AFI Movies: #68 An American in Paris
Fun Fact: I was in Paris on its hottest day in recorded history.
If you missed my first post where I explain what this is and how I’m scoring things, here you go, and if you missed where I talked about my Monday posts, click here. This Monday, I wrote about my favorite Christmas movie, Die Hard.
I’m canceling An American in Paris.
I know I’m probably not the first to do this, but after Googling “an american in paris canceled” and getting pages of results about the musical being canceled in various cities due to COVID-19, I decided to just declare it canceled in case nobody had done it yet. I’m sorry to start this way, but there are some major issues going on here that need to be addressed. First of all, An American in Paris is a romantic comedy. That’s not why I’m canceling it, I love romantic comedies, but the fact that it’s a romantic comedy is a relevant detail. Well, the romance part of it at least. This is a story about a man who falls in love with a woman who is already with another man, so a pretty standard setup for this genre of film. The woman, in this instance, is named Lise, and they tell us that she is 19 years old.
Yeah, you know where this is going.
Let’s start with what we know about her. Well, during World War II, Lise was orphaned, as her family was killed for being the leaders in the resistance movement. Before their death, they entrusted her care to that of a family friend. I’m assuming this movie is supposed to take place in the present day, which when this was being filmed would have been 1950, or five years after the war ended. Based on my quick refresher of European history, I know that the Germans invaded and took over Paris in 1940, which I assume is around the time her parents were killed. Around the time she was 9 years old. And that’s all the character development she gets.
Now let’s talk about the man she is with, Henri. Remember that family friend I mentioned in the last paragraph? Yeah, that’s him. Nope, not his son, or his nephew. It’s him. So if you are keeping score, 9 year old Lise was entrusted to Henri for him to raise her, which he did for 5 years, he says in the film. He raised this girl from ages 9 to 14, and then fell in love with her when she left and “became a woman.” We aren’t told how old Henri is, the actor who plays him would have been 35 years old, making him 25 years old in 1940.
Obviously, when I realized this I had sirens blaring in my head for the rest of the movie.
There are issues I have with Lise’s relationship with the other guy, Jerry. Jerry is played by the legendary Gene Kelly, who in 1950 was 38 years old. Since we are doing actor ages for everyone else, Lise is played by Leslie Caron, who would have been 19 in 1950. Compared to what you’ve already read so far, a 38 year old having a romantic relationship with a 19 year old is pretty insignificant, but it’s not nothing.
Could I look past this pretty disturbing element of the plot and still enjoy the movie?
Let’s find out in the categories:
Entertainment Value- 1/2
I didn’t like this movie, but there were parts of it that entertained me quite a bit.
Anyway, I want to talk about Milo. Milo is the other female character in this film. Milo takes an early interest in Jerry, who is an artist, and she offers to buy some of his paintings. She then invites him over for a party, and ends up going out dancing with him. Based on how the other characters talk about Milo, she is an old, lonely woman. However, the reality is that Milo is an heiress to a suntan oil fortune, and is 27 years old. Her character is also a thousand times more interesting than Lise, mostly because she has a story and a personality. Also, she’s beautiful. It drives me nuts in these movies where the man ignores the clearly superior option for the girl who is both uninterested and uninteresting. Classic anxious-avoidant trap, for all my attachment style fans.
Jerry should have ended up with Milo and the fact that he didn’t makes me upset.
Correctness- 0/2
The fact that as soon as I hit stop I had to run to my computer so I could instantly type my thoughts about the grooming plot does not help in this area.
Influence- 2/2
The people who made La La Land said they took a lot of things from this movie, and a couple girls were just showing me a scene from that movie a few days ago, so that’s all the evidence I need.
“Rewatchability”- 0/2
I do not want to watch this movie again.
Technical Score- 2/2
The last 17 minutes of this movie are a dialogue-free dance number that was done on sets made to look like famous French artwork. It’s really beautiful set design, and honestly makes you miss when these sets were physically built, instead of created by green screen and digital effects.
Also this movie won a bunch of Oscars.
Overall- 5/10
There’s enough artistry and creativity here to give the score a little boost, but it obviously has some major plot issues.
You can stream An American in Paris on Amazon Prime Video.
Hasta luego,
Josh
Up Next: #67 The Manchurian Candidate (link to watch it ahead)