An American in Paris
Ever since John Michael McDonagh praised the Zoopalast’s curtains at Calvary’s premiere as “Vincente Minnelli curtains”, I have been (1) trying to see as many Berlinale films in the Zoopalast as possible and (2) desiring to discover Vincente Minnelli’s films. At that point, I think I had seen none, and “Yolanda and the Thief” (not in the Zoopalast sadly) was the first. “An American in Paris” is generally regarded as one of his best, and even though it lacks Fred Astaire in my book, I can see where this assessment is coming from.
On a side note, the Zoopalast curtains are so iconic that they prominently appear along with the Zoo Palast logo in the Deutsche Oper’s production of Prokofiev’s “The Love for Three Oranges”, which is full of cute references to Berlin itself. But if you google pictures of the Zoopalast, none of them properly convey how majestic those bright yellow-golden curtains are.
As for “An American in Paris”, the storyline is bad to the point of being infuriating (but except for “Les Parapluies de Cherbourg” this is the case with all musicals after all), and I am not a big fan of Gene Kelly nor the girl who plays Lise. If you ask me, I would much prefer Fred Astaire and Lucille Bremer who was an utterly pretty face in my book. It’s unfortunate that “Yolanda and the Thief” was such an absurdity, whereas “An American in Paris” got all those beautiful stage sets and amazing musical choreographies, and on top of all that, the Gershwin genius for its music. The film as a whole might not be super watchable, but if you ignore the story, its musical numbers and dances are so fantastic it makes up for all the other weaknesses.
I don’t think McDonagh tried to say that the Zoopalast was style over substance by comparing its looks to Minnelli (because ultimately the Zoopalast is a very fine, newly restored movie theater), but Minnelli’s films definitely are utterly stylish and I wish he had done opera stage sets.