Movie: Gigi

Release Date: May 15, 1958

Director: Vincente Minnelli

Starring: Leslie Caron, Maurice Chevalier, Louis Jourdan, Hermione Gingold, Eva Gabor, Jacques Bergerac, Isabel Jeans

Personal History: Never Watched Before

Rating: 5.25 Oscars out of 10

‘Gigi’ was nominated for nine Academy Awards and won in every single category. It held that “sweeping” record until 2003, when ‘Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King’ swept all of its eleven nominated categories. I asked the same question back then when I watched ‘The Return of the King’ as I did when I watched today’s movie. Why?

I thought being a musical comedy I would at least somewhat like what I was about to watch. I was completely wrong. I guess genre descriptions can be deceptive.

Don’t get me wrong, ‘Gigi’ looks absolutely beautiful. The sets, costumes, colors, cinematography are all top notch. Vincente Minnelli won Best Director and I guess that award was well deserved, although I prefer his other musical I recently watched ‘An American in Paris.’

Unfortunately, that’s really all of the positive things I can say about ‘Gigi.’

The plot was horrendously silly. A teenage girl being trained by her grandmother and aunt to be a courtesan so she can date wealthy men. Really? The characters are caricatures of despicable people and I wasn’t rooting for anyone at all. It was boring with “zero” memorable songs, nothing that made me want to tap my feet, hum along or even smile. I definitely do not need the soundtrack added to my collection.

The cast does a respectable job, but no one really shines. Leslie Caron was much more of a standout in Mr. Minnelli’s other aforementioned musical. It really comes down to the material. There is just nothing there to make the actors shine. It is silly, pretentious and just not grade A material one would expect from the creators of ‘My Fair Lady.’ And the song “Thank Heaven for Little Girls”…totally creepy.

With all of that said, here I was today watching ‘Gigi’ as part of my Academy Award Best Picture Movie Challenge. Best Picture? That is still a hard pill to swallow. It does not get my lowest ranking as it is a beautifully constructed film, but it will also not make my favorite movie list either.