Review of An American in Paris

Although director Minelli's work is generally considered Hollywood gold his experiment with an early 1950's dance oriented film won an academy award for best picture without translating well to millennium audiences today. Among the five leads Nina Foch was ill for most of the shooting, Georges Giuterry was a relative unknown in America, Leslie Caron and Oscar Levant became infamous as difficult to direct and Gene Kelly as the choreographer of a dance film was more a line boss than a performer on the set. The tap sequences are exquisite and there is a full performance of a one act ballet during the running time, all positives for dance fans. Despite Minelli's obvious talents shining through casting three leads who are not dancers in a dance film - Foch, Giuterry and Levant, gives the romantic leads, Kelly and Caron more to dance than to sing and does Caron really have a song in the film?