The Oscar-winning film An American in Paris, the pinnacle of MGM’s Freed Unit musicals, received its wide release on Jan. 11, 1952. The story centers around expat painter Jerry, who has moved to Paris after WWII and is quickly caught in a love triangle, which of course ends in his favor. The creative team was Arthur Freed (producer), Vincente Minnelli (direction), Gene Kelly (choreography), Alan Jay Lerner (screenplay), George and Ira Gershwin (music), Conrad Salinger (orchestrations), Johnny Green and Saul Chaplin (music direction), Alfre Gilks (cinematography), Adrienne Fazan (editing), Preston Ames and Cedric Gibbons (art direction), Edwin B. Willis (set decoration), and Orry-Kelly (costumes). The 2016 musical film La La Land paid homage to the 1952 film’s set and costumes. Below is the movie’s official trailer, narrated by Kelly.
The film cast included Gene Kelly (Jerry), Leslie Caron (Lise), Oscar Levant (Adam), Georges Guétary (Hank), and Nina Foch (Milo). Kelly received an honorary Oscar “specifically for his brilliant achievements in the art of choreography on film,” while the film earned eight Oscar nominations and won six, including picture (Freed), screenplay (Lerner), art direction, cinematography, costume design, and scoring. In 1993, it was selected for preservation in Library of Congress National Film Registry, and it ranked #9 on AFI’s Greatest Movie Musicals list. The song “I Got Rhythm” ranked #32 on AFI’s 100 Songs list. Below is Gene Kelly performing that song.
In 2014, a stage adaptation premiered in Paris, starring Robert Fairchild (Jerry) and Leanne Cope (Lise), with a script by Craig Lucas directed and choreographed by Christopher Wheeldon. It transferred to Broadway in 2015. Below is the staging of “I Got Rhythm” as performed in the Broadway musical by Fairchild, Haydn Oakley and David Seadon-Young.