Lecture Fifteen:
Self-Reflexivity
12/6/2005

Among the many reasons for studying Singin in the Rain are these:1) to use it as a lens onto Hollywood in the early 1950s and the various crises, pressures, and challenges it faced 2) to use it as a lens onto this course.

Part One: Singin in the Rain and the Hollywood Crisis of the late 1940s/ early 1950s

Singin in the Rain is set in 1927, the year that ushered in sound and witnessed the crisis in Hollywood it generated. Films that are set in the past are often as much about the times in which they are made as they are about the era that they represent.

Singin’ in the Rain is one of many films produced in the 1950s that are explicitly about Hollywood. Others include Sunset Boulevard (1950), All about Eve (1952),  The Big Knife, and A Star is Born (1954). These films are all self-reflexive movies. Definition: films that call viewers’ attention to the processes and conditions of filmmaking.

In the case of Singin' in the Rain, we have a nostalgic and romantic look back at a Hollywood that was quickly fading away. Although the classic studio system remained in place until around 1960, in 1952 it was already breaking up in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in U.S. v. Paramount, which ordered the studios to divest themselves of their theatre chains.

The resulting loss of income led to the dismantling of the major studios by the end of the 1950s. The other factor in the loss of studio power was the pressure of competition from television.

In its competition for audience attention in the 1950s, Hollywood developed two technological innovations: Widescreen production and Technicolor.

Part Two: Singin' in the Rain and English 1810

The film asks us to reflect on each of the following topics:

• The Classical Hollywood Cinema
• Cinema of Attractions
• Studios/Studio System
• Auteurism: We can appreciate Singin as a statement of Kelly’s convictions about the musical genre and dance. Filmed dance, Kelly argued, has to be conceived of solely in terms of the camera, which sees differently than the human eye watching a stage show. He consequently staged dances so that performers move into or away from the camera.  He also argued for the dramatic integrity of dance. The film is also an excellent example of artistic collaboration. Kelly collaborated closely with Stanley Donen; they directed and choreographed the film together; Betty Comden and Adolph Green wrote the screenplay entirely independent of Kelly; the film was produced by the Arthur Freed unit at MGM, a team of people working together under Freed.
• The Star System: Kelly’s star image was that of supreme manly beauty and an ordinary Joe figure. When discussing his screen roles, commentators emphasize the same characteristics: athleticism and physicality, immaturity and ordinariness; egoism and cockiness.
• The Musical 
• Audience Reception: Singin in the Rainhas grown steadily in popular and critical appeal. At first, it was overshadowed by the greater success of An American in Paris but it has since been rated as one of the top films ever made, the signature film of MGM’s Golden Era.
• Sound and Image