Cinema Sunday: Gigi

Yesterday was my wife Andrea's birthday so today's Cinema Sunday will be about one of her favorite movies from her childhood.  She has fond memories of watching this movie with her grandmother.

From 1958, we present Gigi, an American musical romantic comedy film directed by Vincente Minnelli. 

At the turn of the 20th century, Paris is awash in vibrant colors and passions for  wealthy young bon vivants.

Except for Gaston, the pleasures available to a man of his wealth and privilege leave him bored. Gaston's indifference to his opportunities are a source of trouble and confusion for his uncle, Honoré Lachaille.  Honoré may be an older man but he still persues beautiful women with the same passion of his youth. 

Gaston appears to get some sastisfaction spending time with Madame Alvarez and her granddaughter, the precocious, carefree Gilberte, affectionately known as Gigi. 

Pronounced "zhee zhee".

Since the movie is named after her, what is up with Gigi? 

Following "family tradition", Madame Alvarez is sending Gigi to her sister, Alicia (Gigi's great-aunt) to be schooled in proper etiquette and charm, to be groomed as a courtesan. 

Or expressed another way, wealthy man's mistress. 

Or high society whore. 

Remember this is a movie Andrea remembers fondly from her childhood. I'm thinking the implications of Gigi's training may have gone over her head.   

Gigi disdains all this education when all she wants is to have fun with Gaston, whom she regards as an older brother.

Yeah, this could get awkward. 

Especially when great-aunt Alicia and Madame Alvarez scheme to turn Gigi into Gaston's mistress. 

So Gigi's courtesan training goes into high gear, Gaston is flummoxed by Gigi's more womanly style of dress and Gigi's weirded out when she realizes she expected to do what with who now? 

There's a lot of emotional outbursts, mostly from Gaston who blows up about some damn thing or another, stomps off, sulks a bit and returns all contrite and to be blunt, I'm not sure what's going but it seems to me that Gaston needs therapy.  

Gigi performs perfectly as a courtesan to Gaston which seems to tick Gaston off for... reasons. 

Look, this is an American film made in the 1950's. There will be no fucking with out the marriage so...

The final sequence features Honoré Lachaille proudly pointing out Gaston and Gigi getting into a carriage, elegant, beautiful, and happily married.

The "It's That Person Who Was In That Thing" Department  

• Leslie Caron plays "Gigi" and back in 1951 in  An American in Paris, she also played the too young love interest for the the too old leading man.  
• Louis Jourdan as Gaston would later appear in Made in Paris where he once more plays the very suave sophisticate about town, a role that is second nature to Louis Jourdan. 
• The role of Madame Alvarez was performed by Hermione Gingold who was in The Music Man.  
• And Liane d'Exelmans was played by Eva Gabor who provided voice work on animated Disney films like The Aristocats,  The Rescuers, and The Rescuers Down Under. Perhaps her most popular roles was a Lisa Douglas on the television sitcom Green Acres.

Let's spend some time with Maurice Chevalier who portrayed Honoré Lachaille. 

If you have heard the classic Warner Bros. cartoon character Pepe Le Pew, well, you have a handle on how Maurice Chevalier speaks. And acts. 

Chevalier's first number in Gigi is "Thank Heaven for Little Girls".  Honoré is grateful for little girls because they grow up into beautiful women who are...   How can I put this politely? Well, I won't.   The grown up into beautiful women who are fuckable.  

OK, the actual lyrics are not so crude and somehow Maurice Chevalier makes Honoré's wistful ponderings seem romantic and charming. But let's be blunt here:  Honoré wants little girls to grow up so he can sex them up. I suppose it could be  worse: Honoré could be opposed to waiting. So God bless him for his discretion, chivalry and I suppose his patience.

Maurice Chevalier performs a duet with Hermione Gingold called "I Remember It Well" as the former lovers recall their youth but in slightly different perspectives. It's been homaged and parodied countless times over the years.  

• "I was early." "You were late."
• "You wore a red dress." "It was blue." 
• "The moon shone brightly." "It was cloudy." 
• "I sexually satisfied you." "I wasn't even there." 

And so on and so on.  

Gigi was responsible for revitalizing the movie career of the 70 year old Maurice Chevalier. 

The dude was 70 years old still chasing young women to fuck. Disgusted or impressed? Take your pick.  

Gigi is considered MGM's last hurrah for the big budget musical spectacles for which the studio was well known.  Such movies were no longer appealing to a new modern generation.

But if Gigi marked the end of an era for MGM, the studio was going out with a bang. The film is gorgeous to behold, shot mostly on location, glowing with the boundless spirit and beauty that is Paris.  

And if the modern audience of the era was moving away from such lavish musicals, Gigi found enough enough loyal cinephiles to make the movie both a commercial and critical success.  

Gigi was nominated for 9 Academy Awards including Best Picture and won all of them, a record that remained unbroken until The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King won all eleven of its nominations at the 76th Academy Awards in 2004.

I know I snarked off about this movie a bit but objectively, I can see why Gigi enchanted audiences when the movie came out and why it enchanted Andrea when she was a little girl. 

There are things one should not think about too much but otherwise, Gigi is a warm and colorful romantic fantasy.