An American In Paris Review

Reputed to be Gene Kelly's personal favourite of his own films, Vincente Minnelli's Best Picture winner is the archetypal MGM musical. The plotting - Kelly's struggling painter falls for Leslie Caron's French waif, engaged to nice but dull Georges Guétary - lacks the pace, exuberance and wit of, say, Singin' In The Rain, but compensates with fantastic Technicolor visuals (excellently reproduced on DVD), George Gershwin's sublime music (pick of the tunes: I've Got Rhythm, S'Wonderful and Our Love Is Here To Stay), sublime art direction from the great Cedric Gibbons and astounding choreography and footwork from Kelly, who makes Justin Timberlake look positively arthritic by comparison.