"The Gay Parisian" is an American 20-minute live action short film from 1941, so this one had its 75th anniversary last year and it also means that this pretty delightful work is from the days of World War II. The director is Jean Negulesco about a decade before his Oscar-nominated work on Johnny Belinda. The music is by Jacques Offenbach whose work is used on prestigious projects until this day. The cast won't be known to many as, if at all, you only come across these actors in dancing roles in other projects. The reason is that it is ballet from start to finish and a work from back in the day when "gay" did not mean homosexual yet as obviously the main character here is straight. This one was nominated for an Oscar too, but did not win. In my opinion, the big strength here is the use of color that makes it so much better than it being a black-and-white work. The music is pretty decent too. Still from my entirely subjective position, I just cannot give this one a thumbs-up as my interest in ballet is just too non-existent. Watching it on tape and not in a huge concert hall is obviously not helping. Still if you like ballet or even love it, you can have a pretty decent time here for sure. There are no glaring weaknesses here at all. But I don't think it is really on a level where it would get you interested in it.
Review of The Gay Parisian
