Colors in Gene Kelly and Cyd Charisse Scene: How Hollywood Eroticizes Greed

    While a lot of the themes from Singing in the Rain surprised me, none surprised me more than the scene with Cyd Charisse and Gene Kelly. The scene starts off with a sort of "rags to riches" plot, where a man comes to the industry looking to dance and sing. Gene, as the story progresses, becomes more and more famous. However, after a dance sequence, Gene falls onto the feet of a beautiful woman, Cyd Charisse, in a green dress. To the naked eye in the 50s, this scene might seem like just pretty colors and an erotic dance, but there is a deeper meaning. 

This scene opened up so many possibilities in my little "over-analyze everything" brain, and one of the things that I first thought of was the men as a representation of Hollywood, and Gene as a representation of the audience. Though the movie makes sure to separate the viewer from the movie by utilizing Gene's professional artistry, in this scene, though it also becomes a somewhat intricate dance sequence, it gives the viewer everything they want. 

Right before she leaves, one of the bodyguards gets up to try and stop her, but the other men stop him, perhaps alluding to the way in which Hollywood has to be very careful about what they put on screen, To me, it was sort of representing how Hollywood is nothing but an industry. They really don't care about the audience, the end goal is to make money, and that's made apparent by the color of Cyd's dress, but Overall, Cyd herself. 

A fluorescent green dress that contrasts with the red color of the set; It's all of these things that contribute to my insights on the scene, red being desire and green being greed or money. Gene is so attracted to this, almost mesmerized, at some point, even putting on glasses to see better. Cyd's body is used by Hollywood to keep the viewers hooked so that the viewers leave the theatre wanting more, talking more, just like money itself to an extent. 

Gene becomes the perfect character to portray the audience, both a pawn in a huge industry and someone blinded by eroticism. 

Comments

  1. Tom PowersSeptember 30, 2020 at 11:19 AM

    Interesting interpretation. I thought something along the same lines because of the introductory shot to that sequence, which has the feel of a bustling city defined by wealth and excess.

    ReplyDelete
  2. AmySeptember 30, 2020 at 5:43 PM

    This is a really interesting set of observations. I dont think it is overanalyzing it because isnt the point of every "rags to riches" story ultimately the power of wealth. And it is older than cinema to personify wealth in the embodiment of a beautiful woman!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Rachael T.November 21, 2020 at 5:59 PM

    Hello! You make an interesting point on the deeper meanings of the colors. There are so many layers that I did not originally see in this scene. It's wild the extent that some films go just to keep people engaged.

    ReplyDelete

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