The increasing number of you getting sick and tired of me prattling on about Vincente Minnelli, beware: Long-needed upgrades of An American In Paris and Gigi are to be released sometime in this year, along with the DVD debut of what may be Minnelli's greatest non-musical, Some Came Running. Will I be going on and on about these? What do you think?
I'm still somewhat baffled as to why I've devoted so much space to Minnelli. Yeah, he's a favorite around here (and Meet Me In St. Louis is very close to being my all-time favorite movie), but you could scan my archives and discover only passing mentions of Stanley Kubrick or Sam Peckinpah, and even less attention to John Carpenter, though Dark Star, The Thing, Big Trouble In Little China and They Live certainly rank high among my favorites. What about David Lynch? I think the only time I've even brought up his name is in conjunction with the passing of his frequent cinematographer, Freddie Francis. Weird.
But hey, tradition is tradition, so here's a clip from another Minnelli picture, The Band Wagon. I love the tentative way this number begins, Fred Astaire and Cyd Charisse just sort of wandering through, watching other couples in love, unsure of their own feelings. Then she takes a step, and he's right there and...it's magic. Possibly the most swooningly romantic dance sequence in cinema history, the choreography is by Michael Kidd, the music by Arthur Schwartz, the gliding camera, perfectly-timed cuts and dreamy atmosphere are pure Minnelli:
