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But the winner that night was Vincente MinnellisAn American in Paris, the sunny MGM musical starring Gene Kelly.
An American in Parisis such a stunner, saysLa La Landdirector Damien Chazelle.
Credit: MGM/REX/Shutterstock
Thats a movie that we just pillaged.
Its an awesome example of how daring some of those old musicals really were.
Its incredible that it ever got made, let alone that it won Best Picture.
Everett Collection
It was inspired by a scintillating orchestral piece composed by George Gershwin more than 20 years earlier.
Freed thought the title alone, and the postwar sentiment it evoked, would strike box office gold.
InLa La Land, Chazelledesigned this shot as a homageto the Seine sequence.
Credit: Patricia Ward Kelly.
But it didnt really matter.
Gene Kelly and Leslie Caron made people feel transported to someplace lovely and amazing.
Minnellis musicals celebrated the triumph of the imaginary over the real.
Patricia Ward Kelly
Any aspect of reality, however trivial, could be transformed, stylized, and incorporated into a ballet.
And in that light,An American in Paris Best Picture victory was truly a game changer.
Prior to the awards in 1952, Kelly had lamented the shunning of his favored genre.
Everett Collection
Its a form of snobbism.
Everything was inspiration to him.
Vaudeville, animation, Douglas Fairbanks.
He spoke French, he spoke Italian, he spoke Yiddish, he read poetry and studied art.
Paris When It Sizzles
Minnelli and Kelly saved their masterstroke inAn American in Parisfor last.
The films dazzling, drawn-out climax, synched to the rhythm of Gershwins symphonic poem, still astonishes.
In the finales lustiest segment, Kelly and Caron dance in a ripe romantic embrace on a fountain.
It leaves more to the imagination, and were more than capable of filling in the blanks.
Adds Patricia Ward Kelly, The sequence is pure lovemaking.
Several countries figured it out and that piece was cut because it was considered too risque.
(Officials in French Indochina banned the film for its depiction of amoral friendly Franco-American relations.)
Risque might have been Kellys goal.
Like many lovers of great art, he had an eye for the erotic.
But he was an equal-opportunity objectifier.
When Im watching Gene Kelly, says Hough, it doesnt feel like hes in an older film.
That charm and that athleticism feels like now.
Irving Berlin passed Kelly on the MGM lot during filming and said, Seventeen minutes?
I hope you know what youre doin, kid.
That finale is completely experimental, avant-garde filmmaking, Chazelle says.
Nothing but Gershwin, Gene Kelly, and painted sets.
You look at that and you realize how daring the film was.
Indeed, the movies Best Picture win can be attributed to the boldness of that final production number.
That movie pushed the boundaries of the American film musical.
Its rightly regarded as the pinnacle of Hollywoods studio era.
But in the past four decades, original movie musicals have slumped from the popular imagination.
That seems to be changing.
Are we craving more escapism via the genre thats always done escapism best?
Kelly and Minnelli offered audiences an invitation to a cinematic spectacle that also celebrated romantic dreamers.
Perhaps we have more in common with 1951 audiences than we think.
