Movies like gigi 19589/16/2023 Honore encourages Gaston to publicly dump and humiliate his mistress Liane (Eva Gabor), who they found out is also seeing her skating instructor. He enjoys Gigi’s company, too, and looks at her as something of a kid sister. Instead, she is more interested in playing cards and hanging around with Gaston Lachaille (Louis Jourdan), nephew of Honore, a womanizer like his uncle who is suddenly bored with his life of halfheartedly romancing women and driving around in expensive cars. Gigi is being groomed to be a courtesan like the rest of the women in her family by her Grandmamma (or “Mamita” as she’s known- played by Hermione Gingold) and aunt Alicia (Isabel Jeans), who find her odd because she does not share their interest in material things or the art of entrancing men. Not a great start.Įnter Gigi (Leslie Caron), one of those “little girls” Honore was singing about, only a bit older and in her teens. So here we are, only 5 minutes in and we have already been assigned a guide who thinks women are objects and only even worth pursuing if they are young. Unfortunately, age has not made it any less icky. I found this particular song and subject in uncomfortable when watching Gigi for the first time as a teenager, 20 years or so before the Me Too Movement. This feels a lot like those cringe worthy “countdown until she’s legal” clocks and websites that female celebrity teens like Emma Watson and the Olsen twins were the subject of. He then launches into the first song of the musical, “Thank Heaven for Little Girls,” which echoes this sentiment with the lines “thank Heaven for little girls, for little girls get bigger every day,” cementing the idea that the only value he sees in the female sex is to age into young ladies who he may leer at. Not antiques, mind you, younger things.” He pauses to check out an elderly lady passing by, shoots the audience a “Yikes!” look and asserts, “Yes, definitely younger.”Ī quick scene between a man, his wife, and his mistress is followed by Honore’s explanation that every girl either grows up to be married (a wife) or unmarried (a mistress), while gesturing to a 6 or 7 year old girl walking in front of him implying that her chances of being one or the other are 50/50. The elderly Honoré Lachaille (played by Maurice Chevalier) is our guide and narrator, a self-described “collector of beautiful things. The film opens on the streets of Paris at the turn of the century 1900s. Production Notes: Adapted for the screen by Arthur Jay Lerner from the novel by Colette, Cinematography by Joseph Ruttenburg, music by Frederick Loewe and Andre Previn (lyrics by Lerner), Film Editing by Adrienne Fazan, Costumes by Cecil Beaton.Cast: Leslie Caron, Maurice Chevalier, Louis Jourdan, Eva Gabor, Hermione Gingold, Isabel Jeans.Other AA Wins: Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Art Direction-Set Direction, Best Cinematography (color), Best Costume Design, Best Film Editing, Best Musical Score, Best Original Song (“Gigi”).For a list of all films and reviews, please see my original post. Beginning in 2019, I will embark on the Old Hollywood Best Picture Challenge, where I will endeavor to watch all 270 films that were nominated and/or won for Best Picture at the Academy Awards between the years 1927-1969.
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