Minnelli elicited some fine performances from his actors and actresses, varying his directing technique as the occasion required. He made much use of dreams and of dreamlike, ethereal atmospheres, and of settings that were remote in space or time, such as the Paris of ''An American in Paris'' or the turn-of-the-century America of ''Meet Me in St.
Minnelli liked to work on sweeping canvases. Minnelli had directed the gaudy 1955 musical ''Kismet'' as though implementing ''marching orders for the Macy parade.'' Liked Sweeping CanvasesĪs a director, Mr. The critic Andrew Sarris once wrote bluntly, ''Minnelli believes more in beauty than in art.'' Mr. Minnelli also came in for some critical jabs and buffetings, especially late in his career. ''His best was the best there ever was.''īut Mr. Minnelli was ''the greatest director of motion picture musicals the screen has ever known.'' The playwright and lyricist Alan Jay Lerner (who died on June 14), wrote in 1974 after several collaborations with him that Mr. Crowther wrote, ''the reds of a Paris cafe, the greens of a Provencal village or the golden yellows of a field of ripening grain - these give us a sensory knowledge of the surroundings that weigh upon van Gogh.''Īppraisals of Mr. ''The cold grayness of a mining district,'' Mr. Minnelli had ''wisely relied on color and the richness and character it gives to images.'' Reviewing ''Lust for Life,'' a screen biography of the painter Vincent van Gogh that starred Kirk Douglas, the New York Times critic Bosley Crowther wrote that Mr.
Color and CharacterĪnd his use of color won perennial praise. He had a superb sense of proportion and balance, his admirers said, in addition to his ability to create an aura of sophistication and a tone of nostalgia without going overboard. Minnelli quickly became an acknowledged master of the form. He began as a director with three successful Broadway shows, ''At Home Abroad'' (1935), ''The Show Is On'' (1936) and ''Hooray for What!'' (1937). Minnelli did work hard, painting signs as a schoolboy, designing show-window displays, then gaining recognition as a designer of theatrical scenery and costumes. He died of hard work.' ''Įlegant and suave, but high-strung, Mr. And if they're not, then let them inscribe on my tombstone what they could about any craftsman who loves his job: 'Here lies Vincente Minnelli. I'm still not sure if movies are an art form. Minnelli wrote in the autobiography, ''I Remember It Well,'' ''I work to please myself. Minnelli's three dozen movies also included successful serious films, such as ''The Bad and the Beautiful'' (1952) and ''Lust for Life'' (1956), and comedies that did not rely on music, such as ''Father of the Bride'' (1950). Love of wife, love of family, love of work.''īesides musicals, Mr. Minnelli asked proudly in his 1974 autobiography, ''can lay claim to being loved by the most extraordinary talents of not one, but two generations? And who loved, not always wisely, in return? But love is what life is all about.
0 kommentar(er)
