Musicals—6

We’ve been through the 20s, 30s and 40s in the last five weeks as we began talking about film musicals. Obviously, we can’t talk about every musical in every decade but I warn you right now, we’re going to be talking about musicals in the 50s for some time. Because this decade was just full of musical masterpieces—the first of which was An American in Paris [1951] by Alfred Jay Lerner.

The young American main character of this film is Jerry Mulligan, an ex-GI who stayed on in Paris after the war ended. He’d always wanted to be a painter, so he decided to stay and follow that dream. He’s met up with a couple of other dreamers we’ll meet as the story progresses, and, of course, Paris is the backdrop for this lush film.

The storyline has Jerry—shocker—find he’s sold two paintings. He can hardly believe it! He’s been struggling for so long and, finally, a sale. When the woman who bought the paintings, Milo Roberts, invites him to a party at her home, he gladly accepts. But when he gets there, something doesn’t feel right. And, seeing her in this slinky dress, he utters that famous line: “That’s, uh, quite a dress you almost have on there. What holds it up?” And to this, Milo replies, “Modesty.”

And that’s the beginning of Jerry’s dilemma. Milo appears to want him to be her “boy” in exchange for her patronage of his work. At least, this is how Jerry sees it. So, in no uncertain terms, he tells her to find herself another boy. There are men in Paris who do that sort of thing for a living, go get one of them, because what she wants is too high a price to pay for success. She assures him that she’s much more interested in his art than his body and wants to be his patroness… so they go to dinner, at a place he can afford, to talk about it. It’s there that he meets Parisian shopgirl Lise, whom he falls for big time.

The film then turns into a triumph of love in a city that’s the epitome of love [try to forget that the movie was filmed almost entirely in California].

But there’s a lasting power to the film—and, in this particular case, I think it’s because of the music far more than the simple story. Case in point, I was at a town celebration in the small French village of Lauzertes this weekend and they were doing a concert of music about Paris, some classical, some popular, and yet the centerpiece of the evening was Gershwin’s lovely An American in Paris piece. If you don’t know it, it was composer Gershwin’s attempt to capture the sounds of Paris that he knew well from his time living there. Have 17 minutes? Take a look at the clip [be sure to watch it in full screen mode]: https://www.dailymotion.com/video/xx83rg.

What I’d love for you to take away from this is how music and dance can tell a story… and ask yourself, as you think about your musical, how will you use music and dance to advance your story?

Copyright © Diane Lake

01Sep19

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