一个美国人在巴黎

目前看了吉恩凯利的三部影片，《锦城春色》、《美景良辰》再加上本作，都是在艺术上没什么新意的影片，无论是音乐还是舞蹈都没有让人精神一振之处，无非是换一个故事再按照流程跳一遍舞。有可能歌舞片这种类型优秀的作品本就不多，所以矮子里面拔高子，这样的作品也就算制作精良了。虽说歌舞片主要是看舞台表演，也不能说此片的拍摄手法完全没有灵感，但若是故事情节太弱、主题如同嚼蜡，就好像一颗糖徒有鲜艳的糖衣，滋味却完全没有让人回味的余地，吃掉一颗又一颗，一颗比一颗腻味，而该片竟然囊括了6项大奖，马丁斯科塞斯的纪录片里也将其标记，我想一颗糖虽然不好吃，但也不妨碍它在显微镜下的各项化验指标都达到优秀，可能是这个道理吧。

另外胡乱猜测一下这个美国人赢得巴黎美人的故事是不是有迎合外交关系的目的呢？四五十年代美国人的这种国际骄傲感和领导欲可真是赤裸裸的无处不在。

Another Oscar BEST PICTURE winner confected by Vincente Minnelli, the maker of GIGI (1958), comes a cropper as a fustypomp through the test of time, AN AMERICAN IN PARIS,a studio-bound pageant jovially trades on Gene Kelly’s terpsichorean aptitude, Oscar Levant’s pianistic virtuosity and Georges Guétary’s mellow tenor, also introducing a barely 20-year-old Leslie Caron, who fares way better on pointe than acting love-torn between two men.

The titular American is Jerry Mulligan (Kelly), an undiscovered painter trying his luck in Paris, who gets the patronage from a wealthy socialite Milo Roberts (Foch), but falls head over heels for an ingénue Lise Bouvier (Caron), who in truth is the girlfriend of a French cabaret singer Henri Baurel (Guétary), yet, Henri and Jerry have a common friend, the struggling concert pianist Adam Cook (Levant).Alan Jay Lerner’s Oscar-winning script doesn’t even try to juice up the love triangle, nor does it disperses comic relief whenever it sees fit, one glaring missing opportunity is when the three male friends share the same scene with Adam in the knowing that the other two are falling in love with the same girl, what does he do? Nothing but hangdog insouciance.

More problematically is its salient demerit of flagrant misogyny and male’s wish-fulfillment, earlier on, Jerry haughtily berates a young female student (Neill) who tries to assess his works, utterly dismisses her opinion as inconsequential, and when Milo comes to the picture, Foch was only 27-year-old then, but what the picture depicts her makes her look like a lonely, minted cougar salivating over Jerry with every step and gaze, later after being patronized with a kiss from her disillusion-stuck beau, she has to stomach a supercilious sideswipe from a floppy Adam and onlythanks to Foch’s majestic composure, the character narrowly escapes from being a total laughing stock, plus Jerry’s rapturous infatuation with a mousy Caron over an apparently poised Milo makes it distastefully difficult to suspend our disbelief, and writs large Hollywood’s morbid obsession with young girls.

Fanfare reaches its apex in the climatic "The American in Paris Ballet”, a 17 minute seamlessly choreographed sequence is spectacular with a capital S, yet, everything impresses for the eyes/ears only, a meretricious pomp punches far above its weight with its over-appreciated repute, and very likely, ranks in the lowest rung among the prestigious Oscar BEST PICTURE clique.

referential points: Stanley Donen and Gene Kelly’s SINGIN’ IN THE RAIN (1952, 8.1/10); Vincente Minnelli’s GIGI (1958, 6.6/10). MEET ME IN ST. LOUIS (1944, 6.7/10).

很久没认真看电影，今天重启奥斯卡系列——《花都艳舞》真的太棒太棒。可见，《Lala Land》若说致敬《圆舞曲之恋》等等经典影片，这部《花》更是其青出于蓝而胜于蓝的主因——浪漫的情节、钢琴、歌舞、舞鞋、演员梦……等等等等。真的很能代表了。最戳动我的，是男主和孩子面前教英语的时候，平移的镜头运用，“i got”和舞步的结合，真的太美好，再加上是歌舞片的配乐，燃点推的神自然。 我对《浮生若梦》偏于电影本身——完完全全的乌托邦理想生活。《花》片尾的结局，是否放女主回到男主怀抱已经不重要，与本该写实的剧情推作更不重要，重要的是在“幻想”中的一切。有影评说后边歌舞催眠，但我认为不得不提到另一部奥斯卡大作《歌舞大王齐格飞》，同样是show，大手笔的托章，《花》的新意在于爱情的带动，眼花缭乱的场面中能踏踏实实看下去的，是观众明知的那幅林荫小道的速写，恰到好处，很巧妙。 ps:女财主的扮演者妮娜•福煦，神似《Giong My Way》中的女歌唱家，不知是不是一个人。

放到现在都很令人惊叹的镜头调度和歌舞编排 美妙的巴黎和她的爱情完全是我对于罗曼蒂克的所有想象 故事的生动在于细节和人物呈现出来的自由而满足的状态 其中的歌舞是小巧而精致的点缀 得最佳剧本实际也许也不无道理——优秀的故事不一定需要复杂的情节 但需要合理而特质鲜明的人物 而这需要令人信服的细节做支撑 里面御姐 萝莉和有志青年艺术家的塑造都挺真实 人物行为即使在现在看来都很合理 而当今我们觉得俗套的原因 可能是因为这样的所谓三角恋模板遍地都是 可在当年看来 这也许还挺新奇的呢。