Review of Gigi (1958) by Rodolfo R — 28 May 2005

[i]Gigi[/i] was one of the happiest discoveries of my life. I avoided it for years because, try as I might, I just don't like [i]An American in Paris[/i] all that much. Since [i]Gigi[/i] shares a director (Vincente M-i-double-n-then-e-double-l-i), screenwriter (Alan Jay Lerner), producer (Arthur Freed), gamine (La Caron) and Best Picture Oscar with [i]AAiP[/i], I decided I'd be fine without it. I don't know why it was I decided to give it a try. It was probably on TCM and I figured What the hell, I wanna see all the Oscar-winners.

I have never been happier to be wrong in my life. [i]Gigi[/i] was love at first sight. And I mean [i]sight[/i]. Joseph Ruttenberg's gorgeous location photography - and I didn't even have to look up his name! Cecil Beaton's costumes and production design! And all in glorious Techicolor! I don't care what Paris was like in 1900. As far as I'm concerned, it's just like this movie. And Maurice Chevalier is my tour guide.

God, those performances! Chevalier's gentilhomme is exactly the person I would have expected his [i]Love Me Tonight[/i] character to become, if he hadn't been killed by a jealous husband first. Louis Jourdan is so damn charming, I didn't care that he doesn't really sing (he wasn't dubbed, I just wouldn't call what he does "singing"). Hermione Gingold tended to play characters like Eulalie McKechnie Shinn - because she was really, really good at it - throughout her career, but here evinces grandmotherly warmth without sacrificing an ounce of her comedic sensibilities. Leslie Caron simply effervesces. She sparkles. She glows. She melts Rodolfo's heart.

And those songs! (I'm exclaiming a lot! Ain't I!) Composer Fritz Loewe and author-lyricist Alan Jay Lerner had just completed the perfect Broadway musical, [i]My Fair Lady[/i], and then got the wacky idea into their heads to create the perfect Hollywood musical. From the one-two opening punch of the overture and Chevalier's "Thank Heaven for Little Girls," you can rest assured that you are in the hands of musical comedy masters. Every single song works beautifully. Chevalier's gallic charm remains potent as ever in "Thank Heaven...," "I'm Glad I'm not Young Anymore," and the highly amusing "I Remember it Well" with Gingold. Gigi has a lovely underrated ballad in "Say a Prayer for Me Tonight," (Caron was dubbed by Betty Wand). The title song won an Oscar, but the highlight for me has always been the joyous "Night They Invented Champagne.".

It's in the scene surrounding "...Campagne" that you can really see Minnelli's genius. It starts out simply in the small apartment Gigi shares with her Grandmama (Gingold). Gaston (Jourdan) invites them both to spend the weekend with him on the beach. So they pop open the champagne to celebrate. Caron dances around the room. Gingold does a can-can, Jourdan sits around looking French. They don't run out into the street to be joined by a line of surprisingly clean singing and dancing homeless people. There's no chorus from an unseen chorus. It's just the joy three people feel when they really love life and each other.

We should all be so lucky.