Even in 1959, the Academy was old fashioned. That year, the Academy could have awarded the 1958 Best Picture to the sexually charged adaptation of Tennessee Williams’ Cat on a Hot Tin Roof or Stanley Kramer’s gritty racial drama The Defiant Ones. Instead, they went with Gigi, a stately, classical musical directed by Vincente Minnelli, who also directed An American In Paris and countless other classic musicals, comedies and dramas. While Gigi is a charming film, even in 1958, it sticks out like a sore thumb. At a time when film was pushing the limits, MGM went to Arthur Freed, who had been producing hit musicals for 20 years at this point, and Minnelli to craft a highly stylized and elegant Parisian musical. The film won all nine Oscars it was nominated for, including Best Picture and Best Director.
Gigi tells the story of Gigi (Leslie Caron), a girl groomed to be a courtesan, and Gaston (Louis Jordan), a wealthy socialite and friend of Gigi’s family. His uncle, Honoré Lachaille (Maurice Chevalier), is also a family friend, having had a previous relationship with her mother (Hermione Gringold). Gigi’s story of her difficulty growing up into a socialite whose sole purpose is to look beautiful and attend parties is juxtaposed with Gaston’s story of getting over boredom. (“It’s a Bore!”) When her mother finally decides that Gigi is old enough to be with Gaston as his mistress (Eva Gabor plays one he angers earlier in the film), she suddenly gets upset. Gaston and Gigi, who used to act as brother and sister, are genuinely falling in love.
This story is littered with cute sequences with Maurice Chevalier breaking the fourth wall and talking directly to the audience. He acts as our narrator and master of ceremonies. He guides us through, but also interacts with the characters. Chevalier provides us with the most charming sequence in the film, when he and Hermione Gringold sing “I Remember It Well.” He even gets all the laughs in the film to lighten the film. The other major performance in the film is Leslie Caron’s. She was already 27 when she starred as the young Gigi, but is still able to pull of an amazing, youthful performance.
While Gigi looks beautiful, thanks to the beautiful photography of real Paris locations, something that was missing in An American in Paris (1951), you can tell that it wants to be My Fair Lady from start to finish. Freed desperately wanted to make My Fair Lady, even going as far as recruiting Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Lowe to write Gigi’s songs and Lerner to write the script, based on Colette’s novella of the same name. Lerner and Lowe’s songs are not only similar to My Fair Lady’s, but the lead actor is stuck singing the songs in the ‘talking-style’ Rex Harrison perfected. And I’m sorry, but Louis Jourdan, as handsome as he is, is no Rex Harrison. Jourdan fails to make a well-written tune like the Oscar-winning “Gigi” as compelling as “Why Can’t The English?” or “A Hymn to Him.” Plus, the rest of the songs aren’t that good either. “Thank Heaven For Little Girls” is, quite frankly, a little creepy and many others simply aren’t that memorable. Sure, “I Remember It Well” is great and I find myself constantly humming “The Night They Invented Champagne,” but the rest is not among the best songs to appear in a Freed musical.
If the songs aren’t the strength of Gigi, it has to be its style. Minnelli had a knack for making movies just look great. The dresses, the sets and the Paris locations make the film look like a moving painting from the early 20th century. If An American In Paris showed what Paris would look like in a painter’s mind, Gigi shows what the city looks like in the head of socialites.
Gigi is an odd musical, without many stand out songs, but man...it looks so good. Minnelli was a master at style from Meet Me In St. Louis on to Gigi. The film was the swan song for the American musical genre as Freed saw it, but it wasn’t over. Thankfully, musicals continue to be made, with film adaptations of My Fair Lady and Chicago going on to win Best Picture Oscars. Still, none of them are as charming or look as beautiful as Gigi.
Gigi won nine Oscars at the 1958 ceremony, which was a record until Ben Hur won 11 the following year. It won for Best Picture, Director, Editing, Color Cinematography, Costume Design, Score, Song (“Gigi”), Adapted Screenplay and Art Direction.