SpecialsTarget Disturbing yet enthralling

Micah Lloyd Excellent characters with emotional depth. My wife, daughter and granddaughter all enjoyed it...and me, too! Very good movie! You won't be disappointed.

Bessie Smyth Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

Stephanie There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

gkeith_1 Spoilers. Observations. Opinions. Charming film. The haughty little French girl loved by two men in An American in Paris is now an orphan, waif, naive and homeless. Leslie Caron plays the innocent well, here. She pulls it off. She also pulls off a fantasy sequence in which she is more adult such as wearing the slinky red dress. Another more adult fantasy sequence had her dressed in a short red dress in which she served imaginary food and drinks to imaginary bistro clientele. It was common for 1953 era women to aspire to be "waitresses". That sexist term had been replaced by "server". Today, many more women are educated to acquire professional careers, not to schlep hash and suds in a saloon. There were too many pink dress waitresses in this film. Paul, the former dancer, was injured "in the war". I assume that that meant World War Two, which ended in 1945 -- eight years before this 1953 story took place. War was still being mentioned in 1950s films. France was greatly damaged in that war. People were devastated. Here, people make the best things and decide to attend a carnival and enjoy themselves. This fun show is truly a ray of sunshine in their formerly dreary lives. The puppets are adorable, and are exciting to watch when they come to life in the fantasy "walk down the yellow brick road" dance scene near the end. Caron is a great dancer, but I don't see enough of that here. In the down the road fantasy, Paul (Ferrer) dances very well and quite sensually. He is no longer the angry man with the limp. I am a degreed historian, actress, singer, dancer, film critic and movie reviewer.

jacobs-greenwood This delightful little musical romance drama was directed by Charles Waters and features a screenplay by Helen Deutsch from a story by Paul Gallico. It stars Leslie Caron in the title role; she sings the catchy song "Hi-Lilli. Hi-Lo" which was written by Deutsch and Bronislau Kaper, who won his only Academy Award for writing its Score. Caron earned the first of her two unrewarded Best Actress Oscar nominations. Waters and Deutsch received their only Academy recognition with Best Director and Screenplay Oscar nominations, respectively. Color Cinematographer Robert Planck earned the last of his four unrewarded nominations. The cast also includes Mel Ferrer, Jean Pierre Aumont, Zsa Zsa Gabor, and Kurt Kasznar (among others), and four puppets (given life and voices ostensibly from Ferrer, and Kasznar).Lili Daurier (Caron) is a sweet, innocent recently orphaned (when her father died) French girl of sixteen who's traveled to a coastal town in hopes of finding work, and a home, with a baker friend of her deceased father. Unfortunately, he too had died recently; she learns from the proprietor of an adjacent store (Alex Gerry) who's about to take advantage of her until another man prevents it. That man turns out to be Marcus the Magnificent (Aumont), a magician with the circus troupe that's in town. Like a little duck, Lili follows Marc, meeting two of his fellow performers, puppeteers actually, Paul Berthalet (Ferrer) and Jacquot (Kasznar).Marc quickly learns how naive and ignorant in the ways of the world (and of being a woman) Lili is, but he doesn't take advantage of her. Instead, he convinces a cabaret manager (Ralph Dumke) to hire her. But Lili loses the job after one night because she can't handle being a waitress very well, especially when she watches, love- struck, as Marc performs his show with his assistant Rosalie (Gabor).Upon being fired, Lili goes to Marc hoping he'll help her again but, fed up with her cramping his style, he tells her to grow up and go back to the original store owner who'd tried to take advantage of her. Downtrodden with nowhere to go, she puts down her things and begins to climb a high-wire ladder to commit suicide when one of the puppets talks to her.Of course, the puppets are being controlled by Paul, who had seen what Lili was about to do and decided to save her. Paul had been a great, famous dancer but is now lame; he now finds that the most comfortable way for him to perform for an audience is by hiding behind a curtain. It has become virtually the only way in which he deals with others at all, at least pleasantly. Paul's puppets interact with Lili, singing the aforementioned song with her, and she laughs and forgets her troubles. The show is witnessed by other performers in the troupe who were entranced by it.Paul and his assistant Jacquot, who only moves some of the puppets while Paul provides all the voices, decide to ask Lili to join their act. Each evening, Lili dresses in her same simple dress and interacts with the puppets as if they were real people. It's her innocence which enables her to accept the four characters are being real, which comes across to the audience and causes the act to become such a success that it's recognized by some Paris agents (Wilton Graff and George Baxter).Paul, who's the improvisational genius of the nightly performances, has fallen in love with Lili. But, alas, Lili's heart still belongs to Marc. She even dreams of him (there is a dance sequence featuring Lili "stealing" Marc away from Rosalie). She buys a new dress, making herself look all grown up, and approaches the magician's trailer. Having just learned that his act is being hired by a Paris hotel, he's not as altruistic nor noble towards Lili.In fact, Marc goes with her to her trailer, which she shares with Paul and Jacquot, but before anything can happen, they're interrupted by Paul's return. Naturally, Paul is heartbroken once more; he even slaps Lili when she runs after Marc to return something he'd dropped. Later, Lili realizes that what Marc had left in the trailer was his wedding ring, and that he's really married to Rosalie - a fact the duo had purposely kept secret for business purposes (e.g. Marc attracts a large female, paying audience).Lili returns the ring to Marc and begins to leave altogether, but again the puppets bring her back (and not just because Paul needs her for the act before it too can go to Paris). Suddenly, she draws back the curtain to reveal Paul who, in the film's most powerful scene, tells her why the puppets' characterizations are so real and heartfelt - each is a reflection of a different part of his own personality, which he's too afraid to reveal on a person-to-person (human) level:I am Carrot Top: confident, clever, capable of running his life and yours, and everybody else's; and I'm Golo the Giant: cowardly, stupid, longing to be loved, clumsy and in need of comforting; and I'm Marguerite too: vain, jealous, obsessed with self, looking at my face in the mirror - are my teeth nice? Is my hair growing thin? And I'm Reynaldo: the thief, the opportunist, full of compromise and lies like any other man. I have in me all these things.But remembering his slap, Lili leaves anyway only to return (after another imagined sequence in which the puppets are people-size, each dancing with her before one-by-one they become Paul and walk back towards where she's been) to Paul in the end.

