Evan D. As a project this year we are taking a trip through time to revisit all of the Best Picture winners in history, Wings to Anora. Gigi is the thirty-first film in that series, to see all the other Best Picture reviews, click here. I am going to start this review with a controversial statement: If your big budget movie musical begins with a seventy year old man singing about the alluring virtues of teenage girls, you should probably reconsider your big budget movie musical. As you no doubt have gathered by that, the 1959 winner of Best Picture, Gigi, both begins and ends with septuagenarian Maurice Chevalier belting out a centerpiece number titled “Thank Heaven for Little Girls.” That’s really all you need to know about Gigi, a film about the romance between Leslie Caron’s titular 15 year old and 30 something nobleman named Gaston (Louis Jourdan). Gigi is being raised by her grandmother (Hermione Gingold) and great aunt (Eva Gabor) to win the affections of wealthy noblemen. Rather than focusing on dance — Gigi’s fleetingly mentioned passion — she spends her days learning the proper way to walk, talk, eat and serve a man of distinction. At first Gaston, friendly with Gigi’s grandmother, views her as a spunky kid and one of the few people who speak freely with him. Soon he comes to realize he is in love with her, let’s say, youthful spirit. We can analyze all the faults and virtues — there are plenty of each — of Gigi, it is tough to move beyond the pedophilic nature of the film. Gaston even has a whole song where he acknowledges that his paramour is a literal child eventually determining that its fine because she has grown up so much. The women of Paris bore him throughout the film and only Gigi’s playful nature softens his jaded shell. Gigi, mind you, is still in grade school. Eventually, when the two profess their affections for one another, Gigi abandons her youth and plays the part of an elegant lady that her matriarchs taught her to be only to find that Gaston is quickly bored of that too. His affections really and truly are only for the childlike qualities of a girl 15 years his junior. For what it is worth — quite little in the balance — the movie looks fantastic. Much like Minnelli’s previous Oscar winning collaboration with Caron, An American in Paris, the use of stunning color contrast and beautiful location filming really adds an element of shine to Gigi. There is an undeniable vivaciousness the pair bring to the film. Caron was 26 at the time of filming but portrays her young character with such a convincing youthful verve that its at times shocking. On the other hand, the musical element of the film is among the weakest of the era. The songs, from the same team behind My Fair Lady, are mediocre at best and cringeworthy at worst. More baffling is the decision to make this a musical without any accompanying dance numbers. Especially given Caron’s background as a dancer. Without that element, the musical numbers feel flatter and the film more grounded. Which is a problem because of, y’know, the subject matter. Again, everything in the film, good and bad, returns back to this central issue. Like a black hole at the heart of the movie, no amount of filmmaking prowess or impressive performance can overcome it. No matter how handsome the filmmaking and no matter how committed the central performance, this is still a movie about the supposedly endearing romance of a bachelor in his 30s and a schoolgirl. I’m astonished, but ultimately not surprised, that Hollywood bestowed its highest honor upon this film. 3/10
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