The musical Gigi closes out our themed series. It was recommended by several people.
Description:
"Reared by two veteran Parisian courtesans to be the mistress of a wealthy gentleman, Gigi shocks everyone when she falls in love with someone else."
With nine Academy Awards this will be our most Oscared film to date. Only The English Patient and The Last Emperor also ever got nine. West Side Story was the only film in history to receive 10. And Return of the King, Titanic and Ben-Hur are the only ones to ever get 11. Thus Gigi is the second highest oscared musical in history and tied for fifth place as the most oscared film of all time.
Where to watch:
Available free with ads on TubiTV at: https://tubitv.com/movies/100012206/gigi
Where to chat:
Discussion 7:45pm on May 27 (2024) at https://us02web.zoom.us/j/2272006912 Meeting ID: 227 200 6912
Notes:
- Immensely popular to the extent MGM switchboard operators were told to answer the phone "M.G.G.M!"
- Initial screenings were lukewarm and it was realized it was 20 minutes too long and needed to be reedited, at some large expense which the studio balked at. The musicians that worked on the film then attempted to purchase it, causing the studio to do the edits which cost $400k. The new cut got a much better response and it went on to make millions.
Caution: Major Spoilers Ahead!
- The 1958 film shares many themes with 1956's My Fair Lady and the 1944 novella it's based on with Shaw's 1913 Pygmalion, even to the extent of being criticized as partial rip-offs of them: A young female is being trained by an older person to become attractive to high society people and speaks with a posh British accent. Eventually she marries a wealthy aristocratic pretty-boy who has no skills whom she'll have to support. All the characters hang out in salons and in clubs and wear high fashion, while no one has gainful employment. Not only do both films share the same song-writing team, but Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe took unused songs they wrote for My Fair Lady and simply inserted them into Gigi.
- Based on the popular 1944 novella of the same name by acclaimed French author "Colette", a Nazi collaborator who also wrote anti-semitic propaganda, possibly to the dismay of her Jewish husband.
- In an interview the actress Leslie Caron mentioned that the book was one of her favorites growing up. Although the Gigi in the book was age 16, Caron revealed that her character was meant to be 14.
- At the time, fans of the book and this G-rated film don't seem to have been disturbed by women as property with no rights or say in things, or children being groomed to be sold as temporary sex playmates of the idle ultra rich ("bon vivants") since this was considered to be normal in the perceived more enlightened and progressive French/European culture of the "Belle Époque" period.
- The most popular song from the film celebrates the future potential of six year old girls to serve as sextoys for "bored" european aristocrats who have no marketable skills beyond womanizing, grooming children, and hunting endangered species.
- A popular hobby of the bon vivant men is to dispose of their mistress consorts in public in as humiliating a way as possible in the hopes she will commit suicide. After each suicide the bon vivant men get together to celebrate and drink champagne, while women about town clap in glee after reading about the drama in the paper. Remember folks, this is a G-rated movie.
- When I scheduled this film I thought it would be a lighthearted musical to close out the series but nope.
- Everyone speaks in a Received Pronunciation dialect as posh as if they were all trained by phoneticist Dr Henry Higgins. But when they sing, they switch to a fake French accent. Was this an intentional choice by the producers?
- Those shiny silk top hats require a specialist called a "conformateur" to custom fit them to your head, and must be refurbished by a different technical specialist after every single wearing. The last factory that made them closed in the 1960s. John Hetherington wore the first silk top hat in London in 1797, and was promptly arrested for "a breach of the peace having appeared upon the Public Highway wearing upon his head a tall structure having a shiny luster and calculated to frighten timid people."
- The Paris ice-skating rink "Palais de Glace" opened in late 1893 and was a centerpoint of the Parisian Belle Époque. Was it really open in warmer months like in the film? How did they maintain the ice?
- Has the film aged well? Will those who once saw this in their youth and have fond memories of the music and pageantry see it differently when watching afresh in 2024? Granted, it is amusing at times.
