In 1930, three years before Fred Astaire had even appeared on film, writer Robert Benchley had already proclaimed him “the greatest tap dancer in the world.” By the time Flying Down to Rio, his second film and first real breakthrough, opened in 1933, Astaire, along with his sister Adele, had already been hailed as a sensation of the New York and London stages. Ginger Rogers, on the other hand, though already several years into a successful movie acting career, had never danced with a partner before when they were paired on Rio. The rest is history: over nine years, Fred and Ginger would make ten movies together, immortalized as icons for their dazzlingly fleet-footed choreography and their singularly charming onscreen chemistry. It was an artistic partnership that would revolutionize and reimagine the Hollywood musical, reshaping the genre’s legacy for generations to come. Eighty-five years after their first collaboration, the Film Society is delighted to present a three-day complete retrospective of their shared oeuvre.