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June 02, 2009
Cory's "An American In Paris" Screening Report
An American in Paris: Story and Narrative.
The movie is primarily a love story between Gene Kelly's character (Jerry Mulligan) and Leslie Caron's character (Lise Bouvier), and the story is expertly recounted through the choreography of the 17-minute ballet sequence we viewed in class. Since it is a dance sequence, the narrative is related through the aforementioned choreography: Kelly is an American in the city of Paris, and he feels noticeably out of place. When Bouvier appears, after a series of emotional ups and downs, they fall in love, but in the end, she is gone. The dance follows this narrative arc.
An interestig addition to the sequence is the emergence of Paris as a character in the main couple's love story. When the two fall in love, their dancing brings the people around them to life, and in the beginning of the dance, the other dancers almost overwhelm Kelly by sheer number, representing the sheer size of the city itself. The city even seems to give them their blessing during one scene in the park, where first Kelly does a specific dance step, then Bouvier begins to dance along. After a short time, the entire company is dancing, following Kelly's lead.
Posted by cah68 at June 2, 2009 04:22 PM
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