Items47The creator’s order
  1. 1Singin' in the Rain (1952)Singin' in the Rain (1952) 8.3/10 on IMDbReleased 10 Apr 1952Gene Kelly, Donald O'Connor and Debbie Reynolds make technical problems in early sound cinema into opportunities for physical comedy. The songs and dances change how the characters relate, with the title number turning private happiness into a whole street's rhythm. An ideal starting point because…0
  2. 2The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964)The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964) 7.8/10 on IMDbReleased 19 Feb 1964Jacques Demy makes every conversation sung, allowing ordinary arrangements about work, money and separation to acquire the intensity of opera. Michel Legrand's music and the shifting colours bind the emotional changes together. The final meeting is devastating because the film has never treated…0
  3. 3West Side Story (1961)West Side Story (1961) 7.6/10 on IMDbReleased 13 Dec 1961The 1961 film uses bodies and widescreen space to make rival groups claim the same city. Bernstein's music and the choreography keep attraction and violence dangerously close. Dated racial casting and stereotypes are a substantial limitation, but the film's command of movement remains essential to…0
  4. 4All That Jazz (1979)All That Jazz (1979) 7.8/10 on IMDbReleased 16 Dec 1979Bob Fosse makes a director-choreographer's working life into a show he cannot stop staging, even as his body fails him. Roy Scheider gives the self-exposure a seductive energy. The musical numbers become arguments with mortality rather than pauses in an artist's biography; sexuality and death make…0
  5. 5The Band Wagon (1953)The Band Wagon (1953) 7.4/10 on IMDbReleased 7 Aug 1953Vincente Minnelli lets a struggling production discover what kind of entertainment it wants to be. Fred Astaire and Cyd Charisse can make a change of physical style feel like a change in a relationship. The detective ballet is a marvellous demonstration of a film musical escaping the limits of its…0
  6. 6Meet Me in St. Louis (1944)Meet Me in St. Louis (1944) 7.5/10 on IMDbReleased 28 Nov 1944Judy Garland's singing turns a family's ordinary year into a record of anticipation, disappointment and attachment. Vincente Minnelli gives rooms and seasonal rituals a distinctive emotional colour. Its warmth is most interesting when a familiar song has to carry worry as well as celebration.0
  7. 7The Young Girls of Rochefort (1967)The Young Girls of Rochefort (1967) 7.7/10 on IMDbReleased 8 Mar 1967Jacques Demy lets a French town's streets become a network of missed meetings, artistic ambitions and possible romances. The colour and dancing make chance feel almost choreographed. Its buoyancy offers a lovely companion to his sadder Cherbourg film, with Michel Legrand's score holding the…0
  8. 8Top Hat (1935)Top Hat (1935) 7.7/10 on IMDbReleased 29 Aug 1935Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers make mistaken identity less important than the attraction visible whenever they move together. The hotel-room disturbance becomes a wonderfully economical introduction to a dance relationship. Choose it for the way elegance can remain playful rather than remote.0
  9. 9The Sound of Music (1965)The Sound of Music (1965) 8.1/10 on IMDbReleased 29 Mar 1965Songs allow Maria to change the life of a household before the story's political danger becomes unavoidable. Julie Andrews gives familiar numbers clear dramatic intentions. The long film works because its musical learning and later choices about loyalty belong to the same family.0
  10. 10The Wizard of Oz (1939)The Wizard of Oz (1939) 8.1/10 on IMDbReleased 21 Aug 1939The 1939 fantasy gives its songs specific jobs: longing, self-description, companionship and the promise of arrival. Judy Garland makes Dorothy's emotional directness anchor a wildly artificial world. The changes of colour and scale show how naturally a musical can turn feeling into a place.0