Review of Gigi (1958) by Eric P — 12 Dec 2010

A 50s musical that surpasses the rest. How? Well for one, the numbers aren't spectacular. There's no 20 minute ballet scene where the audience is bored to death but feels the need to say "oh that was impressive" just because it was 20 minutes long and involved lots of colour and editing.

Another reason is that the songs, aside from Thank Heaven for Little Girls, of course, just weren't all that memorable. But that's perfectly okay, because what we get from both those elements is this: a humble little musical, nothing too much.

That's good, it's the complete opposite of what the other guys were doing around this time. Now what Minelli did here was genius-- he made it funny. Really funny. And he made you stare at the gorgeously designed sets and fall in love with every single one of the characters.

Now nine oscars is a bit much, I'll admit. But this is a good movie nonetheless. A good, lighthearted, funny little musical. And that's exactly what it was trying to be.