemoans how utterly in love with her he is. When Adam causally asks what her name is, he loses his mind when he finds out it’s Henri’s girlfriend Lise because shit between his friends is about to GO DOWN. Adam can only watch in horror when Henri shows up and unknowingly provides advice to Jerry on how to win over his fiancé by telling her he loves her.
This goes over like a lead balloon as Lise breaks up with Jerry when he confesses his love. She feels obligated to marry Henri since, you know, the grooming. Jerry handles this in a very mature way by running over to Milo’s apartment and making out with her, because his career is *so important* to him now. He accompanies Milo to an artists party and I cannot begin to describe how bananas it looks. Adam tries to be a homie to Milo by warning her that Jerry is not on the up-and-up, and Jerry has a very awkward encounter with Henri and Lise that immediately reveals Jerry’s charade. Milo doesn’t deserve this, goddamn.
Jerry and Lise confront each other on the balcony and bid each other farewell before Lise leaves with Henri. Then the musical ends with a 20-minute ballet sequence that takes place in a series of paintings in Jerry’s head. I’m not joking. It was Gene Kelly’s idea – he hired a ballet company to perform it, it took 6 weeks to learn it, and it cost ~500k to film it. Leslie Caron also revealed the on pointe portions were performed on CONCRETE and I cannot even BEGIN to tell you how painful that must have been, holy shit. Wood has give; concrete does not. Every movement would have been absorbed in the body’s joints instead of being shared with the floor and this would absolutely destroy a dancer. Again, ballerinas are superheroes.
Gene Kelly used to have America’s ass.
Back in reality, Henri overhears the exchange and decides to break up with Lise. He drives them back to the party and Jerry and Lise walk off together so presumably Lise can get married before she turns vingt ans. I hate everything. The end.
The musical numbers were barely enough motivation to get me through this film – I’m just completely turned off by a love triangle between a teenager, a singer who groomed a child, and a 30-something ex-GI. I can’t wait to consume literally anything else with Gene Kelly in it, because this movie is gross.