- What is a Barbotage? — Champagne with orange liqueur and cognac, given to the 14 yr old while being seduced by a bon vivant only minutes after he clearly indicated he viewed her as a child.
- What are Ortolons? — Ortolons are small migratory songbirds that pass through France on their way to Africa after summering in Finland. In France they are captured, force-fed, drowned in expensive brandy, cooked, and then served to be eaten as a French Delicacy whole: bones, feet, head, and all. They now face extinction due to this practice. Despite now being listed as an endangered species, the French still devour them by the truckload, while hostile to all those who dare to question their beloved cultural practice. In the film Gigi receives special training from her pimp/groomer (who is a fabulously wealthy elderly prostitute, and also her great-aunt) in how to eat Ortolons properly, like a proper lady.
- I agree with the Oscar for Costume Design and possibly Cinematography. Art Direction should have gone to Vertigo, Best Music definitely to South Pacific. Best Song matter of taste but A Certain Smile I think has more merit than the entitled womanizer pining for a 14 yr old kid in the ultra creepy song Gigi. What the heck, folks! Best Picture I suppose I'll have to watch Auntie Mame, Cat On a Hot Tin Roof, The Defiant Ones and Separate Tables to have a fully informed opinion there but South Pacific should have been nominated, and maybe The Blob. Best Writing? Absolutely not. The Blob wins there too, tied with Frankenstein 1970. Best Directing? What a joke. First the Director should have figured a way to get the cast to use consistent accents, that was a huge distraction. Then he should have found some totally different film to work on. I'm okay with two Oscars, but the nine it got is absolutely indecent: an outrageous affront to common sense and good taste.
Ask the AI:
Are the details in Gigi about underage courtesans and "bon vivant" manipulation of women historically accurate for the Parisian Belle Époque era?
The portrayal of underage courtesans and the “bon vivant” lifestyle in “Gigi” reflects certain aspects of the Parisian Belle Époque era, which was known for its cultural flourish and complex social dynamics. The film immerses viewers in the lavishness and sophistication of Paris during this time, exploring the complexities of unconventional relationships.
The Belle Époque was characterized by a sense of optimism, cultural advancements, and a thriving social scene. It was also a period marked by contrasting social norms and the existence of a demimonde, a part of society that indulged in more hedonistic lifestyles, including courtesanship. The film’s depiction of these elements is consistent with historical accounts of the era’s opulent and morally ambiguous social climate.
It’s important to note that “Gigi” is ultimately a work of fiction and should not be taken as a strict historical account. The film, based on Colette’s novella, uses the setting and characters to tell a story that resonates with universal themes of love and societal expectations, rather than providing a documentary-like representation of history.
“Gigi” does reflect historical realities of the Belle Époque, but with artistic liberties typical of a musical romance, focusing more on the narrative and emotional journey of its characters than on specific historical accuracy.
Progressive vs Repressive — all the same?
The French public asserts to this day that they are more advanced and progressive than the rest of the world regarding sexual matters and their attitude towards child sex slavery and prostitution is an element of their advanced enlightenment and not a demented and decadent abusive and intolerant racist and misogynist society.
Perhaps it is all a matter of opinion.
Marie Curie, a Polish Jew who emigrated to France, won the 1903 Nobel Prize in Physics.
Curie's husband was killed in 1911 when run over by a carriage.
In 1911 she was also up for inclusion to the French Academy of Sciences.
The French public then said the Polish Jew Curie should:
- Concede the seat to a more qualified man.
- Leave scientific pursuits to men.
- Go back to Poland, along with all French Jews, who don't belong in France.
Marie then took up with a lover, Paul Langevin, who was married.
The public eviscerated her for this adult consensual relationship involving a smart older non-French woman.
At the exact same time the French public denounced Marie Curie, the exact same French public celebrated:
- La Belle Époque
- Courtesans
- Underage courtesans
- Child sex slavery
- Mistresses
... all as progressive and enlightened. As long as it was wealthy and powerful men abusing underage girls, and not a foreign jewish women with an adult men in a consensual peer relationship.
