Oh Lordy, What Ever Happened to the 1940s?

SWOON. Lately I have been going through my pile of old movies that I’ve been saving for some free time for over a month. These mostly include Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers movies, with Funny Face thrown in the loop.

I’ve been calling myself vintage for a while now, whether or not that still holds true now. Yet I have never been able to get myself to sit down and watch and old, black and white movie, with the exception of the “I Love Lucy” and “Bewitched” episodes on TV Land from my childhood. But any full feature film, forget it. I always blamed the black and white images and that my generation would get bored without colors and pretty effects. But figures… just like history, symbolism, buses, ballet, and opera, old movies were in the mix as something for me to experience anew in Paris and discover.

I knew from general pop culture that Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers were dancers… BUT NOT TO THE EXTENT THEY ARE. HOLY CRAP. I stared at the TV screen with my jaw on the floor during Shall We Dance. I so did not expect the extreme talent in their synchronized tap dancing. Swoon. It makes me want to know how to dance even more. And I can’t even figure out whether ballet with its slow grace movements or tap with its fast and loud motions is more difficult. Either way, I want to be a dancer when I grow up now!

Can we also talk about how Ginger Rogers and Audrey Hepburn are more beautiful than any of the movie stars today? I’m sorry, you know I love Meryl Streep, but still. Maybe I’m struck by their old-time beauty that we have so far evolved from, but between Fred Astaire’s charm and dancing ease and Ginger Rogers mysterious beauty, I can’t get over these movies. So far, my favorite is Follow the Fleet, which also contains some of my favorite songs from that era, which I get to sing along to! Swoon some more. “We joined the navy, to see the world. And what’d we see? We saw the sea…..”

Funny Face, then, falls into its own realm where I was quite literally stupidifed by the end. IT WAS THE MOST PERFECT MOVIE I HAD EVER SEEN. Ok, so this one was in color, but I literally found myself shouting to the screen in my empty apartment that there was no way this could get any better. I squealed when they sang “Bonjour Paris” and couldn’t contain myself as they ran around Paris. I swooned some more at Fred Astaire’s quick feet and I drooled over Audrey Heburn’s clothing. In my mind, I don’t know how that movie could’ve been any better. The plot was even quick, something that I will say sometimes older movies lack.

Now, I am as big a pop culture fan as anyone (or at least I used to be before I moved to Paris and stopped paying attention because English-speaking People magazines weren’t in my face everywhere), and am fascinated by my celebrities, but I now see that world differently now. Look at Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. Look at their talents. They both (and Audrey Hepburn, too!) can dance, sing, AND act… and sometimes I think their acting is better than most modern-day films I’ve seen (not counting Meryl Streep, of course). Back then, you had to be a triple-threat to have “it”. And they truly deserved the celebrity they had. How many people can we say that of today? It’s simple: they just don’t make movie stars like Fred Astaire anymore. Forget it, I wish I lived in the 1940s again.