cGOING IN THE RAIN
Genre: musical
Director: Stanley Donen and Gene Kelly. With Gene Kelly, Debbie Reynolds, Donald O’Connor, Jean Hagen, Milliard Mitchell, Cyd Charisse, Rita Moreno
Gene Kelly, Debbie Reynolds and Donald O’Connor in the film “Singing in the Rain”
In 1927 Hollywood was surprised by the invention of sound and so Monumental Pictures decided to transform a failed swashbuckling film into a glittering musical: the problem, however, is the voice of the leading actress, shrill and annoying as that of an eagle. How to do?
The plot is not exactly Nobel but the film that came out of it (in 1952) is one of the cornerstones of the history of cinema and not only of the musical, one of those to be taken to the desert island to see again at will.
Now managed restored in 4K thanks to the Cinema Ritrovato and the Cineteca di Bologna: a monument to the joie de vivre, enthusiasm and vitality, in perfect balance between documentary cues (the vicissitudes of the first sound recordings) and satirical claws, between cinephile quotes and ironic reinterpretations of the Hollywood history of the fathers.
While above all shines the proof of Gene Kelly, never so “perfect” in merging his programmatic optimism with a contagious and overflowing vitality of good humour.
An absolute masterpiece, stitched by the screenwriters Betty Comden and Adolph Green (and by the two directors) starting from a series of “remnants” of other filmslike the famous song that gives the film its title and which dated back to a 1929 musical. Chapeau!
For those who want to savor 102 minutes of pure happiness.
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