The movie Martin Scorsese called “a miracle”
Across his years in the director’s chair, Martin Scorsese has simply electrified the silver screen with the unrivalled brilliance of a true master of the cinematic medium. Through five remarkable decades in the film industry, Scorsese has persistently delivered some of the most memorable moments to ever grace the screen.
From the grit and violence of Taxi Driver to the drug-fuelled chaos of The Wolf of Wall Street, the New York filmmaker has issued narratives of a truly intense nature, and his collaborations with Robert De Niro and Leonardo DiCaprio have resulted in some of the greatest movies to ever be made.
Where Scorsese’s talents as an auteur of cinema have been consistently recognised, it’s also true that he’s as much of a cinephile and has frequently expressed his admiration for some of his favourite movies. There’s an interesting inclusion in this category for the director, as he once spoke of his undying passion for Singing in the Rain.
“The unit run by the producer and onetime songwriter Arthur Freed at MGM from the 1940s through the early ’60s was behind some of the greatest moments in the history of the movie musical,” the director noted. “Singin’ in the Rain is, at this point, probably the most famous—justifiably, because it’s a miracle.”
Singing in the Rain is a truly timeless classic of the musical movie genre, released in 1952 and directed by Stanley Donen and Gene Kelly. Kelly also stars in the celebration of the magic of cinema alongside Debbie Reynolds and Donald O’Connor, and the film serves as a touching tribute to the move from silent movies to the “talkies” in the Golden Age of Hollywood.
The eternally memorable scene of Gene Kelly has been immortalised into the very vision of the cinematic medium, where it symbolises movie history. Singing in the Rain is littered with memorable songs and choreography of the highest quality, and it will continue to be considered one of the all-time classics of the movie industry.
In the same piece, Scorsese went on to note the other movies Freed wrote with MGM: “But these are also the people behind Meet Me in St. Louis, The Pirate, Words and Music, An American in Paris, On the Town, It’s Always Fair Weather, Gigi and Bells Are Ringing. And this glorious picture [The Band Wagon], which was, and to a certain extent still is my favorite musical.”
Check out the trailer for Singing in the Rain below.
