My favourite musical, one of my favourite directors, watching the remastered version at the BFI with my favourite person, who was watching it for the first time. Perfecto.

It’s a glorious, ravishing spectacle full of wonderful design and camerawork, great performances, wonderful songs, passion and of course, that Minnelli colour palette.

Judy Garland is mercurial, you can tell Minnelli was falling in love with her, such is the lighting and framing of her character. What I love about this musical is how organic the songs feel to the narrative. Nothing is forced, it’s all so effortless and the songs are great.

Roma said she found the ending strange, and it really is. It feels tacked on somewhat to ensure we see some of the World’s Fair the film talks so much about, and so we have all four seasons represented but it allows an ending which is happy, but also feels somewhat cynical. I don’t know if it is cynical because of my eyes watching it 75 years plus after release, but the notion of not seeking adventure in New York and staying in St. Louis, seeing it as an equal, especially as the family lives in the suburbs and we never see St. Louis city comes across as naive and laughable. It might also be down to my relationship with my own hometown.

But that is one of the things that fascinates me about that film. As much as it is archetypal in its depiction of family and a woman’s search for a husband it also lacks any character who dreams of moving to a big city, of following another dream. This is rarefied in Hollywood, and means the film retains a uniqueness and a social commentary that beguiles in its difference.

All in all a fascinating film with one of the most sublime celluloid sequences for me; when Lon tells the family they are moving to New York and they disperse, upset, only to be drawn back, organically, into the family unit when Mother plays piano and Father sings. It’s a beautiful moment that captures the heart of this family, and of what family really is. Togetherness. Always.