The joyous satire of Hollywood overwhelmed by sound film, the torrential celebration of amorous élan, the comic energy that meets and dissolves into perfect choreographic stylization. The idea itself of a musical, at the fleeting height of its success. How much of it is Donen, and how much Kelly? We will leave it to Franco La Polla, the Italian American studies scholar who has loved and studied this film the most: “Donen and Kelly knew each other well at the time. The former (twelve years younger) had debuted as a director in another film co-directed with the latter, On the Town (1949). It is not a secret that Kelly was primarily an extraordinary dancer who would then later direct another five films – all with ambiguous results […] The world of Donen is an organic structure that distributes hints and traces of authorship in every moment. His primary quality is the centrality of the concept of movement within the economy of each scene and the whole film. In Donen the expression of energy is not simply limited to moments in which the characters experience a certain amount of enthusiasm; in fact, it pervades the course, pace and gesture of the narrative, providing a characteristic, widespread vitality to the whole picture. In other words, in those moments the whole world seems to transform, adapting itself to the psychological state of the characters – expressed in terms of movement […] A directorial approach that certainly belonged more to Donen than Kelly, who indeed was an extremely gifted actor-dancer capable of translating it on the screen”. We can only add that Singin’ in the Rain is a film of magic matchmaking: Stanley Do – nen and Gene Kelly, the formidable scre – enwriting couple Betty Comden and Adol – ph Green, and a producer of extraordinary talent like Arthur Freed, “a gift from God” in the words of Donen. The team that dro – ve American musical towards eternity.