Aero Theatre Presents: A Musical Double Feature

Aero Theatre presents a musical double feature of the following films:
AN AMERICAN IN PARIS:
Director Vincente Minnelli’s most popular musical and 1951’s Oscar Best Picture winner features irrepressible Gene Kelly as a struggling-to-make-it painter in Paris, caught between the romantic aspirations of a wealthy patron (Nina Foch) and his true love, the young Leslie Caron. Kelly sings, dances and cracks wise with his smart-aleck buddy, pianist Oscar Levant, while trying to choose his fate. Also received Academy Awards for Screenplay, Score, Cinematography and Art Direction.
THE UMBRELLAS OF CHERBOURG:
Auto mechanic Guy (Nino Castelnuovo) gets girlfriend Genevieve (Catherine Deneuve) pregnant just before he leaves to fight in the Algerian war; they swear eternal allegiance to one another, but circumstances force Genevieve to marry another man and move to Paris. Jacques Demy tells this story entirely through music and lyrics, yet his musical is no fantasy – as critic Jonathan Rosenbaum has pointed out, it’s an accurate portrayal of Paris that uses style to “exalt the ordinary.” It’s a one-of-a-kind film opera: a movie that is entirely artificial and stylized yet tough, complex and unsentimental – and more deeply moving than a dozen more conventional melodramas. In French with English subtitles.