Gigi (1958)

Gaston (Louis Jourdan), a fabulously wealthy man about town, is bored with the Parisian nightlife. He goes to fabulous parties with fabulous women (Eva Gabor) whom he showers with fabulous gifts, and is simply bored with it all. His creepy uncle (Maurice Chevalier) has no such problem. Thank heaven for little girls ...

He is friends with an older woman of Paris (Hermione Gingold) who is training her granddaughter (Leslie Caron) for the same … profession? As Gaston grows closer to Gigi, well, let’s just leave that here.

In a modern context, maybe Madame Alverez would be picked up by the FBI while Gaston would have been suicided in prison. But Gigi has a moral out. Set in 1900 Paris, the setting is distinctly not here and not now. This passes the judgement off to another culture. And as we are further from 1958 then 1958 was from 1900, another separation is in place. Should we judge the film harshly?

Leslie Caron was absolutely charming as the playful teen. The ripe old age of 26 while filming, she was entirely believable as a teenager. This is no small feat. Her body language was spot on. And this presents a problem. Is the character fifteen? They never say, but she is in the source material and seems every bit of it. So what we are left with is a budding romance between a teenaged girl and a rich, bored man pushing 40. And this is all ok because her grandmother (and great aunt) were training her to be a courtesan all along. It’s ok to feel dirty here.

Much of the descriptive dialog is intentionally vague, clipped and stilted to appease the production code. The audience is forced to make up our own mind what the situation is. Maybe Gigi is being groomed to be a proper lady rather than a woman who shares a rich man’s bed in exchange for lavash dinners and fancy jewelry. But, nope. The latter.

I find myself comparing this film with My Fair Lady, which has a similar theme of a old rich man grooming a too young girl. A big difference is that both characters here are more likable than in Lady. While Lady’s Higgins was unkind and lacked a proper character arc, Gaston was clearly a good person. He is looking for someone who is interesting and fun to be around. Someone who doesn't bore him. He is kind to Gigi and when he realizes his feelings, the moment is impactful.

I am somewhat embarrassed to say I enjoyed Gigi. I liked the characters and rooted for them. I can't side step the grooming of an underage girl aspect (and a family friend, no less), but my reaction is what it is. The musical numbers, while not super memorable, were much shorter than in Lady. AMRU 3.5.