Last night consisted of a coffee milkshake, my flamingo pajamas, and An American in Paris (1951), a charming little musical that is still loved and respected today. I feel warm inside just remembering how good it felt to wrap up in my snuggie and bob my head along to Gene Kelly's swinging dance numbers, giddily applauding his light-hearted love story. Yes, I would say I'm now a major fan of this movie.
I wasn't expecting to recognize any of the songs in this ancient musical...but "I Got Rhythm" is one of the most beloved classics in the world, and who knew it came from this movie? Every minute of watching and listening to Gene Kelly is like crack...I just couldn't get enough of him. Seriously, this guy is fantastic! He can sing, he can tap-dance like a machine, and he can act like nobody's business...perfection, basically, in human form.
The other day I mentioned how pumped I was for the release of "Beautiful Boy", although sadly a release date has not yet been announced. Tonight I went ahead and watched the trailer...and now I'm practically beside myself. This one looks incredibly sad, but one of those good sad movies...you know?
And as exhausted as I am from this long week, as much as I'm praying for some sort of deliverance from this hectic springtime rush into the calm of this summer, I managed to fit in one more movie tonight: Mutiny on the Bounty (1935).
An engaging seafaring classic, Bounty was everything I had hoped it could be, having known of this legendary film my whole life and never getting around to seeing it. I'm getting more and more used to these black and white movies, which used to disinterest me and now barely phase me at all. In fact, I actually loved how the black-and-white picture gave this one an authentically historic feel...and this movie truly is historic: it was the last film ever to win the Best Picture Oscar without winning any others, and the only one to have all three of its actors nominated (Clark Gable, Charles Laughton, Franchot Tone) though none of them won that year. Gable was my favorite lead of the movie, as he holds the screen with tremendous power. Still, I do have one question: why did men wear their pants up so high back in the day? It's almost impossible for anyone to look attractive when the height of their belt buckle exceeds the height of their belly button. I'm just sayin.
