Both Gigi's anxiety and Gaston's indecisiveness I guess could be good enough explanation for how quickly they change their minds back and forth, but when it counts, we are not privy to their internal processes. The character motivations in the final act seem muddled to me. To be honest, it's when answering these questions that Gigi loses me a little.
But is it too much too soon? Can she handle the bonds of commitment? Will Gaston get over being a bachelor and accept these changes of Gigi's? The older women fear Gigi will suffer the same fate (Grandmother was once jilted by Honore), and that's why they are so determined to groom her for Gaston. As Aunt Alicia says, some marry at once, some marry at last. Chevalier will not marry, whereas Gigi's Grandmother and Aunt (Isabel Jeans) have not. In both of these scenes, Chevalier's character establishes one of the central conflicts in Gigi: the rift between the people who will not marry and the people who do not. The most famous of these would have to be "Thank Heaven for Little Girls," performed by Maurice Chevalier at the start of the picture as he walks in the park amongst the many lovers who congregate there, some of them openly and some in secret.Ĭhevalier also has one of the best numbers when he gets to sing "I'm Glad I'm Not Young Anymore," addressing the audience directly as he compares the perils of youth and romance to the comfort of old age. It's one of several songs from Gigi that have since become standards. Never mind that the cutaways to Caron and Jourdan on the beach show blue skies and sunshine! What's it matter when the mood of the evening shot is perfect for the reminiscence of two former lovers?ĭuring that seaside scene, Chevalier and Gingold perform "I Remember it Well," a marvelous comedic number with music by Frederick Loewe and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner. Just take a gander at the horizon when Maurice Chevalier and Hermione Gingold meet by the sea, framed by a purple colored sky that slowly turns red the deeper the couple drifts into memory. The costumes are colorful and grand, and there are some breathtaking vistas, including gorgeously painted skies. Preston Ames, the art director for An American in Paris, also joins with Beaton to bring Paris to life for the screen. The fabulous Cecil Beaton designed all the costumes and also decorated the scenery to give Gigi a turn-of-the-century glamour that both captures the feeling of the Parisian spirit but also gives it his unique look, much like he did for London in My Fair Lady. Vincente Minnelli shot much of Gigi on location in Paris, and we see the signature style of the city represented by its architecture and interior design.
#Gigi movie scenes full#
Gigi is a visual sensation full of gorgeous things to look at. They look at Gigi and Gaston and see a perfect match. After a disastrous affair with a dramatic paramour (Eva Gabor, Green Acres), Gaston becomes a scandalous figure in gossip circles, and though his skirt-chasing uncle Honoré Lachaille (Maurice Chevalier, The Love Parade ) tries to guide him through the treacherous waters of lovemaking, the women around Gigi have different ideas in mind. She will eventually turn the head of her rich cousin Gaston (Louis Jourdan, Letter from an Unknown Woman), who is bored with the same old society dames and the games they play.
The final product is not as special as the Academy Award-winning Gene Kelly vehicle, but it's good, light-hearted fun, and Gigi carried off a bevy of statues of its own on Oscar night, including the top prize.Ĭaron's Gigi is a fun-loving, nineteen-year-old girl who lives with her grandmother (Hermione Gingold, The Music Man) and remains blissfully unaware of the maddening social conventions of love affairs in Parisian society. Returning to the scene of that spectacular success, Freed and director Vincente Minnelli turned to the Colette novella Gigi to give us another Paris-based film about an older gentleman falling for a bewitching French ingénue, once again played by Leslie Caron. Six years after An American in Paris, the Arthur Freed crew at MGM had perfected their special touch for making movie musicals.
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