ET 16: Singing In The Rain in Singing In The Rain ~

             ‘Expressionism’ stood out very prominently ever since the development of 20^th century modernism. Exclusively in the fields of art, many artists had coped this idea into many portraits and movie makers had transformed their films to be expressionistic. Expressionism genuinely presents the assortment of emotional moods and ideas in distorted way to the audience wholeheartedly from the subjective perspective. Gene Kelly, along with Stanley Donan, sophisticatedly directed “Singing in the rain” movie in a mixture of both expressionistic and musical motifs (colorful, modernized, sound). When mentioning other expressionistic movies that I have watched in my film class such as M or Metropolis, I have realized quite unrealistic settings and locations where the characters play with the ideology of fear. Expressionism can also be found in the famous screams portrait (by Edvard Munch) or even in the use of mysterious shadows to manifest a person’s sensations (like death coming) rather than a physical object in the movie 'M'. Despite all these facts that a person can convey pessimistic or ugly concerns through expressionism, Gene Kelly has successfully created optimistic one through his scene of singing in the rain in “Singing in the Rain!”

The scene curtains on when the two new lovebirds start with their first kiss at the doorstep while it’s raining. I remember the lines of them saying; Debbie Reynolds’ “You are a big singing star now, remember?” and Gene’s “Where I stand, the sun is shining all over the place,” which was very expressing in a meaningful way. Normally, the prop ‘rain’ is used to express sadness, disaster, changing weathers or the dark side of the scene in many movies. Whereas in ‘Singing in the Rain’, the rain itself expresses the release of all weariness and the beginning of a new ‘Don’ in peace with fresh ideas. Don is no longer a boring, muted actor alone now that he has transformed into a big singing star with his newfound love ‘Kathy’. He is now ready for love, ready to change and ready to fight with these dark clouds that everybody is running away from. The sun is now in his heart that he does not ‘run’ but ‘sing’ in the rain with a smile and a glorious feeling! =)

“I walk down the lane
With a happy refrain
Just singin',
Singin' in the rain

Dancin' in the rain
Dee-ah dee-ah dee-ah
Dee-ah dee-ah dee-ah
I'm happy again!
I'm singin' and dancin' in the rain!”

            Gene Kelly singing these lines in the rain, while dancing with his feet, taps and walks, jumping on the light post like a kid makes me remember him singing “Fit as a fiddle” in the beginning with Donald O’Conner. Both of them were wearing stripes and funny looking faces that the audience would love to enjoy. They were young, cute, and free, and they took all over the stage like the normal kids. But Gene becomes a very well known actor that so many girls are dreaming to get him. Thus, of course he’s got these stylish and shiny white coats on when he stood in front of the public; in fact, he wore a phony outfit to be good looking. Now? Everything has changed through this wash-away rain! For this moment, he’s got his nature back. He let his chauffeur go ahead first so that he would simply walk back home. He is wearing a simple brown coat that anybody else could be wearing. He doesn’t mind getting wet and cold through the rain and he is very thrilled to touch the raindrops to his body. He doesn’t mind his expensive shoes getting wet but care-freely he jumped into the puddles for fun like a kid again! Thus, this whole dance and sing act in the rain has made Gene Kelly travel back into his childhood memories. It is so wonderful to stay young forever!

           Discussing the mise-en-scene of this Gene’s singing in the rain scene, the lighting was precisely natural; not too bright, not too dark. Many of the other expressionistic movies that I have mentioned earlier are full of dark shots where people sense the darkness (horror) to the scene. And the color of the people is normally shadowed black in most long shots. Whereas in Singing in the rain, the rainy day was just as same as normal nights with the street lamps on. And there is color on his body, just like we are seeing a very nimble and carefree man down the street without any intense feelings to wonder whether he is a bad guy or not. Besides, his tap dance is terrific. I honestly enjoyed watching him dance since the beginning of the movie. However in this particular scene, we (the audience) can feel the happiness and joy that he wants to tell the whole world by singing and expressing. His dance was fast-paced, taking up a whole lot space, and I can feel that it’s not for-entertaining-his-fans but for himself alone. We can easily feel this because this silly, puerile act always happens when we are dealing with extreme happiness. And this whole scene just expressed it again to us!

            When it comes to choosing expressionistic movies to watch, I would feel very bored as they seem very unusual, intricate to understand and not fun at all. But this “Singing in the Rain” movie is so superb that I would watch it again and again. Many musical movies nowadays are also well known among us like ‘Glee’, but nonetheless, “Singing in the Rain” has become my favorite musical and “expressionistic” movie ever since I watched it! And I love it!

Definition Source:  Garzanti, Aldo (1974) [1972] (in Italian). Enciclopedia Garzanti della letteratura. Milan: Guido Villa. pp. 963. page 241