- Keith B.
- Monday, March 04, 2019
April 13th, 1924 - February 21st, 2019
I watched both Charade and Singin' in the Rain for the first time with my parents and siblings when we were all under the same roof. My uncle, a cinephile living in Zürich, would periodically send us DVDs of classic films as a sort of supplement to our cultural education.
I remember everyone transfixed during the tense moments in Charade as Audrey and Cary rush around Paris pursued by three sinister former spies, climaxing in a chase through crowded metro stations, a dark colonnade, and an abandoned red-seated theater with a chessboard of trapdoors. But Charade also had a lightness not often seen in the thrillers directed by Alfred Hitchcock, whose style Donen is frequently charged with emulating in the film. A rooftop fight scene, between Grant and George Kennedy, is choreographed and shot like a dance, both men clashing against each other and a wall, a neon sign now and then interfering with their blows. The romance of Charade is in a different key altogether from Marnie, a great film in its own right which Hitchcock released the following year. It's not a romance stoked by obsession but one lifted by moments of levity like when Hepburn asks Grant how he manages to shave the cleft in his chin.
When we played Singin' in the Rain, the joyfulness of the dance numbers, "Good Morning" and "Moses Supposes" for instance, was irresistible. It was hilarious, especially the inspired performance of Jean Hagen as Lina Lamont. It was beautiful, especially when Cyd Charisse and Gene Kelly were dancing through a technicolor fantasy cafe. By the time Kelly was jumping off the curb and splashing around with his umbrella, the jubilance in the midst of the storm, I knew Singin' in the Rain was an experience I'd want to revisit time and again.
In those days I had no idea the same director was at the helm for both pictures, not even to mention that he was born in Columbia, South Carolina, where I had yet to move.
A few years ago, having joined the staff at Richland Library, I was happy to check out a copy of On the Town. Donen made this directorial debut, alongside Gene Kelly, at twenty-five years old. Like Orson Welles, who likewise made Citizen Kane at twenty-five, he had a masterpiece right out the gate.
The news of Donen's death brought with it a flood of memories of his enduring work and inspired me to seek out more of it. His connection to Columbia convinced me to encourage our community to join in celebration of his life and monumental career, watching his movies together as they were wonderfully designed to be experienced.
Check out some of Donen's classic films in our collection and on Kanopy.