An American in Paris (1951)

An American in Paris is a 1951 American musical romantic comedy film inspired by the 1928 jazz-influenced symphonic poem (or tone poem) An American in Paris by George Gershwin. Starring Gene Kelly, Leslie Caron (her film debut), Oscar Levant, Georges Guétary, and Nina Foch, the film is set in Paris and was directed by Vincente Minnelli from a script by Alan Jay Lerner. The music is by George Gershwin with lyrics by his brother Ira, with additional music by Johnny Green and Saul Chaplin, the music directors.

The story of the film is interspersed with dance numbers choreographed by Gene Kelly and set to Gershwin's music. Following the death of George Gershwin in 1937, George's brother Ira sold the Gershwin musical catalog to MGM executive Arthur Freed in the late 1940s. Some of the tunes in this catalog were included in the film, such as "I Got Rhythm" and "Love Is Here to Stay". Other songs in the movie include "I'll Build A Stairway to Paradise" and "'S Wonderful". The climax of the film is "The American in Paris" ballet, a 17-minute dialogue-free sequence featuring Kelly and Caron set to Gershwin's An American in Paris, with sets designed in the styles of various French artists. The ballet sequence cost nearly half a million dollars and was filmed on 44 sets on MGM's back lot. In an interview from 2009 with Paul O'Grady, Leslie Caron said the film ran into controversy with the Hays Office over part of her dance sequence with a chair; the censor reviewing the scene called it "sexually provocative", which surprised Caron, who asked "What can you do with a chair?"

An American in Paris was an enormous critical and financial success, garnering eight Academy Award nominations and winning six (including Best Picture), as well as earning other industry honors such as the inaugural Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy. In 1993, the film was selected for preservation by the United States Library of Congress in the National Film Registry for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". It is ranked number nine among AFI's Greatest Movie Musicals.