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“Gigi” is set for a global box office mopup as it has all the ingredients. It is a naughty but nice romp of the hyper-romantic impertinent Paris of the 90s spring somewhere in the woods, Maxim’s, boudoir, and even the Bois. How can it fail?
In spite of the sex, and for the record of all concerns including the censorial authorities because it is a sex film, it is full of taste from the sartorial investiture to the ultimate histrionic performances.
Alan Jay Lerner’s libretto is self-evidently glee for an inspired Casting deliberately for all principals, Fritz Loewe’s tunes (to Lerner’s lyrics) already challenge and imply within them rivalry to and rememberable score from ‘My Fair Lady’ from the verse.
“Gigi” by Colette, is a French variation of Pygmalion. The Freed tiptop film production analogy to the Levin legitimate Shavian source grows more clear as the film proceeds. Especially when with their captivating melodies punching over with pyramiding effect in the expert hands and voices of the cast or their skillful vocal doubles, the Lerner-Loewe association certainly amplifies the comparison. Just to complete the package, Beaton’s imaginative costumes, scenery, and production design which figured so importantly in Lady repeats in Gigi. It’s Beaton’s Hollywood debut and Lerner-Loewe’s post-Fair Lady.
“Gigi” is l00% escapist fare and is a cinch for worldwide impact, probably including those territories that are not overly partial to musicals because, with this particular, it is fundamentally of a foreign pattern. Amour-amour is an obsession that the French have and is something that both sexes can equally appreciate and as Colette’s character reveals, it is evident that the hoydenish Gigi is much more concerned with spending a casual (but super-charged) romance and not much else.
The romance between Leslie Caron and Louis Jourdan is a stark contrast to the cheerfulness of Maurice Chevalier (who is close to stealing the show), Isabel Jeans, Hermione Gingold, and Eva Gabor. Although he plays “I’m Bored,” one of the many lyrics custom-made for him, his love for the blossoming “Gigi” is an enigmatic and colorful romance paradigm.
Miss Caron enchants the audience with an impressively powerful performance in the title character movie. She is also part of the illusion of the fin-de-siecle characters of the period whose volcanic peccadilloes highlighted the spice and gossip at Maxim’s. The sum total bears realism owing to the masterly skills in casting, performing, and presentation. Indeed, even Betty Wand’s vocal doubling for Miss Caron appears authentic, in fact, a shade more than some of the synchronization by the others, Louis Jourdan for example.
The songs are already a delight in LP form and, with the film’s extended circulation, are bound to enhance in value as the celluloid characterizations engrave into pop culture. His vocal solo includes Maxim’s waltz, “She is Not Thinking Of Me”. He does “Bored” as a double with Chevalier and “The Night They Invented Champagne” together with Miss Caron and Miss Gingold. Later scores in a telling double-lyric with Chevalier a nostalgic item “I Remember It Well,” which she sings while correcting the lothario’s faltering romantic reminiscences. Chevalier is a standout in this and two others which he milks to the last lyrical line, “I’m Glad I’m Not Young Any More” and “Thank Heaven For Little Girls,” the latter of which is a delightful opener and the fadeout finale. “Young Any More” is an old route of an uncle’s summation of a life lived to the fullest. Love and impatience for Miss Caron (Betty Wand’s) solo in parodied “The Parisians,” who were said to have a predilection for toujours amour, and she thrushes “Say A Prayer For Me Tonight” as Jourdan’s romantic if not altogether honorable proposal is made, along with the request to meet her at Maxim’s.
Gigi, produced in France, is set in Paradis and Tuilleries, Bois de Boulogne, and Palais de Glace which backdrop Eva Gabor’s skating excursions with Jacques Bergerac, her instructor, and gives rise to the pattern of playing boudoir music that was prevalent in Paris in the 1890s.
The second part Gigi, also goes to show perfectly meeting the expectations set by Demi Monde French world. From Chevalier as the sophisticated uncle to John Abbott as the gentlemanly butler to Miss Gingold understanding Gigi’s grandma to Isabel Jeans, Gigi’s worldly aunt who would demi mondaine Gigi in love, and to Eva Gabor as the concept of said 1.1 and Miss Caron as light-hearted and carefree Gigi all of them were superbly stunning in their light.
Miss Caron, of course, superbly stunning has a valid point, Gigi from Ludhiana claiming her claim with ‘once a showgirl, always a showgirl’ Audrey Hepburn did it is a Colette’s cocotte phrase using cinema, surely always stands her in excellent stead in her film return gigi with Lili. Joyous, of course, claims her towards her.
In keeping with the excellent taste of director Minnelli and the general competence of those involved who knew there was no other possibility owing to Lerner’s singularly excellent basic libretto this Arthur Freed nonstudio production is distinguishable. The Metrocolor of this feature is worthy of mention for its soft pastels under the lenses of Joseph Ruttenberg. The costumes, sets and overall production design by Beaton are loud strikingly vivid assets at first glance. Because of the very skillful combination of the words and music with the plot motivation, this Gigi is indeed a very fair lady as a box office entry.
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