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June 02, 2009
An American in Paris: Camera/Frame
The ballet sequence in Vincente Minelli's An American in Paris is remarkable for many reasons, not the least of which is the active participation of the camera filming the scene. There are many techniques employed by Minelli and lead actor Gene Kelly (playing Jerry Mulligan) to increase the interaction between the dancing characters and the camera (vicariously, the viewers), but most important is the positioning of the actors from shot to shot. The most active dancers, usually Kelly and his counterpart Leslie Caron (playing Lise Bouvier) are almost always right in the center of the screen, but at some points, notably when the shot fades from Kelly and Caron dancing in a fountain to Kelly alone in a Parisian street, the lead moves aside, creating an expectation of new characters entering the frame.
This is important because it allows for longer shots. Instead of cutting to a new shot, the lead character can stand aside and continue his or her routine, while the viewer is alerted to the fact that something new is about to happen. Given Kelly’s adamancy for full-length and extended ballet sequences, this allows the director to advance the story predictably without compromising the integrity of the ballet.
Minelli uses the frame to enhance the scene in two other important ways: maintaining a large area in focus and positioning the camera alternately as an observer and a participant. Shots with several, sometimes dozens, of dancers require a large area to be filmed at once, which necessitates a large area of focus, but Minelli is able to accommodate large numbers of people dancing, while allowing room for characters to enter and exit through visible paths. This is critical to the viewers’ belief that this scene is not imaginary but possible and active in the characters lives.
The camera is usually positioned in “front” of the action in An American in Paris, which is to say that there is usually nothing outside the field of view. At times, however, Minelli moves the camera into the crowd of actors to make the camera participate in the scene. The alternation serves the purpose of showing the dance sequences while engaging the viewer in new ways to aid in the interpretation of the scene. The participatory shots are during some of the most active scenes, fraught with tension and commotion.
Posted by wrw6 at June 2, 2009 08:39 PM
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