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Barbican Celebrates Vincente Minnelli In Its September Directorspective
His daughter, Liza, is probably more the better known Minnelli among audiences today, but it is her father – and Judy Garland’s second husband – who the Barbican is celebrating throughout September with some of his finest musicals...Directorspective: Vincente Minnelli runs at Londons Barbican Centre from 12th September to 2nd October
Fans of the screen musical are in for a treat with a fantastic line-up of some of Vincente Minnelli’s most iconic films showing at the Barbican next month. Packed with some of Hollywood’s most glamorous stars including Judy Garland, Cyd Charisse, Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly, this proves to be an unmissable season of movies.
Minnelli’s work won him an Oscar for Gigi and a nomination for An American in Paris, which featured one of the most daring and innovative dance sequences. One of his earliest works gave us Judy Garland and Margaret O’Brien in the charming family musical, Meet Me in St Louis and he introduced French dancer Leslie Caron to the big screen in An American in Paris. You can see all of these films and more in the Barbican season that celebrates his body of work.
Born into a theatrical family, Lester Anthony Minnelli started out his career in the theatre making costumes, before he worked his way up to eventually being accepted into MGM’s legendary musical department under the tutorage of Arthur Freed. Here he was to meet, direct and then marry, MGM’s most celebrated – if most tragic – star, Judy Garland.
When it came to bringing song and dance extravaganzas to the big screen Minnelli was in a sphere of his own. He nurtured the immense talents of Garland and teamed her with the likes of Gene Kelly. He combined the top lyricists and songwriters of the day resulting in great tunes, lively choreography and rousing, colourful scenes that have rarely been bettered.
But, it wasn’t just musicals he directed and his post-war drama, Some Came Running, starring Frank Sinatra and Shirley MacLaine also features in this comprehensive line-up at the Barbican in September.
12th September at 4pm Meet Me in St Louis (1944)
18th September at 4pm Gigi (1958)
25th September at 2pm The Pirate (1948)
25th September at 4pm An American in Paris (1951)
26th September at 6.20pm Some Came Running (1958)
2nd October at 4pm The Band Wagon (1953)
To find out more and book tickets go to:
http://www.barbican.org.uk/film/series.asp?id=888
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