Best Picture Winner: 1958

Gigi (1958)

Gigi is an absolutely delightful musical about, of all things, a girl who’s being raised to be a courtesan. She’ll enter into society to be the mistress of various wealthy men, moving from one to another as they are done with her. But she’ll live a charmed life consisting of fine dining, glamorous fashion, and expensive jewelry, that is, as long as love doesn’t get in the way.

Gigi (Leslie Caron) enjoys the company of Gaston Lachaille (Louis Jourdan), a friend of her grandmother’s (Hermione Gingold) who brings Gigi candy and plays cards with her when he visits. He is bored with the carefree lifestyle that wealth has afforded him. Gigi herself does not see the practicality of love and romance. Of course, the two are meant for each other.

Gigi is one of the best musicals of the 1950s. Its breathtaking color, opulent art direction and costume design, pitch-perfect performances, and, best of all, memorable songs help make this film an absolute joy. Right from the opening number, with Maurice Chevalier crooning the now-classic “Thank Heaven for Little Girls,” were are warmly invited into turn of the century Paris, where single, wealthy men need not look at marriage as the only means of love, which, in this context, refers to sex. Jourdan, shortly there after, delivers the delightful “It’s A Bore,” where he bemoans this very existence. When we meet Gigi, we are instantly taken by her. She is full of enthusiasm and good humor, but has little use for romance. We know these two will fall in love. Along the way, we are treated to such musical delights as “I Remember It Well” and “I'm Glad I'm Not Young Anymore.”

There is humor and shock in learning what defines happiness for certain Parisian women of the time. In one such scene Aunt Alicia, who is training Gigi to be such a lady, brings out her jewelry and tells Gigi that just by looking at what a woman is wearing one can tell if her man is losing interest in her. In another highlight, Gaston enters a popular restaurant with his current mistress and all the patrons stop their chatter, observing the lovers’ entrance and commencing to gossip about the couple. This approach is repeated when, near the end of the film, Gaston arrives with Gigi at the very same restaurant, but with different emotional results.

Leslie Caron’s Gigi is an endearing character. We love her instantly and wish the best for her. And we watched astonished, as this bright-eyed, pig-tailed cutie transforms into a beautiful woman before our – and Gaston’s – eyes. You’ll be grinning from ear to ear at the film’s final moments. Lovely to look at and listen to, Gigi is a great entertainment from an era when audiences were more than willing to let films tell their stories in both word and song.