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Rating: Today, in Milan, it's raining. Gloomy day, as Battisti would say. Yet I'm cheerful, who knows why, after all, it's just an ordinary Thursday at the end of September. Maybe it's because I've just started a new job adventure, and it seems to be going well, or perhaps it's just me being cheerful, full stop, there's nothing to understand, and that's what De Gregori would say.
"Singing in the Rain" is the most optimistic film I've ever seen. It doesn't aim to convey any profound message; it simply wants to be a carefree, joyful, fun film where happiness triumphs over everything. It's lovely, if you're in love, to sing even in the rain, and who cares if you come home wet and soaked, the important thing is to savor every inch, or rather, every millimeter, of your life.
For the writer, it's one of the 5 most beautiful films of all time, maybe even among the top 3, who knows. The story is of absolute simplicity: we're in Hollywood, in 1927, and the first sound film in cinema history, "The Jazz Singer," has just been released. The audience goes mad: they talk and sing in films! A silent film diva with a voice like a strangled chicken has some difficulties with the new work method and is dubbed by an actress with a seductive voice. And furthermore, she's more beautiful and witty. I won't say anything else, just in case someone hasn't seen it.
Any statement like "I don't like musicals" (while I do, I have little preference for horror, for example) doesn't matter here, because the film is so entertaining and smooth, and the musical parts so ingenious, that anyone in the world could, or should, get carried away by the optimistic impulse that shines through every word, every gesture, every line of Gene Kelly, a true bastion of the desire to live at any cost. Not to forget the supporting cast, one better than the other: Debbie Reynolds, Donald O'Connor, Cyd Charisse. O'Connor, in particular, is outstanding, his number "Make 'em Laugh," in which he literally clings to the curtains, is a show within the show. And when the three musketeers (Kelly, O'Connor, Reynolds) start singing "Good Morning," you wish you were there having fun with them. Not to mention the famous song that gave the film its title in which Gene Kelly, ecstatic, dances, in the rain, which was actually milk mixed with water since the scene we see outdoors was entirely shot indoors.
Then there's the delicacy and lightness of the direction to talk about. Now, Gene Kelly provided some technical tips on the dance numbers, but the result is entirely credited to Stanley Donen, a very much forgotten director who only gained recognition in 1998 when, at the age of 74, he was awarded an honorary Oscar. In his filmography, believe it or not, standout films include: "On the Town" (the first musical in history shot almost entirely outdoors); "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers"; "Charade" (starring Audrey Hepburn, Cary Grant, Walter Matthau); "Arabesque" (Gregory Peck, Sophia Loren). The light touch he brought to "Singing in the Rain" would have deserved numerous Oscars, considering today's directors, though skilled, sometimes tend to be overly heavy in their storytelling. Donen caresses his characters, films only the essential, and lets the music, the fun, the zest for life do the rest. Of course, "Singing in the Rain," despite two rightful Oscar nominations, didn't win anything.
But watch it if you have the chance, or rather watch it again. It should be watched at least once a month. For sadness, it works better than any psychotropic drug or therapy from a psychologist.
Yet today it's raining. But I'm happy.
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