Movie · 1951 · Music, Romance, Comedy · 1h 53m · G · English
Curator score: 6.9/10 (102.9K ratings)
What a joy! It's M-G-M's Technicolor musical!
Overview
Jerry Mulligan is an exuberant American expatriate in Paris trying to make a reputation as a painter. His friend Adam is a struggling concert pianist who's a long time associate of a famous French singer, Henri Baurel. A lonely society woman, Milo Roberts, takes Jerry under her wing and supports him, but is interested in more than his art.
Ratings
Curator score: 6.9/10
IMDb: 7.1/10
Letterboxd: 3.66/5
Rotten Tomatoes: 95%
Metacritic: 83
TMDB: 7.0/10
Director
Vincente Minnelli
Production
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Cast
Gene Kelly, Leslie Caron, Oscar Levant, Georges Guétary, Nina Foch, Robert Ames, Joan Anderson, Larry Arnold, Martha Bamattre, Charles Bastin, Joan Bayley, Rodney Bieber, Madge Blake, Ralph Blum, Nan Boardman, Dino Bolognese, Eugene Borden, Ann Brendon, Peter Camlin, Benny Carter
Curator Review
Verdict
A lavish MGM musical with buoyant charm, painterly Technicolor design, and one of the great extended dance finales in classic Hollywood. The story is slight and the romantic dynamics can feel dated, but the film’s visual invention and performance energy make it a landmark of the genre.
Best for
classic musical fans
viewers who love dance-driven storytelling
fans of Technicolor spectacle
romantic escapism
people interested in Hollywood production design
Skip if
you want a tightly plotted romance
you’re allergic to old-school gender politics
you prefer naturalistic acting over heightened musical performance
you mainly want songs rather than long ballet sequences
Overview
An American in Paris is less interested in plot than in atmosphere, movement, and color. It turns Paris into a dream of cafés, studios, and sunlit streets, then lets Gene Kelly’s athletic charisma and the film’s choreography do the emotional heavy lifting. The result is a movie that feels engineered to dazzle, and it still does.
Worth noting
The romance is charming but thin, and some of the character dynamics play as pushy by modern standards. Even so, the film’s confidence is hard to resist: the comic rhythms, the musical interludes, and especially the final ballet create a sense of cinema as pure display. It’s one of those classics that earns its reputation through craft more than narrative complexity.
Bottom line
If you love studio-era musicals, this is essential viewing. If you’re looking for a story-first romance, it may feel airy to the point of weightlessness, but as a showcase for choreography, design, and old Hollywood polish, it’s a standout.
Top Letterboxd reviews
eely (3★) · 2566 likes
me: :(
gene kelly’s feet: go clickity clack
me: :)
Chris 🍉 (3.5★) · 1672 likes
gene kelly's ass omg.... is this allowed???????????????????????? im adding a half star just for his tight white pants in the final dance sequence
Aaron Michael (3★) · 1259 likes
Emma Stone voice: My american used to live in Paris...
👽 Zara 👽 (4★) · 1013 likes
i wish i could tap dance away my problems like gene kelly
Sally Jane Black · 838 likes
Why bother with the plot when you could have just made beautiful dance sequences for two hours? I mean this as a positive review.
1955 · Comedy, Crime, Romance · 2h 29m · NR · Curator 8.0/10 (21K ratings) · Where to watch: Amazon Prime Video, BroadwayHD, Amazon Prime Video with Ads
A big, theatrical musical with playful staging, vivid characters, and a strong sense of performance as entertainment.