The Cinematheque

New Restoration

“The best musical ever made!”

Terence Davies, director (The Long Day Closes)

Stanley Donen helped refashion the movie musical in the 1950s, making films that showed off the athletic grace of star and co-director Gene Kelly, among other talents. It’s Donen’s centenary this year, and Singin’ in the Rain remains, for kids and critics alike, his greatest achievement. ​“Dignity, always dignity” is how to endure the harsh initiations and unpredictable pitfalls of the movie industry, according to Don Lockwood (Kelly) and Cosmo Brown (Donald O’Connor). But when new technology—sound!—arrives at the end of the 1920s, it jeopardizes everything they know about making audiences laugh and cry and show up to the cinema. It’ll take some ingenuity—and the upstaging talent of new star Kathy Selden (Debbie Reynolds)—to pull a major Lockwood star project out of a tailspin. The ups and downs of studio artmaking have never had a better songbook, including ​“Make ​‘Em Laugh,” ​“Moses Supposes,” ​“Good Morning,” and the matte-painting reveries of ​“Broadway Melody.”

“One of the shining glories of the American musical … The tone ranges from the lyrical to the burlesque to the epic, but through it all runs a celebration of movement as emotion.”

Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader

“Singin’ in the Rain​’s anarchy—its rule-breaking, illogical freneticism—gives the film its energy and personality … For a film so widely beloved, Singin’ in the Rain is truly mischievous, the ultimate expression of a genre.”

Michael Koresky, Reverse Shot