Director · 1903–1986

Vincente Minnelli

3: briefs
13:00: average
39 min: in total

On film.briefs3

An American in Paris

Vincente Minnelli · 1951

An American in Paris (1951) is a Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer musical directed by Vincente Minnelli, starring Gene Kelly and Leslie Caron. Built around George Gershwin’s music and Alan Jay Lerner’s screenplay, it follows an American painter in post-war Paris caught between two women — a ballerina and a patron — culminating in a seventeen-minute ballet sequence designed in homage to French painters. Its achievement lies in the integration of dance, design, and score into a single aesthetic statement, rather than in psychological depth or narrative innovation.

13:00

Gigi

Vincente Minnelli, Charles Walters · 1958

Gigi (1958) is a Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer romantic musical set in Belle Époque Paris, adapted by Alan Jay Lerner from Colette’s novella. Leslie Caron stars as a young woman raised to be a courtesan who instead chooses love on her own terms. Directed by Vincente Minnelli and Charles Walters, it features music by Frederick Loewe, cinematography by Joseph Ruttenberg and Ray June, and costumes by Cecil Beaton. It won nine Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director.

13:00

The Band Wagon

Vincente Minnelli · 1953

Tony Hunter, a fading musical star, joins a Broadway show written by friends — only for its director to recast it as a pretentious Faust adaptation. Clashing with ballerina Gabrielle Gerard, he walks out, then returns to reshape the show as light entertainment. Directed by Vincente Minnelli, with songs by Schwartz and Dietz and choreography by Michael Kidd, the film treats musical theatre as a living, negotiable form — not a vehicle for stardom, but a site of collective recalibration.