During the very popular 'Dancing in the Dark' scene from the film "The Band Wagon", the director, Vincente Minnelli manages to foreshadow the fact that Fred Astaire's character, Tony Hunt, and Cyd Charesse's alter ego, Gabrielle, will succeed in becoming a couple by the film's conclusion. Up until this particular scene, the audience has been led to believe through a series of misunderstandings and petty arguments that there will be no hope of romance between the featured couple. How then does Vincente Minnelli accomplish his task of foreshadowing, despite all of the pre-ceding narrative information? Minnelli does not simply use a dialogue full of admissions of love or admiration, instead he uses much more unique cinematic tools. By employing the myth of spontaneity, numerous allusions to marriage, a very popular contemporary love song as well as having the number
choreographed using a combination of the two protagonist's dancing styles; all
framed within the first complete and uninterrupted number that includs the two of them, Minnelli effectively foreshadows their success in overcoming their differences in an effort to find love.
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