An American in Paris #68 (AFI)

Cas and I also sat down to watch An American In Paris recently. I have to say, having been to the City of Light in 2001, it brought back some fond memories of getting lost in the city and stumbling upon the Paris Opera house. I believe the best scene in the movie is toward the end when Gene Kelly and Leslie Carron are dancing in a fountain, mind you it is not a real fountain, but a stage fountain which includes fabric water "sprays" that rise from the mouths of the figural beasts on the exterior circle of the fountain. They twirl and whirl and it is rather divine and romantic. I'm not much of a romantic sucker. I mean, I laughed when Rose finally let go of Jack's hand in Titanic as his corpse-cicle plunged to the depths. (This was of course after she's emphatically exclaimed, "I'll never let go!" about a million times...well okay, maybe only twice..but it just seemed to ironic for her to say that, and then literally let go, while maybe metahorpically still "holding on") Anyways, I digress.

American in Paris features the fancy footwork of Gene Kelly, and to be honest, he rather remarkably resembles a penguin in many movements. So much so, that when I think on it, and in fact mentioned to Cas that, I now understand where Dick Van Dyke got his inspiration for Mary Poppins. He was mimicing Gene Kelly mimicing penguins. (or at least that's my opinion)

Leslie Carron's performance shows that she's a classically trained dancer with a more modern dancer's build, which makes her endearing if not a little bit more believeable as the "woman they are all in love with"

Overall, it's entertaining, though I felt the dream sequence at the end runs a little too long.