Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers in Swing Time (1936)
A couple of years ago, I went through a “musicals” phase and watched a whole bunch of American musicals and practically every Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly movie I could find. A couple of observations: 1. I don’t care for musicals that have no dance sequences; and 2. Musicals are basically structured like martial arts movies. What I mean by that is they both tend to have paper thin plots simply designed to hold together the “action” sequences. These sequences (at least in the old days) are usually full body, long continuous shots which showcase the choreography, the grace and acrobatic prowess of the dancers/fighters. These movies are spectacles and they exist simply for the dances/fights. It’s not a secret that Jackie Chan draws inspirations from Mr. Kelly (who by the way was so athletic that if he was born several decades later he would probably be a top action star), and we can draw parallel of his creative use of props to Mr. Astaire’s (see the Puttin’ On the Ritz video below).
Cyd Charisse and Gene Kelly in Singin' in the Rain (1952)
What prompted this post were these two blog posts on Flavorwire by Bethany Larson: The 35 Best Dance Sequences in Film & 25 More Essential Dance Sequences in Films, which have some really awesome dance sequences. My personal favorite is Fred and Ginger’s glorious number in Swing Time (which is also my all time favorite Fred and Ginger movie).
Here are a few more of my favorites (can’t help but have a silly grin on my face whenever I watch them):
