American in Paris, An (Blu-ray)

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Video:
The Warners video engineers reproduce the movie's original 1.37.1 (at 1.33.1) Academy-ratio picture using a dual-layer BD50 and a VC-1 video encode. The transfer produces brilliant colors and good high-definition clarity. Warners claim that "'An American in Paris,' originally photographed in Technicolor, is the latest recipient of Warner Bros.' proprietary Ultra-Resolution process, which takes the original Technicolor negatives and carefully combines them to yield a stunning picture with sharpness and depth of field never seen before." I have to admit, the image quality is, indeed, brilliant, with a normal amount of print grain but no spots, scratches, lines, specks, or flecks. The hues are deep, rich, and sparkling, set off by strong black levels. The film looks remarkable, the 1080p high resolution setting it apart even from its already fine SD counterpart.

Audio:
I suppose because the soundtrack is in a rather limited monaural, Warners chose to reproduce it using lossy Dolby Digital, as they did in their standard-definition transfer the year before, rather than use lossless Dolby TrueHD. As a result, the audio doesn't come up nearly as well as the video. The sound is a little thin at the bottom and a tad edgy at the top, but it displays a smooth, natural midrange. There's a bit of background noise, too, not much, yet noticeable. Although there is a slightly restricted frequency and dynamic response most of the time, they open up in the finale, with fairly good clarity and impact.

Extras:
WB carry over the extras on this Blu-ray edition from their previously released two-disc Special Edition. Things begin with what the keep case describes as a "Concerto of a Commentary," hosted by Gene Kelly's widow, Patricia Ward Kelly, and featuring the recollections of star Gene Kelly, director Vincent Minnelli, producer Arthur Freed, screenwriter Alan Jay Lerner, music director Johnny Green, composer-songwriter Saul Chaplin, art director Preston Ames, costume designer Irene Sharaff, and new observations by actresses Leslie Caron and Nina Foch. Next, there is an "American Masters Career Profile: Gene Kelly: Anatomy of a Dancer," twenty-three chapters and eighty-four minutes long. And after that, there is a the new documentary "'S Wonderful: The Making of An American in Paris," forty-two minutes and featuring interviews with Leslie Caron and Nina Foch.

Among the lesser items are a vintage "FitzPatrick Traveltalks" short feature, "Paris on Parade," about eight minutes; a classic Tex Avery cartoon, "Symphony in Slang"; seven audio-only outtakes totaling about fourteen minutes; three radio interviews with Johnny Green, Gene Kelly, and Gene Kelly and Leslie Caron, also about fourteen minutes; and a two-minute song outtake, "Love Walked In," with sound and picture.

The extras conclude with twenty-seven scene selections; a theatrical trailer; English, French, Spanish, German, and Italian spoken languages; French, Spanish, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, German, Italian, Norwegian, Portuguese, and Swedish subtitles; and English captions for the hearing impaired.

Parting Thoughts:
Depending on how much you like singing and dancing, "An American in Paris" will either delight you or bore you. I found myself entertained by the music and bored by the rest, so I will be forever grateful for the "Next" button on my remote control. Fortunately, the musical numbers have enough life for two pictures because the romance sits as flat as day-old Coke. Darned good thing Gerwshin and Kelly are so good and the high-definition picture is so vivid.

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