"I Can't Quite Visualize It; I'll Have to See It On Film"

A post on Rod Dreher's blog, praising An American in Paris, gets my Monday morning started off right, by reminding me of one of the, in my opinion, greatest segments in the whole history of cinema: the "Broadway Rhythm" ballet from Singin' in the Rain. I’m not a huge fan of American in Paris, and I speak here as someone who is a bit of an obsessive when it comes to Hollywood musicals. The praise for that film is surely deserved; the choreography, costuming, and more which went into the dance numbers, particularly the concluding dream sequence set to George Gershwin’s music, is immense. It’s just that, for this viewer anyway, shoehorning all that stuff in didn’t serve the movie itself very well, and the whole thing suffers as a result. Whereas in the case of Singin’ in the Rain, you have an expertly made farce, with the stylized, beautifully danced, 15-minute “Broadway Rhythm” morality play consequently serving as an exquisite counterpoint to the whole movie. “Gotta dance!” indeed. I’ve watched that sequence a hundred times, and it never grows old. Watch it again this morning, particularly its moments. I always imagine Gene Kelly in the editing room afterwards, going through the footage, shouting at some flunky "More Gene Kelly! More me! MORE ME!!!," all so as to better set up R.F.'s final, deadpan line.