1958 Directed by Vincente Minnelli
A home, a motorcar, servants, the latest fashions: the most eligible and most finicky bachelor in Paris offers them all to Gigi. But she, who's gone from girlish gawkishness to cultured glamour before our eyes, yearns for that wonderful something money can't buy.
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Rule A of my movie watching: If a film presents its premises in the first ten minutes and you draw objections, you probably aren't giving the film a fair shake. In Gigi, you might miss how Maurice Chevalier notes that this is 1900—pre-war, pre-Depression—in a time of romance and love where a song about enjoying the passage of little girls into blossoming women can take on a bit of innocence. The misogyny and patronizing is somewhat out there and not exactly the most progressive thing for today's audiences, but to focus on those elements is to miss a cornucopia of surprisingly complex formal tactics; this is easily among my favorite Minnelli's.
Unlike a number of Freed musicals (even my favorite…
One of my favourite musicals, and MGM's last great hurrah of their Golden Age, this Lerner and Loewe score might suffer in places by not having traditional singers, but makes up for it by the charm and exactness of the casting.
Leslie Caron is a girlish delight as the would-be courtesan, being coached by her grandmother (Hermoine Gingold) and aunt Alicia (a spirited Isabel Jeans) to become the passive sport of kings. Louis Jourdan is the attractive leading man, Gaston, full of ennui and a lack of interest in the glorious females at 'Maxim's' - his rendition of the title song is a high point of many in the film.
The film belongs to that glorious Gallic…
I went to a Vincente Minnelli double-feature at the Stanford Theatre in Palo Alto, CA...and it was a sheer delight, to say the least. For more, read the full review here!
Gigi is a shrewd little movie. It convinces you it’s merely pretty fluff. Then it sucks you in, it makes you care, it really swings with emotion and wit.
The most admirable thing about Gigi is its simplicity. Even though one is wont to criticize its lavishness, it’s actually much more low-key than first meets the eye. Gigi is a smashing paradox: it’s a peek into a more perfect world than ours, but the world isn’t displayed in the feverish, over-the-top tradition of fantastical dream-worlds like American in Paris…
There is a musical number about how bored a spoiled rich man is with high society. The song hinges on the word "bored" being repeated over and over. I nearly croaked. And mind you, there is no actual dancing or usual Minnelli pizzazz to any of the numbers here. A creepy old man literally stands still, winks at the camera and sings "Thank Heaven for little girls". What a stuffy, sweaty stinker. Bottom five Best Pic Wins.
This movie begins with one of the most disturbing songs I've ever heard in a musical, in which a horny old man ogles a small child and sings "Thank heaven for little girls..." It gets laughs from a rich connoisseur of prostitutes spanking a naive young woman whom he will soon pursue in earnest. And then it ends with one of the most messed-up happily ever afters I've ever seen. An inadvertent tragedy, made watchable by the enchanting Leslie Caron. Watching her made me want to see Michelle Williams star in a musical.
Thin, light and obvious but also fairly charming and fun. Romance at the center pretty flat but some stuff at the edges intrigues. Excellent costumes and production design help this go down easily. Those colors!
The only logical movie to watch after watching Colette. Not at all weird to have an old man sing about little girls. The best way to describe it is a musical without any dancing or extravaganza. Gaston is so indecisive it's frustrating.
Absolutely gorgeous to look at. Of course it’s dated, it’s a 50s look at 1900. But for a scenery and costume and orchestration show you won’t do much better. It’s not an essential musical but I want to make gifs of it.
Other thoughts:
Was Thank Heaven for Little Girls ever not creepy?
Did not expect there to be a “learn to eat ortolan” scene in a movie from the 50s.
Wow, what a musical. This is one of the most beautifully shot films I have ever seen. I really love the color palate in this film. It really captured the look of early-20th century Paris very well. The musical numbers are very nice as well. The Night They Invented Champagne is really upbeat, and Say A Prayer For Me Tonight is such a beautiful song.
old men singing about little girls? check
training a young girl to be a mistress without her knowing? check
a man in his 30s falling for a 16 yr old? check
several inconsistencies? (if she doesn’t have friends, who is she playing with in the park? why are honoré and mamita in front of a sunset while gigi and gaston are in broad daylight at the exact same time? and many more i noticed that i’m not mentioning here) check
a musical with no dancing? check
at least the costumes were nice
This one really got me. The Oscar-winner about a rich Parisian man and a courtesan(prostitute)-in-training turns out to be a sweet tale of love and being true to who you are. Maurice Chevalier is the most grinningest Frenchman you’ll ever see, with his semi-creepy fixation on “little girls,” while Louis Jourdan can both act and carry a tune, and Leslie Caron is charming and playful as the lead. All shot in Paris, it’s a whimsical puff pastry of a film, with themes of loss, regret, free choice, putting on airs, and the changes of the 20th century.
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