Gigi is Vincente Minnelli's second musical to win the Academy Award for Best Picture, after An American in Paris. But Gigi works better than its predecessor. Like An American in Paris, it is set in the French capital, but unlike that movie it is actually filmed on location there, which benefits it enormously. Mainly though, it is just better written.
The story sees the eponymous Gigi being sent to her Aunt to be trained as a courtesan in a rather sexist Parisian period setting (the exact year in which the film is set is not defined). Meanwhile, her friend and ladies man Gaston engages in his habitual sexual conquests, but as the film unfolds he gradually - of course - starts to realise that he loves Gigi. There are of course barriers to overcome and an inevitable happy ending. Alan Jay Lerner's screenplay - loosely based on the novel by Colette - is full of mischief and wickedly sharp dialogue, and the plot's adult themes - which held up the adaptation of the novel due to the prudish, conservative Hayes Code - give an edge to the film that An American in Paris lacked.
In fact, there is some material here that might now raise eyebrows: after Gaston humiliates his mistress, she tries to commit suicide - apparently not for the first time - which everybody jokes about. The film's sexual politics are dated to say the least; Gaston, Honoré and the lyrics to several of the songs are outrageously sexist, and Maurice Chevalier's signature tune "Thank Heaven for Little Girls" now sounds less rakish and more like the fantasies of a man who grooms underage girls for sex. It's interesting that both Aunt Alicia and fellow matriarch and sister Madame Alvarez both indulge and indeed encourage Gaston's womanising.
Nevertheless, unashamedly dated as Gigi is, it works quite well, mainly because its characters are likeable in spite of their flaws. The three leads (who are all French, which means we get authentic accents) are perfectly cast: Maurice Chevalier gives a warm performance as Honoré Lachaille, uncle to the male protagonist Gaston, played by with considerable charm and charisma by Louis Jourdan. Leslie Caron (whose songs are dubbed by Betty Wand) has learned to act since Minnelli cast her in An American in Paris is utterly endearing as the titular Gigi and establishes convincing on-screen chemistry with Jourdan. Isabel Jeans doesn't bother trying to hide her English accent as great aunt Alicia, but she gives such an wonderfully arch performance that it doesn't matter and she gets some great scenes with Hermione Gingold who plays her onscreen sister Madame Alvarez.
Minnelli's colourful mise-en-scéne is lavish, detailed and a visual feast. The film opens with Maurice Chevalier's Honoré Lachaille breaking the fourth wall to introduce the setting and premise, which he does this a lot, commentating on the events of the film as the story unfolds and eventually bidding the audience farewell at its conclusion. Minnelli includes similar narrative tricks throughout, for example when "She is Not Thinking of Me" is included as a - mostly - non-diagetic track to reflect Gaston's thoughts. Whilst I'm no fan of musicals, the music by Frederick Loewe and André Previn works well, intermingling diagetic and non-diagetic tunes to create a pleasing coherent whole.
Gigi is often quite funny, for example when Alicia tries with mixed results to train Gigi in how to do simple tasks like pour coffee, and the overall result is a generally good-natured, light-hearted romp of a film. It's a product of its time (and perhaps also a product of the time in which Collette's novel was written), but if you can accept its faults there is much to admire and enjoy here.
Review of Gigi