Genevieve What more can I say? I love this movie. Sure, it's dated, sure it's old, but classics are classics.(Spoilers) Set in France after World War II, Lili is an orphaned girl who's on the end of her rope. Losing her job as a waitress in a passing carnival, she decides to kill herself. But a crippled and bitter puppeteer named Paul, who hates people, stops her by talking to her through a puppet by the name of Carrot Top. (There are also three other puppets: Reynardo, a sly fox who steals; Margeruite, a vain dancer; and Golo, a cowardly giant.) Paul falls in love with Lili, and Lili falls in love with the puppets, unaware that Paul's the one behind them. They convince her to stay with them and sing with them, and she agrees. The act sells out shows and everyone loves the girl's charm.Lili is in love with a handsome magician named Marcus, whom Paul greatly detests. But the poor girl doesn't find out until later that the magician is a married man who's cheating on his wife. Trying to go and talk to Marcus, Paul grabs her, thinking she's going back to the magician for love. Furious with her struggle, the cripple strikes Lili on the face. Realizing what he did, he limps away where as Lili goes to leave.But as she leaves, Carrot Top tries to convince her to stay or take him with her, because he adores her. Lili starts to feel guilty and is unsure of what to do. Golo tells her that if the "boss" is so mean to her, that he'll protect her from him. Lili tells him that she knows he would, because he's so kind and always knows how she feels. Paul begins to feel sad for hurting Lili and makes Golo shout out, "I'll kill him. I'm gonna kill the boss!" However, after regaining composure, he says, "Well, I'll give him a good talking to at least." Then, Reynardo comes out, carrying a fox fur. Lili thinks he broke his promise not to steal and swiped it when no one was looking. But the fox says he made a deal. If he wasn't able to keep up with the payments, he was going to give the man something in exchange; another fox fur, himself. Lili cries and holds them, saying she won't leave. Suddenly, she feels the puppets trembling and realizes it's Paul.Due to his shyness, Paul can't express how much he loves Lili and gets angry. Lili wonders why he hides behind his puppets. But Paul tells her that he is the puppets: the confident, clever Carrot Top; the cowardly and clumsy giant Golo, who longs to be loved; the vain and jealous Margeruite; and the compromising and lying Reynardo. Angrily, Lili leaves, and Paul looks full of regret. But as the girl is walking she realizes that each puppet was a part of him. And after the most adorable dream sequence EVER (in which she dances with Paul), she turns back, and runs into his arms. He then, gives her lots of kisses, and holds her. And then, the puppets, pleased that the two are now in love, clap with excitement as they watch the two lovebirds.10/10 for the love and sweetness. Buy it today!

MartinHafer This is a nice film that has many wonderful moments but also suffers from too much padding. It's really a shame, as the wonderful moments are so enchanting and I really wanted to love this film--instead, it's good but not great.Leslie Caron plays the title character, a sweet but rather simple-minded young lady. She is an orphan and has no place to go, so this 16 year-old follows a magician back to the traveling circus--hoping that he'll feel sorry for her and ask her to stay. Considering that Marc (Jean-Pierre Aumont) is such a dashing and seemingly nice man, it's no wonder she's taken by him. However, Aumont is actually married and the only one who might help her is the very gloomy and morose puppeteer, Paul (Mel Ferrer). Oddly, however, although Paul is a grouchy jerk, through his puppets he's able to tell Lili how he really feels and they make a wonderful act--with Lili talking to Paul through the puppets. But, despite their act catching on, Paul never can let go of his bitterness until finally Lili has no choice but to leave. In the end, it's up to Lili to either stay away or go back to this weasel who loves her but mistreats her badly.Throughout the film, there are lengthy interludes that involve surrealistic dream sequences--complete with singing and dancing. Unfortunately, these sequences serve to completely undo the magic the film has created--and they are rather boring to boot. Had they just stuck with the story and avoided these segments (that seem strongly inspired by the film, AN American IN Paris), the overall effort would have been significantly better. Still, it's a decent film for the family--just don't be surprised if you find yourself speeding through the dream segments.