To the French public a woman actually being smart was intolerable, as was a Jew being smart. Women were meant to be submissive and subservient courtesans and mistresses, not Nobel Prize winners. Or if Jewish, they were meant to... not be in France.
Highly esteemed Mrs. Curie,
Do not laugh at me for writing you without having anything sensible to say. But I am so enraged by the base manner in which the public is presently daring to concern itself with you that I absolutely must give vent to this feeling. However, I am convinced that you consistently despise this rabble, whether it obsequiously lavishes respect on you or whether it attempts to satiate its lust for sensationalism! I am impelled to tell you how much I have come to admire your intellect, your drive, and your honesty, and that I consider myself lucky to have made your personal acquaintance in Brussels. Anyone who does not number among these reptiles is certainly happy, now as before, that we have such personages among us as you, and Langevin too, real people with whom one feels privileged to be in contact. If the rabble continues to occupy itself with you, then simply don’t read that hogwash, but rather leave it to the reptile for whom it has been fabricated.
With most amicable regards to you, Langevin, and Perrin, yours very truly,
A. Einstein
P.S. I have determined the statistical law of motion of the diatomic molecule in Planck’s radiation field by means of a comical witticism, naturally under the constraint that the structure’s motion follows the laws of standard mechanics. My hope that this law is valid in reality is very small, though.
Marie Curie then won the 1911 Nobel Prize, this time in Chemistry.
They subsequently became friends, vacationed together with their children, and Einstein delivered her eulogy:
"It was my good fortune to be linked with Mme Curie through twenty years of sublime and unclouded friendship. I came to admire her human grandeur to an ever-growing degree. Her strength, her purity of will, her austerity toward herself, her objectivity, her incorruptible judgment – all these were of a kind seldom found joined in a single individual. ... If but a small part of Mme. Curie's strength of character and devotion were alive in Europe's intellectuals, Europe would face a brighter future."
Wrap Up:
The Parisian Belle Époque depicted was only called that after France (and others) suffered from The Great War, later named World War I. The Great War was blamed a lot on Germany who started the whole thing by invading Belgium to attack France, and immediately got bogged down as the Belgians were not as soft as expected. The guy shot by a crazy Serbian assassin really was nothing but an excuse and did not really start the war. Germany did. After the Great War, Parisians idolized and pined for the snows of yesteryear in the form of the reimagined glamours and sophistication of their supposed greatest time (Make France Great Again), which had been financed by repressive and brutal French mining colonies in Africa and elsewhere, allowing the idle rich and their children to indulge in every manner of depravity. Gigi's author Colette, at time of publication, was solidly in the middle of publishing slick pro-Nazi propaganda. Her Novella can be seen as a slamming and denouncement of France's supposedly greatest time period which people were nostalgic for, something the Germans took away. Colette's propaganda addresses this by leaving her readers open to the idea that France may benefit from embracing its new masters whose supposed discipline, honesty, and milk-drinking wholesomeness (this is sarcasm but the Nazis did think this of themselves) would wash away the depravity of the Belle Époque's pedophilia, human sacrifice (like the engineered suicides), and even cannibalism gets a quick mention in the film with Gigi's pimp telling her that they are to be like cannibals. Okay... But how did US producers end up making this film the way they did, which is done with a sly wink that had audiences wishing they lived back then among such charismatic rogues? Who knows.
Peggy found a 2004 essay by Jack Skinner who shares my gobsmackedness at this film sweeping the Oscars and being one of the top films of all time. I don't feel quite as alone.
Change a couple details in Gigi, like make it the 2010s in the US, and it becomes a documentary about Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislane Maxwell's operation which worked identically. 14 year old girls were trained in sexual manners, pampered with gifts and mansion life, and paired up with idle rich bon vivant imbeciles such as Prince Andrew. Perhaps nothing has changed.