Singin' in the Rain Analysis

Singin' in the Rain (1952)

Directed by: Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen

It's a musical film set in Hollywood during the late 1920s when there is a transition from silent films to talkies, and the difficulties a studio faces during the transition. I absolutely loved the setting, and the way they capture struggles of filmmaking - people don't otherwise understand the hardships of filmmakers because a lot of the hardship is to hide the work that goes behind making a film and to make it look easy and seamless. There are a lot of things which are probably relevant even today in the film industry, things like 'actors get all the glory, they've to take some slack with it as well'. 

The film has an underdog spirit to it, in spite of the film being made by a production studio - simple because of the response they get at the test screening and because we have seen how hard they tried to even put together that. This reminds of one of Pixar's principles of screenwriting - you don't love a character because they win, you love them because they tried. The idea of turning the film into a musical tells us about how they don't give up so easily, and try to give it their all and put together something that they can. I liked how the film ends by a resolution to everything; the film doing well, their love story, Kathy being given her due, Lina being slightly punished - all the arcs are closed and it's a proper happy ending.